Russia turned the Easter week into a period of relentless aerial strikes. The most brutal and devastating attacks targeted Dnipro, Kyiv, and Odesa. Nearly a hundred civilians were wounded during the massive attack on April 15–16, when Russia launched over 700 aerial targets. Russian drone and missile attacks claimed the lives of children in three cities: an 8-year-old boy was killed on a playground in Cherkasy, a ballistic missile killed a 12-year-old child right in their bed in Kyiv, and a deceased teenager was found under the rubble of a building in Chernihiv. During the week, Russians cynically attacked medics and hospitals, struck a reservoir with bombs, and carried out assaults on civilian ships. A tragedy occurred in Kyiv over the weekend: six people died in a shooting incident. Among the injured was a boy whose parents became victims of the assailant.
Chronicle of Russian Shelling from April 6 to 19, 2026
On April 13, Russians attacked energy facilities in the Chernihiv and Mykolaiv regions. There was a strike on an infrastructure object in the Kirovohrad region and strikes on the Sumy region, where fires raged at the impact sites. Zaporizhzhia came under enemy UAV attack, industrial enterprises were damaged, a hit on an office building was recorded, the roof caught fire there, residential buildings were partially affected, a 17-year-old girl was injured; one person was also wounded in the Zaporizhzhia district. In Kherson, two people died, there are casualties, the enemy shelled cars and residential buildings, and two people also died in the oblast.
As a result of enemy attacks on Zaporizhzhia and the district on April 14, two people were injured, including a 17-year-old girl. Enemy aviation dropped six guided aerial bombs on the Pechenihy dam in the Kharkiv region, reported the Head of the Kharkiv Regional State Administration Oleh Syniehubov. Four bombs hit the ground near the hydraulic structures, two—the water, reports “Ekonomichna Pravda” with details. Over the past day in the region, among the affected objects, an emergency medical service vehicle and railway infrastructure were damaged, one person died, and 20 more were injured, the enemy struck an enterprise near Kharkiv with GABs, and in the regional center itself, a high-rise building was damaged due to drone attacks. In the Sumy region, there is one fatality and one injured person due to an enemy strike on a car; administrative buildings were damaged in the Shostka community. Chernihiv was under attack all day, with hits on administrative buildings, fires, and two injured people. In the oblast, the building of the “Forests of Ukraine” State Enterprise forestry was damaged, and residential buildings were damaged in various communities of the oblast. Russians killed a woman with a drone in the Korabelny district of Kherson, and one more person was hospitalized. The enemy hit a medical facility with a drone in the Central district of Kherson, four hospital workers were injured, preliminarily suffering from blast trauma. It became known that enemy aviation recently attacked an educational institution in the Dnipro district, which was significantly destroyed, resulting in one death and one injury. In Cherkasy, an 8-year-old boy died as a result of an evening enemy UAV attack, 14 people were injured, including one child; debris damaged at least four high-rise buildings.
During the day from April 15 to 16, the enemy carried out two waves of combined attacks on the territory of Ukraine using over seven hundred aerial targets: 44 missiles, with the rest being drones.
On April 15, due to a combined strike on Zaporizhzhia around five in the morning, a kiosk seller died, five high-rise buildings and a kiosk at a public transport stop were damaged, a fire broke out there, cars and two garages burned, a vocational technical education institution, a parking lot, and an enterprise were damaged. In Cherkasy—four injured people, there is destruction of residential buildings, destroyed and damaged cars, and fires raged. The enemy attacked an industrial zone in Sumy, the attacks were repeated three times while rescuers were extinguishing the fire. Chernihiv was again under drone attacks; residential homes and premises of Ukrposhta were damaged in the region. Kharkiv and the oblast were under shelling, there are casualties and damage, and there is one dead and several injured people in Kherson.
Throughout April 16, Zaporizhzhia was again under attack: one person died, ten more were injured, including a two-year-old boy; a children's center, an unoperated house, a shop building, and residential buildings were damaged, and fires raged. In Kharkiv, two people were injured, private houses, a garage, and cars were damaged; in the oblast, there is one fatality, wounded and injured people, and an enterprise was damaged. In Sumy, Russians attacked two gas stations, one person died; in the oblast, one person was hospitalized due to an attack on a civilian car. Residential quarters in Kherson were under attack, two women were injured and hospitalized in moderate condition. Reports continue to arrive about the area being mined with anti-personnel mines. In the Chernihiv region, there are civilian casualties, a hospital was damaged, and the enemy attacked an energy facility in the Nizhyn district with “Geran” drones. Mykolaiv and settlements in two districts were left without power due to shelling. In the oblast, a family with a child was affected and hospitalized, and private houses and an industrial infrastructure object were damaged.
