Russian forces conducted a large-scale overnight attack on Ukraine that left civilian and infrastructure targets damaged across multiple regions, Ukrainian officials said on March 7. The northeastern city of Kharkiv suffered significant losses after drones and missiles struck during the barrage, with officials reporting at least 10 people killed and many more wounded.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the strikes deliberately targeted the energy sector and railway infrastructure across the country, and he appealed to international partners for continued support of air defences and weapons supplies. On the Telegram app he said: "There should be a response from partners to these savage strikes against life." He added: "Russia has not abandoned its attempts to destroy Ukraine’s residential and critical infrastructure, and therefore support should continue."
Local authorities in Kharkiv provided additional casualty figures. Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov and regional prosecutors reported the death toll in the city at 11, one higher than the initial figure cited by the president. Regional prosecutors also said two people were killed in a separate drone strike near a post office in a village close to the Russian border.
Rescue and emergency teams continued recovery operations after the strikes. Zelenskiy described the attack as "horrific" during his nightly video address and said crews - including specialists who had been brought in from other regions - were still clearing rubble and searching for victims under the debris.
The Kharkiv regional authorities reported that a Russian ballistic missile struck a five-storey residential building, producing some of the deadliest effects of the overnight assault. "When we arrived here 20 minutes after the explosion, I thought I was going to have a stroke. I couldn’t string two words together, and my legs were buckling," a resident of the destroyed building named Hanna told Reuters, describing the immediate aftermath. She said she was fortunate not to have been in the apartment with her child and that her father had been with her at the time.
Official damage reports from Kharkiv Regional Governor Oleh Syniehubov listed 15 people wounded and 19 residential buildings damaged by the attacks. He said commercial and administrative buildings, electricity distribution lines, and vehicles were also struck during the operation.
Ukraine's air force provided figures for the scale of the aerial assault, saying air defence units shot down 453 drones and 19 missiles. Despite that interception effort, the air force said that nine missiles and 26 attack drones managed to strike 22 sites.
In the capital, Kyiv, officials reported injuries and infrastructure interruptions. Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said three people were injured and that heating was knocked out in 2,806 residential apartment buildings across four districts after Russian strikes hit an energy infrastructure facility.
National grid operator Ukrenergo announced emergency power cuts in seven regions following the attacks, a measure intended to protect the wider electrical system while multiple facilities were affected.
Ukrainian officials also said rail and port infrastructure were struck. Russia attacked four railway stations and other railway installations in central Ukraine, according to the officials, and moved against port infrastructure in the southern Odesa region, where containers of vegetable oil were set on fire and a grain warehouse was damaged.
On its part, Russia's Defence Ministry was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying that the strikes had targeted Ukrainian military-industrial complexes, military airfields and energy facilities, describing the actions as massive overnight strikes on military and energy-related sites.
The human cost and the scope of damage remain under assessment as emergency services continue rescue and repair operations. Authorities are also monitoring the operational status of critical infrastructure following the partial penetration of air defences and subsequent strikes on energy and transport assets.