Overnight on Tuesday, Russia delivered one of its most devastating aerial assaults on Ukraine since Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion began in February 2022. More than 600 drones and 73 missiles struck civilian infrastructure across multiple cities, killing at least 22 people. Residential buildings and other civilian infrastructure sustained heavy damage across eight Kyiv districts, with at least four people killed and 63 injured in the capital alone. Their number included three children.

Before this onslaught, Russia warned foreign diplomats that a massive aerial assault was coming, advising them to leave the Ukrainian capital. The intimidation failed to produce the intended effect, however. Neither European nor American diplomats left Kyiv, and Western missions called out the warnings as an attempt to sow panic and isolate Ukraine.