Law enforcement at the site of a double explosion in Lviv, Ukraine, February 22, 2026 (Roman Baluk/Reuters)

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Sunday’s Coverage: Russian Missile Strikes on Kyiv

UPDATE 1527 GMT:

At least four civilians have been murdered and 26 injured by Russian attacks across Ukraine over the past day.

Air defenses intercepted 105 of 126 drones. At least 20 UAVs and an Iskander-M ballistic missile struck 11 locations.

In the Odesa region in southern Ukraine, a Russian drone attack killed a 20-year-old woman and a 45-year-old man and injured three people, two critically. Industrial, energy, and civil infrastructure facilities were hit.

In the Zaporizhzhia region in the south, two people were murdered and four injured amid 754 strikes on 44 settlements.

Casualties were also reported in the Donetsk, Kherson, Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, and Sumy regions.

UPDATE 1519 GMT:

Ukrainian drones have struck an important Russian oil transportation hub in the Tatarstan Republic, 1,200 km (750 miles) from the Ukraine border.

An official of the Ukrainian State security service SBU reported the attack on the Kaleykino oil pumping station. Six explosions set a large fire and ignited oil tanks.

UPDATE 1510 GMT: Ukraine needs $588 billion for recovery and reconstruction, almost three times the country’s annual economic output, say the World Bank and other institutions.

The estimate is 12% higher than last year, amid a winter of Russian attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure.

More than one in seven homes in Ukraine have been damaged or destroyed by Moscow’s invasion.

The frontline Donetsk and Kharkiv regions in the east and northeast. Kyiv will require more than $15 billion.

UPDATE 1049 GMT:

Holding Ukraine and the European Union to ransom over its gas supplies from Russia, Hungary is blocking the EU’s 20th package of sanctions over Moscow’s invasion.

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said this morning that “there is not going to be progress”.

We are doing our utmost to have the sanctions package…through…and we are looking for ways how we can do it. But as we have heard some very strong statements from Hungary,…I don’t really…see they are going to change this unfortunately today.

The Druzhba pipeline, running from Russia to Hungary and Slovakia, was damaged on January 27 by a Russian drone strike on western Ukraine.

Rather than blaming Moscow, Budpest and Bratislava — led respectively by Vladimir Putin’s allies Viktor Orbán and Robert Fico — are threatening punishment of Ukraine, including the cutoff of electricity supplies, until the pipeline resumes operations.

Hungary said over the weekend that it will also block the EU’s €90 billion loan to maintain Kyiv’s finances through 2027.

Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said on Sunday, “Until Ukraine resumes oil transit to Hungary and Slovakia via the Druzhba pipeline, we will not allow decisions important to Kyiv to move forward.”

Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski responded, referring to Hungary’s Parliamentary elections in April:

I would have expected a much greater feeling of solidarity from Hungary for Ukraine. Instead, with the help of state propaganda and private-but-controlled-by-the-government media, the ruling party managed to create a climate of hostility towards the victim of aggression, and…now is trying to exploit that in the general election.

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said he was “astonished” by the Hungarian position. Estonian counterpart Margus Tsahkna emphasized, “If we are not able to put the sanctions on Russia, then Russia will be happy.”

Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kęstutis Budrys summarized:

We have to move forward, and I’m really upset and frustrated that one of the countries is blocking it for the reasons that are internal or external, I don’t know, but they are not based in European needs….

We cannot proceed like this. We cannot give away those carrots each time and expect that, oh, there will be one country that will block so what we will [give] to them. It cannot work like this….

We have one constant [source of] disruption, [and] I have the question whether we should review the decision making process. That’s one option. The other option is to also to invoke the article seven and just stop this exploitation of the principle of unanimity. It is really damaging and dangerous.

France’s Jean-Noël Barrot insisted that the passage of the sanctions is just a matter of when, further depriving Putin of the capacity to pursue his “colonial fantasies”.

UPDATE 0726 GMT:

Ukrainian strikes inflicted serious damage on energy infrastructure, disrupting supplies of power, heat and water in the Belgorod region in western Russia.

Belgorod Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said the “massive” attack was on the city of Belgorod, 40 km (25 miles) from the border, and the surrounding area.

In the Russian-occupied part of the Zaporizhzhia region in southern Ukraine, emergency crews restored power to most affected areas after a Ukrainian attack on energy infrastructure, said Russian proxy governor Yevgeny Balitsky.

In the occupied Luhansk region in the east, Ukraine set afire an oil depot and destroyed two Tor air defense systems.

UPDATE 0724 GMT:

Three civilians were murdered and several wounded by Russian strikes across Ukraine overnight.

In the Odesa region in the south two people were killed and at least three wounded when Russian drones hit industrial, energy, and civilian infrastructure.

In the Zaporizhzhia region, a drone attack on industrial facilities killed a 33-year-old man and wounded another.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says Russia killed a policewoman and injured 25 civilians in a “terrorist attack” in Lviv in western Ukraine early Sunday.

Explosives were detonated near the historic Old Town as officers responded to a call about a burglary in a store. The slain policewoman was identified as 23-year-old Viktoria Shpylka. Six other law enforcement officers are hospitalized in serious condition.

Authorities arrested a woman, a resident of Kostopil in northwestern Ukraine. She is suspected of planting the explosive devices at the scene of the attack the day before the blasts, fleeing by taxi, and detonating the devices remotely.

In his nightly address to the nation, Zelensky said:

The circumstances of this terrorist attack are now being fully analyzed. Many facts have already been established. The perpetrators were recruited via Telegram. The attack was organized by Russia….

We have intelligence indicating that the Russians intend to continue carrying out such actions – in effect, attacks on Ukrainians. We must strengthen protection for our people.

Zelensky: “Putin Has Already Started World War 3”

In an interview with the BBC, Zelensky said, “I believe that Putin has already started [World War 3]. The question is how much territory he will be able to seize and how to stop him.”

He warned that only sustained military and economic pressure on Russia can prevent further escalation. If Ukraine withdrew its forces from the strategic Donetsk region in the east of the country, the Kremlin would likely resume aggression within a few years.

The President said withdrawal from the 22% of Donetsk controlled by Ukraine, as well as of occupied areas of the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions in the south, would be “an abandonment of hundreds of thousands of people”.

“What is land without people? Honestly, nothing,” he said.

Zelensky emphasized that Ukraine’s most urgent need is stronger air defense. He called on partners to allow licensed production of US weapons, particularly Patriot air defense missiles.

The President added that elections could technically be held during wartime but only after credible security guarantees are in place.