Covered platform at Lisova metro station in Kyiv, near where a missile hit was reported during the Kyiv ballistic missile attack

Russian Ballistic Missiles Hit Kyiv, Injuring Ambulance Crew; One Reported Dead

Russian ballistic missiles hit Kyiv Oct. 26, injuring five and striking an ambulance crew; one death reported near a supermarket, the mayor said.

by AI reporter
Share on XFacebookLinkedInEmail

Russian ballistic missiles struck Kyiv on the evening of Monday, Oct. 26, 2026, hitting an ambulance crew on its way to a call, damaging two medical facilities and injuring at least five people, according to Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko. Klitschko also said one person was preliminarily reported dead near a supermarket in the city’s Dniprovskyi district. Officials described the figures as preliminary, and the count may change as emergency crews finish their work.

The attack was the latest in a run of strikes on the Ukrainian capital this month. For the wider picture from earlier in the day, including overnight drone launches and front-line developments, see our Ukraine war update for Oct. 26.

Timeline of the Kyiv ballistic missile attack

Ukraine’s Air Force warned shortly before the strikes that ballistic and other missiles were headed toward Kyiv. Kyiv Independent journalists in the city reported loud explosions in the Podilskyi and Obolon districts at around 9:45 p.m. local time (2:45 p.m. ET), according to the Kyiv Independent.

Klitschko first reported a preliminary hit near a metro station in the Desnianskyi district on Kyiv’s left bank, where a car caught fire. Ukrainian outlets hromadske and Interfax-Ukraine identified the station as Lisova, at the eastern end of the city’s red metro line. Kyiv residents regularly use metro stations as shelters during air raid alerts.

Ambulance crew hit on the way to a call

In a Telegram post, Klitschko said an emergency medical crew “that was on its way to a call” came under fire. He later specified that the injured medics were a paramedic and an emergency medical technician. “Preliminarily, the injuries are not critical. The medics are continuing to work,” he wrote, adding that the ambulance itself was also damaged, according to Interfax-Ukraine, which cited the mayor’s Telegram channel.

Officials did not say whether the crew was struck by the first impact or by a later missile at the same location, and no official account has described the incident as a repeat strike on first responders. The Boston Report is not characterizing it as one.

Medical personnel and medical transports are protected under international humanitarian law. Under Article 15 of Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions, civilian medical personnel “shall be respected and protected,” and Article 21 extends that protection to medical vehicles.

Hospitals damaged in Dniprovskyi district

Klitschko said the blast wave from a strike in the Dniprovskyi district shattered windows in the intensive care unit of one medical facility, with no one hurt there. At a second medical facility in the same district, windows were blown out in two departments, and he said patients and staff were not injured, according to UNIAN.

In the same district, the mayor reported a hit on a building in a non-residential area. “Preliminarily, there is a person killed near one of the supermarkets nearby,” he said, as quoted by UNIAN. As of publication, officials had not identified the victim.

Casualty figures so far

The Kyiv Independent, citing Klitschko, reported that five people had been injured and that all five were hospitalized. Officials had not published an updated, consolidated toll as of 5 p.m. ET. The Boston Report will update these numbers as Kyiv’s city authorities and Ukraine’s State Emergency Service release them.

The Oct. 26 strike followed other deadly ballistic missile attacks on the capital this month. Russian ballistic missiles killed five people and injured 25 in Kyiv on the night of Oct. 13–14, and an attack overnight on Oct. 22 that also involved cluster munitions killed at least one person and injured 24, the Kyiv Independent reported. Earlier coverage of the weekend’s strikes is in our report on Russia’s 153-drone attack on Ukraine on Oct. 25.

Civilian toll and UN findings

The strike came as United Nations monitors report record civilian harm in 2026. The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine verified at least 328 civilians killed and 2,105 injured across Ukraine in September 2026, the highest September total since the full-scale invasion began. Kyiv had the most casualties of any city that month, with 32 killed and 340 injured, and casualties were recorded on 22 of September’s 30 days. Long-range missiles and drones caused 53% of the month’s civilian casualties, the mission said.

On the same day as the Kyiv strike, the UN’s Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine told the General Assembly that Russian authorities had committed war crimes and the crime against humanity of “other inhumane acts” through continued attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, according to an OHCHR press release. Commission chair Erik Møse said that “as the cold season approaches, the attacks have intensified once again.”

The Boston Report found no statement from Russia’s Defense Ministry about the Oct. 26 evening strikes on Kyiv as of publication.

This is a developing story and will be updated as officials release confirmed information.

Featured image: Lisova metro station, Kyiv (file photo, 2018). Photo by Mitte27 / Wikimedia Commons, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; cropped.

Sources

Additional sources

Read next in Warfare

Get The Boston Report Briefing, free every week

The Boston Report Briefing is free and weekly: five important stories, election updates, local data and our latest investigations, with links to the full reports.

Free. We email you a link to confirm first. Unsubscribe anytime. Privacy Policy

Most read this week

  1. Iran–U.S. War Update: Trump Warns of ‘Finishing the Job’ as Hormuz Attacks Climb and Lavrov Visits Tehran
  2. Boston Approves $31.5M in Tax Abatements to Restart 1,400 Homes
  3. Boston City Council Asks Congress to Restore Public Housing Funds
  4. Keen Sword 27 Begins: U.S. and Japan Open Island Defense Drills Near Taiwan
  5. Iran War Update: What Washington, Israel and Tehran Are Saying

Latest

  1. Revolution End Union Unbeaten Run 2-1, Climb to Second Before Messi Visit
  2. Bruins Score Four in the Third to Beat Sharks 6-4; Pastrnak Ties Bergeron
  3. Patriots Release Punter Bryce Baringer as Injured Reserve Spots Run Short
  4. Geopolitics and Business Report, Oct. 26, 2026: Brazil Real Plunges, Gulf Talks in Tehran
  5. Boston’s Top 30 Restaurants: Watch Our 3-Part Video Countdown
All latest news →

Follow The Boston Report