Russian ballistic missiles strike Kyiv late on Oct. 21, injuring 6

Russian ballistic missiles struck multiple sites across Kyiv late on Oct. 21, wounding six people, according to the Kyiv Independent. In the Dniprovsky district, a car service station and a private home were damaged, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said, adding that debris also hit a second private house there and that people could be trapped under the rubble. In the Darnitsky district, on the left bank of the Dnipro River, missiles landed near a transportation infrastructure facility.

A resident living near one of the impact sites described the scene to the Kyiv Independent. The man, identified as Vladyslav, said the blast blew out the windows of his home and that he and neighbors rushed outside to find a house on fire and heard screaming. He said they pulled a man and his wife from the burning building, crediting the presence of nearby neighbors for the rescue.

The overnight strikes extended a stretch of intense attacks on the capital, a city of about 3 million people. Earlier on Oct. 21, a Russian drone attack on Kyiv killed at least two people and injured two others in the morning. On Oct. 20, drones repeatedly hit the city, damaging a hospital in the Solomyanskyi district and another medical facility in the Holosiivskyi district, injuring 12 people, local authorities said. That morning, three people were killed and four injured when a drone struck early commuter traffic.

Broader casualty figures remain elevated. The U.N. Human Rights Office reported in early October that an average of more than 400 civilians were killed or injured each week in Ukraine during the first eight months of 2026, a 55% increase compared with the same period in 2025.

The strikes came after public shows of support for trilateral peace negotiations by President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Zelensky said he hoped Russia, which has repeatedly stated readiness to meet in one format or another, would follow through. As Kyiv was under red alert from the incoming missiles, U.S. President Donald Trump told a roundtable conference in Washington that a deal to settle the war is possibly the closest it has been.