Russian ballistic missiles strike Kyiv in two waves, damaging metro station; 21-year-old woman killed, mayor says

As of 9:16 p.m. ET, Sunday, Oct. 18, 2026

Russia fired ballistic missiles at Kyiv in two waves Sunday evening ET, which was late Sunday night and early Monday in Ukraine. Mayor Vitali Klitschko said a 21-year-old woman was killed, three people were injured and a metro station on the city's left bank was damaged.

The figures are preliminary and come from the mayor's posts on Telegram.

First wave

Ukraine's Air Force warned of a ballistic missile threat at 3:57 p.m. ET (10:57 p.m. in Kyiv) and within minutes posted a series of real-time alerts that ballistic missiles were over Kyiv. The Kyiv City Military Administration declared a red-level missile alert at 3:58 p.m. ET.

Kyiv Independent journalists on the ground said the explosions came at the same moment as the air raid sirens. Chief Editor Olga Rudenko reported that phone alerts went off moments before the blasts, while street sirens began "howling during the explosions".

At 4:24 p.m. ET, Klitschko said a building in the Desnianskyi district, preliminarily a medical center, had been hit, along with a non-residential building in the Dniprovskyi district. The military administration said educational facilities in the Dniprovskyi district were also damaged.

At 5:15 p.m. ET, Klitschko said one person had been killed and two injured, one of whom was hospitalized. At 6:11 p.m. ET he said the number injured had risen to three, two of them in city hospitals, and that the person killed was a 21-year-old woman. The military administration also put the toll at one dead and three injured.

Second wave

At about 7:55 p.m. ET (2:55 a.m. Monday in Kyiv), the Air Force warned again of a ballistic missile threat from the east. Between 7:59 and 8:01 p.m. ET it issued successive alerts of ballistic missiles heading for Kyiv and told residents to stay in shelters. The Air Force lifted the ballistic threat at 8:46 p.m. ET. Kyiv Independent journalists reported explosions again in the early hours of Oct. 19.

At 8:11 p.m. ET, Klitschko said that "as a result of the enemy attack, one of the metro stations on the left bank of the capital was damaged." He added that falling debris near the station had ruptured the running rail and the contact rail. Officials have not named the station.

At 8:30 p.m. ET, the mayor said debris had struck the first floor of a 25-story residential building in the Solomianskyi district and that a non-residential building had been hit at another address. The military administration also reported the hit on the 25-story building and damage to a non-residential building in the same district. At 8:35 p.m. ET, Klitschko reported a hit on non-residential property in the Dniprovskyi district.

The Kyiv Independent said there were no immediate reports of casualties from the second wave.

The Air Force had not published a total count of the missiles fired at Kyiv as of this report.

Context

Reuters, citing the mayor, reported the woman's death and the metro station damage, and said a Reuters witness heard explosions in the city. Russia's Defense Ministry had not commented on the strikes in the sources reviewed.

The attack came hours after President Volodymyr Zelensky said the United States had resumed sharing intelligence with Ukraine on Russian missile launches, according to The Kyiv Independent and Reuters. Reuters reported that the sharing resumed after a brief pause. Reuters described that intelligence as key to providing warning of the fast-moving missiles.

A senior Ukrainian official told The Kyiv Independent that in the Oct. 18 attack, "the 'warning' about a ballistic threat came through only after the strike had already happened". The Air Force's Telegram channel posted a ballistic threat warning at 3:57 p.m. ET, about two minutes before its first alert of a missile over Kyiv.