Russia and Ukraine exchanged some of their heaviest strikes in recent weeks on Friday, with Kyiv hit by 21 ballistic missiles launched in three waves and Moscow targeted by a barrage of 630 drones, even as both countries signalled cautious openness to resuming US-brokered peace negotiations as early as next month.
Missile Barrages and Drone Attacks
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed the scale of the Russian assault in a post on X, describing three successive waves of ballistic missiles aimed at the capital since the previous evening. "They used 21 missiles. Unfortunately, numerous sites across the city have been hit and damaged," he wrote, referring sarcastically to Russian forces as "humanitarians."
Zelenskyy said the broader overnight campaign across a dozen Ukrainian regions left two people dead and 34 injured, including five children. Regional officials added that a Russian strike on a market in Lozova, near the northeastern city of Kharkiv, killed two people and wounded 36, while one person was also killed in the southeastern Dnipropetrovsk region.
Three of the 21 missiles were reported to have carried cluster munitions, the kind of weapon that disperses smaller "bomblets" across a wide area and is prohibited by many countries due to the danger posed to civilians. Russia's defence ministry did not respond to requests for comment on the attacks.
Russia also said it conducted a "massive strike" on port infrastructure in Ukraine's Odesa region overnight, targeting vessels used by Ukrainian forces. The assault came amid an ongoing pattern of Russian strikes killing civilians and devastating Ukrainian infrastructure.
Ukraine's Drone Barrage Reaches Russian Territory
Ukraine's response was equally forceful. Russia said Kyiv launched 630 drones toward Moscow during the night, with Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin confirming that two people were wounded near the capital. He said most of the incoming drones were intercepted at long range before reaching the city.
In the Russian border region of Belgorod, one man was killed and another wounded by Ukrainian drone strikes, according to local officials there. The scale of Ukraine's overnight drone campaign reflects a pattern of increasingly assertive strikes on Russian soil, including earlier attacks that have targeted Russian energy and logistics infrastructure.
Bodies Exchanged as Talks Loom
Amid the violence, the two sides carried out an exchange of war dead, with Russia handing over 252 bodies and Ukraine returning 25, according to Belarus's state news agency. Such exchanges have historically accompanied moves toward diplomatic engagement.
The swap came just a day after Russia indicated it was prepared to resume US-mediated talks in November, following a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US envoy Steve Witkoff in St Petersburg. Zelenskyy said he hoped the negotiations, which would be the first since February, could take place in early November.
Witkoff had described "some degree of momentum" after earlier meetings with Zelenskyy and European and NATO officials in Oslo. However, Russian aide Yuri Ushakov tempered expectations, saying the proposals presented in Oslo did not "entirely satisfy" Moscow.
A senior Russian official familiar with the Putin-Witkoff talks described them as relatively brief and not substantive. A source close to the Russian government said the US proposals included a scenario under which Ukraine would cede the entire Donbas region to Russia in exchange for a NATO security guarantee, though no agreement was reached.
Russia has maintained throughout the conflict, which is the deadliest in Europe since the Second World War, that it will not halt fighting unless Ukraine surrenders further territory, caps its military strength, and is permanently barred from joining any alliances. Ukraine has consistently rejected those terms. For background on the broader diplomatic history, see Peace negotiations in the Russo-Ukrainian war (2022–present).
What Comes Next
Both the intensity of the strikes and the tentative diplomatic signals suggest the conflict remains at a critical juncture. While the prospect of talks in November has raised cautious hopes, the scale of Friday's attacks underlines how far apart the two sides remain on the ground, even as international pressure for a ceasefire continues to mount.
