Russia Pummels Kyiv in Apparent Retaliation for Ukrainian Drone Assault

Russia on Friday launched one of the largest barrages of missiles and drones of the war at targets across Ukraine, killing at least four people and damaging buildings nationwide, in what Moscow suggested was retaliation for Ukraine’s recent audacious assault on Russian strategic bomber bases.

Kyiv appeared to be one of the main targets. The thuds of air-defense batteries and the staccato bursts of heavy machine guns echoed through the night in the Ukrainian capital as military units defending the city tried to take down missiles streaking overhead and attack drones that swooped in, their ominous buzz trailing over neighborhoods.

Over the course of some five hours after midnight, Russia launched 407 drones and decoys, nearly 40 cruise missiles and six ballistic missiles from land, air and sea at towns and cities across the breadth of the nation, the Ukrainian Air Force said in a statement. It appeared to be the second-largest drone assault of the war, after Russia launched nearly 500 drones last weekend.

“Russia doesn’t change its stripes — another massive strike on cities and ordinary life,” President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine wrote on social media. “They targeted almost all of Ukraine.”

Russia’s Defense Ministry said in a statement that the attack was “in response to terrorist acts” by Ukraine, in an apparent reference to its strikes on the Russian bomber bases last weekend. On Wednesday, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia told President Trump that Russia would retaliate for these strikes, Mr. Trump said, further dimming hopes for a cease-fire that were already faint.

The Ukrainian attack, which involved smuggling drones deep into the Russian heartland and launching them from semi trucks, destroyed or damaged at least a dozen aircraft, including many of Moscow’s nuclear-capable strategic bombers.