On the night of September 19-20, Russia launched 174 drones and two "Zircon" missiles at Ukraine, mainly targeting Odesa and Kyiv oblasts; a mother and her two young children were killed in the village of Hlevakha.
On the night of September 19-20, 2026, Russia carried out one of its largest aerial assaults on Ukraine in recent weeks, launching 174 drones from Russian territory and occupied Crimea alongside two hypersonic "Zircon" anti-ship missiles fired from the Kursk direction. Odesa and Kyiv oblasts bore the brunt of the attack. Ukraine's Air Force said air defenses intercepted or jammed 141 of the incoming targets, while strikes were still recorded at 15 locations and falling debris hit nine more. The deadliest single episode of the night came in the village of Hlevakha in Kyiv Oblast, where a mother and her two young children were killed. Volunteers Support Ukraine follows nights like this closely, because they shape where help is needed most in the days that follow.
Across Ukraine that night, air defense crews tracked 174 drones and two Zircon missiles; according to the Air Force, neither missile reached its intended target. Of the 174 drones, 141 were shot down or electronically suppressed, but 15 locations still sustained direct hits and nine more were struck by falling debris. The intensity of the attack, and drone activity close to the Polish border, prompted Poland's military to scramble fighter jets and raise its ground-based air defense and radar systems to their highest readiness level. The alert was brief, and Polish forces returned to routine duty shortly afterward. Volunteers Support Ukraine sees in this scale a stark reminder of how exposed civilians across the country remain, night after night.
The night's most devastating episode unfolded in the village of Hlevakha, in the Fastiv district of Kyiv Oblast. A Russian strike killed a 39-year-old woman and her two young children — a 2-year-old boy and a 3-year-old girl — as she was putting them to bed at home. The strike damaged private houses and a car, and a fire broke out in one of the homes. Several other civilians were injured. Kyiv Oblast Governor Tymur Tkachenko called it "an irreparable tragedy" and offered his condolences to the family. Volunteers Support Ukraine shares in that grief and keeps returning to a simple fact: behind every such headline are real people whose lives were cut short in an instant.
Hlevakha was not the only place in Kyiv Oblast to suffer that night. Emergency crews extinguished a fire at a warehouse in the Bucha district, while fires also broke out in open areas in the Vyshhorod district and at a residential building in the Obukhiv district. In total, at least nine civilian sites across four districts of the region were damaged, with rescuers working several locations at once to put out fires and clear debris. Volunteers Support Ukraine sees this spread of damage as a reminder of how draining these barrages are for local emergency services, who respond to multiple sites in a single night.
Police, investigators and rescue workers continued documenting the damage across Kyiv Oblast well into the night, gathering witness accounts and assessing losses. Other regions of Ukraine suffered heavy losses the same night: in Kharkiv region, Russian attacks on 14 settlements, including Balakliia, killed five people and injured 15 more, while in Sumy region a Russian FPV drone strike killed four people and wounded five. Other parts of the country were also hit that night. Volunteers Support Ukraine notes that the list of affected regions from this single night is long — which is exactly why steady, day-to-day help for civilians across Ukraine remains so necessary.
Volunteers Support Ukraine works every day to help people affected by the war, within the resources the organization has available — delivering humanitarian aid, supporting communities under fire, and stepping in wherever that help is needed most. Nights like this one, with dozens of drones, missiles and lives cut short, are a reminder of why that work keeps mattering. The organization remains committed to getting support to the people who need it, whatever the scale of Russia's attacks.