On the night of April 17, a fire broke out on the territory of a private household in the Zhytomyr region due to Russian strikes. In the morning, drones attacked Zaporizhzhia, six people were injured, an eight-year-old boy suffered an acute stress reaction; fires broke out in an administrative building and a high-rise building. In the Kharkiv region, one person died, nine were injured, and among the damaged objects are a boarding school, an ambulance station, and civilian enterprises. In Kharkiv, an office building, private houses, and the glazing of high-rise windows were damaged. In the Sumy region, two people died, six were injured, and late in the evening, an enemy UAV hit a fire and rescue unit, partially damaging the building. From the morning, Russians struck Kherson, and during the day, drones attacked the territory of warehouses with building materials, agricultural machinery, and sowing materials in the suburbs, causing a fire. Chernihiv is under constant attacks by enemy drones; during the night, there were hits on critical infrastructure objects, a massive fire raged, and about six thousand subscribers were left without electricity.
On April 18, seven people were injured in the Kharkiv region, enemy drones attacked five districts of Kharkiv, damaging three civilian enterprises and a cargo vehicle. There is significant damage to residential and industrial infrastructure in the Kharkiv and Bohodukhiv districts of the oblast. Fires erupted in Sumy due to shelling, where the enemy attacked a critical infrastructure object; a fire station was attacked in the Shostka community. On the night of April 18, Russian drones terrorized Zaporizhzhia, damaging residential buildings in two districts, and there were strikes on an energy object, injuring ten people.
As of April 19, in Kharkiv, a civilian enterprise, a store, and two high-rise buildings were damaged, the enemy struck the Novobavarsky, Kholodnohirsky, Kyivsky, Osnoviansky districts with UAVs and the Shevchenkivsky district with a missile. There is one fatality and injured people in the oblast, with extensive damage to infrastructure. Chernihiv was under drone attack overnight, with hits at various locations, including on the territory of an industrial object, damaging a lyceum and private houses; the body of a 16-year-old boy was found under the rubble of a house. In the Sumy and Kherson regions, there is one fatality each.
In total, during the week, the enemy launched over 2,360 strike drones, more than 1,320 guided aerial bombs, and almost 60 missiles of various types across Ukraine.
“Deep Wounds on the Body of the Donetsk Region”
The infrastructure of the Donetsk region is being destroyed by enemy fire, and civilians are dying every week. On the night of April 13, a woman died due to a UAV strike on the private sector in Kramatorsk—her body was recovered by rescuers from under the rubble, and seven residential buildings were damaged.
In the afternoon, the city center and the private sector were attacked by three drones, damaging about ten high-rise buildings, five private houses, shops, and cars, and injuring at least five people. Fires raged in different parts of the city. A woman died in Druzhkivka that day, and a non-residential building was damaged.
And already on the morning of April 15, around five o'clock, the center of Sloviansk was under airstrikes, two people were injured, one of them a child. Russians hit a children's sports facility, which was a historical monument of the city—it was completely destroyed, and almost four dozen high-rise buildings, administrative buildings, and cars were damaged. In Sviatohirsk on April 15, enemy shelling damaged a church.
Press officer of the 93rd “Kholodnyi Yar” Brigade, photographer Iryna Rybakova spoke about the objects the Russians targeted:
“FAB 1500. A crazy destructive force that Russians directed this morning at the center of Sloviansk. At ancient houses, at citizens, their businesses, belongings, animals, cars in garages, and even bats. Two administrative buildings—a sports school and an archive—were turned into piles of rusty red brick with a foul-smelling lake of sewage in the middle. Nearby, a damaged bicycle shop, where the owners are trying to remove the debris after the strike. The aerial bomb also destroyed the ‘Smirnov House’—an architectural monument from the end of the 19th century, which local residents restored five years ago at their own expense. The house belonged to Illarion Dormidontovych Smirnov—a retired non-commissioned officer, owner of a cast iron foundry and mechanical plant. [...] One more deep wound on the body of the Donetsk region.”
