In the evening of October 26 and the night of October 27, 2026, the Russian army attacked Kyiv twice with ballistic missiles. A 46-year-old woman was killed, and at least 14 people were injured. University buildings, student dormitories, hospitals, residential buildings, and metro infrastructure were damaged. The Southern Bridge over the Dnipro was closed to cars, and train routes were altered. For a large city, this means not only destruction at the impact sites but also transportation disruptions between the banks.
Author: Lev Varshavsky | NANews
According to Kyiv authorities, the first wave began late in the evening of October 26. The air raid alert during the second attack lasted from 03:25 to 04:21. In the Podil district, hits were recorded on an administrative building and two non-residential structures. In the morning, Mayor Vitali Klitschko reported one dead and 14 injured; a later report mentioned 15 injured. These figures refer to one series of attacks and should not be added together.
University, hospitals, and people who came to help
In the Desnianskyi district, the territory of the State Trade and Economic University, located near the Lesna metro station, was affected. The strike damaged the academic building and dormitories. Among the injured are students. According to data citing city authorities, late in the evening, nine injured were in hospitals, three in serious condition. This information is from the time of the first strike, not the final outcome of the night.
In the same area, the Prospect shopping center and Auchan supermarket were damaged: windows were shattered, and the facade and roof were affected. In other places, houses, trams, and cars were damaged. In two medical institutions, windows were blown out, including in the intensive care unit of one of them. Among the injured were two ambulance crew members who arrived after the strike.
Russia claims it strikes infrastructure used by the Ukrainian army. However, these statements do not negate the recorded damage to educational and medical buildings. There is no independent confirmation of the military purpose of each affected object at the time of preparing the material.
Why the strike on the Southern Bridge became a separate problem
The Southern Bridge is both a car crossing and a section of the green line of the Kyiv metro. After the new damage, car traffic on it was stopped in both directions. Trains on the green line ran between the Syrets and Vydubychi stations, and communication across the Dnipro was temporarily halted. Some buses were redirected via the Darnytskyi Bridge. The red metro line restored service to Lesna by morning.
At the same time, the bridge had already suffered from attacks in early October and on October 22. Repeated damage to the same transport hub raises the question not only of repairing the road surface. If the crossing is not operational, metro passengers and motorists are simultaneously forced to use alternative routes. For Kyiv, divided by the Dnipro, this is a significant limitation on city life.
In NANews — News of Israel | Nikk.Agency, we have already analyzed Russian strikes on Kyiv amid attempts to organize negotiations. But here, the practical side seems more important to me. Damage to a strategically significant crossing does not explain the hits on university dormitories and hospitals. At the same time, it cannot be automatically asserted that all strikes on different buildings had one predetermined plan: there is no such evidence now.
What this means for Israel
For Israelis with family and friends in Ukraine, the names ‘Lesna’, ‘Chernihivska’, or ‘Darnytskyi Bridge’ are not abstract landmarks. These are areas and transport routes that people use daily. The Israeli audience is also familiar with the other side of the issue: missile defense work. A ballistic missile leaves significantly less time for warning and interception than many drones.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky demanded an acceleration of air defense supplies. Even before this attack, he said that the Ukrainian side had been waiting for almost a month for American approval of missiles for the Patriot and NASAMS systems. But these statements do not establish that a specific hit occurred precisely because of the supply delay. Such a conclusion would require data on the launch, the operation of Ukrainian air defense, and the circumstances of the strike.
Israel has already faced Russian strikes on Kyiv not only as an observer. After the death of a 14-year-old Israeli citizen there in September, the country’s Foreign Ministry directly condemned the Russian attack. The history of Israeli diplomatic statements since 2022 has been detailed in a separate material by NANews. The current reports do not contain confirmation that there are Israeli citizens among the dead or injured.
The strikes on October 26–27 occurred amid new US attempts to achieve negotiations between Ukraine and Russia. In a previous analysis of American proposals, I wrote that without verifiable security guarantees, the negotiation formula would remain incomplete. Today’s attack adds specific texture to this dispute: even a local ceasefire in one area of Ukraine does not mean the cessation of shelling of the capital. According to Reuters, diplomatic contacts continued, but Russian strikes on Kyiv did not cease.
As of the morning of October 27, city services were assessing the damage to the Southern Bridge, and transport restrictions remained. The final scale of destruction and the timeline for restoration had not yet been announced.