Kyiv under Russian missiles, Kremlin opens to talks after November 10

In the 24 hours preceding the night between October 21 and 22, Russian raids had already caused at least nine deaths and 56 injuries across Ukraine, with Kyiv hit mainly by ballistic missiles against transport and healthcare infrastructure. Russia employed a total of 210 drones against Ukrainian territory during that period.

The following night, the attack on Kyiv continued. According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, 21 missiles targeted the capital in three consecutive waves.

The death toll was updated throughout the day on October 22, with different figures depending on the time and geographic scope of the count. Germany’s public broadcaster Tagesschau, citing Zelensky’s own words, reported 12 Ukrainian regions hit overall, with at least two dead and 34 injured, including five children. Earlier, at 7:55 a.m. on October 22, Ukraine’s public broadcaster Suspilne Kyiv had released an initial toll limited to the capital alone: one dead and at least 22 injured, four of them children, with confirmed damage in six districts of Kyiv. The two counts refer to different moments and areas — the capital in the early morning hours, the entire country in the subsequent toll — and should be read as progressive updates, not as contradictory data.

According to the Russian Defense Ministry, the targets hit in Kyiv included an Antonov aircraft industry plant used for assembly and facilities producing the Ukrainian FP-5 Flamingo cruise missiles. This is Moscow’s version regarding its own military targets, not confirmed by independent sources in the available material.

Ukraine’s response took the form of a massive drone launch toward Russia. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin stated that 630 drones were headed toward the Russian capital region on the same night, with two people injured on Moscow territory.

On the diplomatic front, Vladimir Putin said he was open to resuming talks with Ukraine. From the United States came words of appreciation from envoy Steve Witkoff for the release of American citizen Stephen Hubbard, secured by Moscow. The Kremlin indicated that trilateral talks between Russia, the United States and Ukraine should begin no earlier than November 10, 2026.

Between the opening to possible negotiations and the cross-attacks of recent hours there thus runs an interval of at least three weeks, during which both sides maintain military initiative on the ground.