During the day from April 15 to 16, two people were injured in Sloviansk, a farm was damaged, and there are wounded people in Druzhkivka and Oleksiyevo-Druzhkivka. In the afternoon, an explosion rocked the central part of Sloviansk, in the area of high-rise buildings. As of the morning of April 18, one person died in Mykolaivka, Kramatorsk district, one was injured, and two high-rise buildings and two private houses were damaged. There are wounded in Kramatorsk and Druzhkivka. On the night of April 18, the Russian army struck a high-rise building in Kramatorsk with a drone, one person suffered severe injuries and is in the hospital.
Kyiv: Threat from the Air and Right on the Streets
The week was extremely difficult for Kyiv residents: the city was shaken by missiles, drones, and a terrorist attack. On the night of April 16, the enemy struck the capital with ballistic missiles and attacked with strike UAVs. 13 locations with damage were recorded, with extensive destruction due to falling debris. The Podilsky and Obolonsky districts were the most affected, where massive fires raged in warehouses and residential buildings were damaged.
In the Podilsky district, there was a hit on a non-residential building, and falling debris caused a fire on the first floor of a residential building. Debris partially destroyed a three-story mini-hotel and damaged nearby houses. A missile fragment hit the sixth floor of a 16-story building, but there were no fires. Falling debris partially destroyed a private house, and the bodies of two victims were found under the rubble of one of the houses, one of whom was a 12-year-old child. In the morning, an enemy UAV deliberately flew into an 18-story building.
In the Obolonsky district, an office building was damaged, followed by the burning of structures and parked cars, and a tire service and a shop were damaged. In the Desniansky district, falling missile debris caused a fire in a two-story residential building. In the Shevchenkivsky district, missile debris fell near a residential building and on a playground. In the Dniprovsky district, debris fell on open ground.
“Ekonomichna Pravda” reported that as a result of the missile strike on the territory of one of the enterprises of the “Ukr Auto” group, there were fatalities among employees, the building was damaged, and the fire caused significant losses.
In the capital, four people died as a result of the attack, including a 12-year-old boy, and at least 60 residents were injured. Medics hospitalized 26 people. During the repeat enemy strike in the Obolonsky district of the capital, four medics and three police officers were injured.
The Ukrainian photographer couple Vlada and Kostiantyn Liberov shared their emotions on social media after the night shelling of the capital:
“Another terrifying night for Kyiv and the country. Many injured and several dead, including a child. We woke up with our 4-month-old son to the sound of explosions. Stepping outside, I saw columns of black smoke over the entire city. In the background—the morning singing of birds. Life and death are always side-by-side in war.”
The Russians attacked the Kyiv region on the eve of April 15. As a result of the night attack, warehouses and a private house burned in the oblast. On April 16, during the massive attack in Bila Tserkva, production facilities of an enterprise and a private house were damaged; in the Brovary district—four private households.
During the week, two terrorist attacks occurred in the Kyiv region, one in Brovary and the second in the capital. On the evening of April 13, an explosion occurred near a private house, injuring a man with the blast wave. Law enforcement officers detained two young men who acted under the guidance of Russian special services.
On Saturday evening, April 18, a fatal shooting occurred in the Holosiivsky district of the capital. The assailant, using a weapon at close range, killed five people—four right on the street, one woman died in the hospital—and took hostages in a supermarket, where he killed one more person. A fire broke out in the attacker's apartment.
Negotiations with the attacker lasted about 40 minutes, while special forces of the National Police’s Rapid Operational Response Corps (KORD) stormed the supermarket and eliminated the shooter. Four hostages were successfully rescued.
More than ten people were injured, six injured people received aid on the spot, including an infant who suffered carbon monoxide poisoning due to the fire in the shooter's apartment. As of April 19, eight injured people remain in hospitals: the boy is in stable condition of moderate severity, one victim is in extremely grave condition, three are in severe condition, and three are in moderate condition.
It is currently known that the assailant had previously been prosecuted. He was born in the Russian Federation and lived in the Donetsk region for a long time. During the attack on people, he used a registered weapon. Investigators from the National Police and the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) are investigating all circumstances of the attack on ordinary people in Kyiv. The shooting of civilians in Kyiv has been classified as a terrorist act, reports Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko.
