Ukraine strikes Russia's oil pipeline after Kyiv govt building engulfed in flames

A Russian strike on Kyiv left the Ukrainian government's main building burning and killed three people, including an infant, in one of the most intense overnight assaults on the capital in recent months. In retaliation, Ukraine struck Russia's oil pipeline infrastructure, escalating the already brutal exchanges.

Timur Tkachenko, head of Kyiv's military administration, said a fire broke out at the top of an administrative building in the city's Pecherskyi district following the barrage. 

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said the assault began with waves of drones before missiles rained down on the city. He confirmed that a young woman and an infant were killed in the strikes. "A pregnant woman was among five people hospitalised," he said on Telegram. An elderly woman also died in a bomb shelter in the Darnytskyi district.

Emergency services said fires destroyed two floors of a residential building in Darnytskyi, while several floors of a nine-storey block in Sviatoshynskyi were also partially destroyed. Falling debris ignited blazes in a 16-storey apartment block and two more nine-storey buildings. Photographs posted online showed smoke pouring from shattered buildings, with facades crumbled and floors collapsed.

"Russia is deliberately and consciously striking civilian targets," Tkachenko wrote on Telegram.

Officials reported that 18 people were injured in Kyiv. Across Ukraine, strikes hit other major cities. Dozens of explosions shook Kremenchuk, cutting power to parts of the city, its mayor Vitalii Maletskyi said. In Kryvyi Rih, missiles targeted transport and urban infrastructure, according to Oleksandr Vilkul, who reported no casualties. In Odesa, regional governor Oleh Kiper said residential buildings and civilian infrastructure were damaged, with fires breaking out in apartment blocks.

The Ukrainian response came quickly, with Kyiv launching an attack on Russia’s oil pipeline system. The strike, described by officials as targeting critical fuel infrastructure, was aimed at disrupting Moscow’s capacity to sustain its campaign. Moscow has not commented on either its overnight strikes or Ukraine’s retaliatory move.

Both Russia and Ukraine deny targeting civilians, though thousands have died since Moscow's full-scale invasion began in February 2022.

The intensity of the night’s violence also reverberated beyond Ukraine's borders. Poland said it had scrambled its own and allied aircraft to secure airspace in response to the threat of missiles heading west.