Russia fires 36 ballistic missiles at Kyiv and Ukraine says only 4 were stopped

Russia fired 36 ballistic missiles and 172 drones at Kyiv and the surrounding region overnight on November 6 to 7, according to Ukrainian officials, and Ukraine's Air Force says it stopped only four of the missiles. The strike damaged the Northern Bridge across the Dnipro River and energy facilities in and around the capital, Reuters reported. Every figure below is an official claim from one side of the war, and none has been independently verified.

The numbers, and who said them

President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia launched 36 ballistic missiles, all aimed at Kyiv and Kyiv Oblast, according to the Kyiv Independent. The Air Force said it shot down or suppressed four ballistic missiles. It put the drone count at 172 Shahed-type aircraft, 137 of them jet-powered, and said 149 were downed or suppressed, including 117 jet-powered ones. The Air Force also said strikes landed at 24 locations, per the Kyiv Independent. The Ukrainian outlet Militarnyi reports the Air Force named Iskander-M, Zircon, KN-23 and S-400 missiles, launched from Russia's Bryansk and Voronezh regions.

That is an interception rate of about 11% for the missiles (4 of 36) against about 87% for the drones (149 of 172), our arithmetic from the Air Force figures. Reuters carries the same counts but does not explain the 23 drones not accounted for.

Casualties: the counts do not match

Reuters' later version reports at least two people killed and about a dozen wounded across Ukraine. An earlier Reuters report, carried by Business Recorder, had one killed and eight wounded, including a child. The Kyiv Independent counts at least six injured in the city itself, among them a 14-year-old girl, per Mayor Vitali Klitschko, plus one killed and two injured in Kyiv Oblast, per the National Police. The differences look like different geographies and update times, not contradiction, but we cannot reconcile them. Treat the totals as provisional.

Damage to the grid and the bridge

Klitschko said several missiles hit the Northern Bridge, and that it is closed in both directions with its roadbed, trolleybus contact line and power line damaged. Reuters says the damage has snarled traffic.

The energy damage is the larger story. Zelensky said Russia hit substations that connect the Rivne and Khmelnytskyi nuclear plants to Kyiv and central regions, and that substations in five other regions were also struck. Ukraine's energy ministry reported serious damage, per Reuters. Governor Tymur Tkachenko said energy facilities were hit in at least three Kyiv Oblast districts, and DTEK, the largest private energy company, said part of Brovary district had no power. Energy infrastructure in Zhytomyr region was also hit.

Klitschko called the situation for power, heating and water "extremely difficult." The Kyiv Independent reports he later said water supply was running normally and crews were reconnecting buildings to the heating network. Zelensky said the capital faces "serious difficulties" with electricity, water and heat as temperatures approach zero. Both accounts can be true: an outage in one district is not a citywide failure, and the officials have not published how many customers are without power.

Moscow's account, and the diplomacy

Russia's Defence Ministry said it carried out a "massive strike" on military-industrial targets plus energy and transport infrastructure in and around Kyiv, per Reuters. Moscow said the bridge was a target because it was used to move military equipment, according to reports we could not confirm from Russian primary sources. Ukraine and Russia have both denied deliberately targeting civilians.

Zelensky said Russia was "preparing for trilateral talks by launching ballistic missiles at Ukraine's critical infrastructure." A new round of three-way talks is planned for Tuesday in Abu Dhabi, Reuters reports, part of a US-backed push that has produced few results so far. The strike follows the November 3 barrage on Ukrainian energy sites that the Kyiv Independent called this year's largest. We checked for an Institute for the Study of War assessment of November 7 and found none published yet.

Who this hits

For a Kyiv bakery, cold store or print shop, the missing number is hours without grid power, which decides whether a generator and its fuel are a cost or a survival requirement. For logistics firms, a closed Dnipro crossing means longer routes for every delivery that normally uses it. Outside Ukraine, the pressure shows up in fuel and diesel, which we have followed in our coverage of Russian diesel exports and the attacks on the Ukrainian grid. Our related report from a different front: the Komyshuvakha death toll.

What to watch: the energy ministry's outage figures, repairs at the two nuclear-plant substations, whether the Northern Bridge reopens, and whether Tuesday's Abu Dhabi round goes ahead.

Sources: Reuters via RTE and Business Recorder; Kyiv Independent; Militarnyi. Ukrainian Air Force, presidential and city statements are reported through these outlets; we did not read the original posts. Figures are claims by the parties, not independently verified. This is news reporting, not investment advice.