Russia just bombed Kyiv's rail depot for the second time in a month
2 days ago · 29 September 2026Share
Ukrainian S-300 surface-to-air missile system firing. File photo. General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine - Генеральний штаб ЗСУ · CC BY 4.0
Russia just hit Kyiv's main train depot again.
And it went after data centres too, in the same overnight attack.
So how bad was it? Ukraine's air force says Russia fired 152 drones and three missiles at the country overnight into this morning.
Air defences stopped all three missiles. One was a Zircon or Oniks anti-ship missile. Two were Iskander-M or S-400 ballistic missiles.
And they stopped 106 of the 152 drones. That means 46 got through.
So what did those 46 hit?
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy posted the list on Telegram this morning. The depot at Kyiv-Pasazhyrskyi station. Data centres. Business centres. Homes in Kyiv.
In Odesa region, a school building, a dormitory and two foreign ships got hit too.
And it didn't stop there. Energy sites, substations, businesses and homes were hit further out as well, in Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, Sumy, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Zhytomyr, Volyn and Rivne.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy says the strikes included ballistic missiles, and thanked everyone involved in the defence and everyone who is keeping to Ukraine's agreements with its partners.
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Locomotive depot of Kyiv Passenger Railway Station, Ukraine. File photo. geka_b · CC BY-SA 3.0
He thanked America and Norway for a NASAMS air defence system and a missile package. He thanked France and Germany for a separate air-defence package too.
Now here's the pattern.
This isn't the first time Russia has hit this exact depot. Earlier this month, a ballistic missile hit the same rail depot and killed seven people. Six of them were Ukrainian Railways workers. A workshop was destroyed. Rail traffic on two sections was shut down, then reopened.
And it isn't the first time Russia has gone after Kyiv's data centres either. A few days ago, strikes damaged data centres run by two internet providers, Pavutyna and UTELS. Around 100,000 households in and around Kyiv lost their connection.
So this attack fits a pattern. The same rail depot. The same kind of data infrastructure. Hit again, within weeks.
One thing to keep separate. Two days ago, a daytime drone strike hit Ukraine's National Academy of Sciences in central Kyiv. Two people were killed, including an assistant to Volodymyr Horbulin, a vice president of the academy. Volodymyr Zelenskyy said at least nine people were killed and more than 80 wounded across the country that day. That happened the day before the depot and data centre strikes described here.
Zelenskyy gave no sign of any strike back on Russia. He said the work to clear the damage is going on almost without a break, in cities and communities right across Ukraine.
So what don't we know yet? How many people were hurt in the overnight attack itself. Who owns the two foreign ships hit in Odesa. Whether anyone was working inside the depot or the data centres when they were hit. And whether Ukraine plans to hit back.
Here's the bigger picture. Russia has now hit the same rail depot twice in a month. It's hit Kyiv's data centres twice in a week.
Whatever Russia is actually aiming for, it keeps coming back to the same two things. The trains that move people and goods. And the servers that keep the country online.
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