Russia's military said on Thursday that it had carried out a massive overnight strike on military factories across Ukraine, including Kyiv, where a drone struck a nine-storey apartment block and killed one woman, the capital's mayor said. Explosions were heard in Kyiv in the early hours of Thursday, a Reuters witness said. The strike came hours after two days of peace talks in Abu Dhabi ended and shortly before US envoys arrived in Moscow — the war's diplomacy and its bombardment running in parallel, neither pausing for the other. Ukraine's prime minister said the attack damaged eight regions. In the opposite direction, Moscow's mayor said five Ukrainian drones heading for the Russian capital were shot down overnight.
What happened in Kyiv?
A Russian drone struck a nine-storey residential building in the Solomyanskyi district and set it ablaze, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said. One woman was reported killed and five people injured, according to the mayor. Ukraine's prime minister, Sergiy Koretskyi, gave a slightly higher injury count from the same strike — at least six injured — and said three people were rescued from the building. The two figures come from two Ukrainian officials reporting the same incident at different points in the rescue work; both are carried here with their attributions rather than merged. CNN, citing the Ukrainian Air Force, reported that Moscow launched a ballistic missile and drone attack on Ukraine overnight into Thursday, and that at least one person was killed and several others injured in Kyiv on Thursday morning, according to local authorities — an independent second report of the capital's toll.
What did Russia say it hit, and what was damaged beyond the capital?
Military factories, on the Russian Defence Ministry's account: it said the strike hit a rocket factory in Kyiv, a drone assembly workshop and a missile fuel factory in the wider Kyiv region, and electricity substations in the western Zhytomyr region. Those are the ministry's claims about its own targets, published here as claims. The damage account from the Ukrainian side is wider. Koretskyi said the attack caused damage in eight regions, mainly targeting energy and transport infrastructure, and that Russia also struck a power generation facility in Zaporizhzhia and high-voltage substations in the Odesa and Rivne regions. The earlier Reuters report likewise carried a local official's account of damage to energy and civilian infrastructure in the north-western Rivne region. The pattern is the one this war's winters have made familiar: factories and the power grid struck together, in the capital and across the country at once.
What did Ukraine say about its air defences?
That a system they depend on is being throttled. President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Thursday that Starshield — a military-grade version of Elon Musk's Starlink service that CNN describes as critical to Ukraine's military operations — has faced "significant disruptions" in recent days, hampering Kyiv's ability to shoot down Russian drones. "These are not random errors but systematic speed restrictions. For us, this primarily means a significant complication in intercepting Russian jet-powered drones," Zelensky posted on X, adding that Kyiv was trying to establish the circumstances with the American side. CNN noted that Ukraine also reported speed limits imposed on Starshield terminals in October. That claim is Ukraine's president's, published as his account; no US response to Thursday's statement was in the reporting opened for this article.
What happened over Moscow?
Five drones were shot down heading for the Russian capital, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said, and Russia's Defence Ministry said a total of 71 Ukrainian drones were brought down across Russia overnight. No casualties on the Russian side were reported in the wires opened for this article. The exchange — a massive Russian strike on Ukraine and a Ukrainian drone wave against Russia on the same night — landed on the morning the US envoys arrived in Moscow for talks with President Putin, a day after the Abu Dhabi talks ended with a major prisoner exchange agreed and no breakthrough on territory. Oil markets, at least, were pricing the diplomacy rather than the bombardment: Brent fell $1.47 to $91.29 a barrel by 0426 GMT, a move an analyst cited by Reuters attributed in part to expectations of behind-the-scenes ceasefire efforts — even as the factories, substations and the Solomyanskyi apartment block absorbed the night's actual exchange.
Sources: Reuters (12 November 2026, read in full via the rostered Reuters carrier kwsn.com, published 02:14 UTC and updated 08:31 UTC, and via the rostered Reuters syndication carrier devdiscourse.com); CNN (12 November 2026, read in full); Reuters oil report (12 November 2026, read in full via the rostered Reuters carrier northlandnewsradio.com). The Kyiv casualty figures are Ukrainian officials' figures: Mayor Klitschko's one killed and five injured and Prime Minister Koretskyi's one killed and at least six injured both reach this article through Reuters chains (the rostered carrier and the Reuters syndication), and CNN independently reported at least one killed and several injured per local authorities; the differing injury counts are carried side by side, not merged. The Russian Defence Ministry's target list and drone-downing totals are that ministry's claims, published as claims. The market figures in the snapshot box are the Reuters 0426 GMT snapshot; they are not live prices and are not financial advice.