“Ukrainska Pravda,” citing National Police Chief Ivan Vyhivsky, reported that the shooter served in the Armed Forces of Ukraine from 1992 and retired in 2005. After that, he traveled to the Russian Federation, and in 2017, he returned to Ukraine and lived in Bakhmut. According to the National Police, the man had conflicts with neighbors.
Human Casualties and Destruction in Odesa
The enemy weekly inflicts brutal strikes on Odesa and the region. On April 14, Russians attacked civilian and port infrastructure in the Izmail district of Odesa Oblast, resulting in the destruction and fire of a service station, two passenger buses and seven cars burned down, and private houses and an ambulance were damaged; on the territory of the port, a civilian vessel under the flag of Panama, a pier, a barge, and port equipment were damaged. In the morning, as a result of a repeat strike, Russians hit a civilian vessel under the flag of Liberia. The enemy attacked port infrastructure three more times before the end of the week. There was a strike on industrial and civilian infrastructure; administrative buildings, warehouses with agricultural products, buses, and reservoirs were damaged; there were fires, including in the territory of the Danube Biosphere Reserve.
On the evening of April 15, an enemy drone hit a residential building in Odesa, damaging apartments on the fifth to seventh floors of the building, and a fire erupted. One apartment in the building was destroyed, and at least three apartments were damaged. A man around 60 years old died from the strike, and six people were injured, three of whom were hospitalized in moderate condition.
On the night of April 16, the city endured several waves of combined missile and drone strikes. Port, critical, and residential infrastructure objects sustained damage. High-rise buildings, a private house, a dormitory, a car dealership, and eight cars inside were damaged, and there is damage in the territory of one of the parks and the city market. Fires broke out at separate infrastructure objects.
Nine deaths and at least 23 injuries were reported, including a child. April 16 was declared a day of mourning in the city for the victims of the attack.
On the same day, the enemy also struck ports and logistics: a drone hit a civilian cargo vessel under the flag of Nauru was recorded, one of the containers caught fire; administrative and technical buildings of port operators were damaged; and cargo wagons of Ukrzaliznytsia (Ukrainian Railways) were damaged.
A Week of Deadly Attacks on Dnipro
Russian troops carried out regular attacks on the city and oblast throughout the week. On April 13, infrastructure in the Dnipro district and Dnipro was damaged, and two people were hospitalized in moderate condition. On April 14, Russians struck infrastructure in Kryvyi Rih several times and hit Dnipro with a missile. As a result of the strike, five people died, at least 27 people were injured, 19 people were hospitalized, 13 of whom are in intensive care, two in critically severe condition, and the rest in moderate condition. The missile strike damaged a gas station and cars.
On the night of April 15, enemy UAVs attacked the city center of Dnipro, damaging administrative buildings and a high-rise building, causing fires in administrative buildings over a total area of 460 square meters. Dnipro Mayor Borys Filatov reported damage to the academic buildings and student dormitories of the Ukrainian State University of Science and Technology and the Polytechnic University. Buildings in the city center were also damaged. Three people were injured, and a 29-year-old woman was hospitalized in moderate condition. Dnipro is mourning the victims of the enemy attack on the city on April 14.
In Dnipro, as of the morning of April 16, the combined attack resulted in four dead, 30 injured, including a three-year-old and an eighteen-month-old boy, more than a dozen hospitalized, and five in severe condition. There are 11 damaged locations in the city: almost 30 houses were damaged, two colleges, two schools, and an ambulance station were affected, as well as the art museum, transport infrastructure was damaged, an office building and a garage burned, and a nursing home for the elderly was damaged. In the oblast, there is one fatality and hospitalized people, including a 14-year-old girl, with two in severe condition.
In Dnipro, the Art Museum was damaged for the second time as a result of Russian shelling, reported “Ukrainska Pravda. Life.” All the windows in the building were blown out and the facade was damaged.
As of the morning of April 17, a transport enterprise, a high-rise building, and a commercial premises were damaged in Dnipro, and one person was hospitalized. In the Nikopol region, one person died, six were injured, there are hospitalized people, and a service station and private houses were damaged. Two people were injured in the Synelnykove region, both hospitalized in moderate condition. On April 18, the enemy struck a scheduled minibus with an FPV drone in the Nikopol region, injuring five people, including a child, and two people were hospitalized.
Material Prepared by:
Topic Researcher, Text Author: Yana Yevmenova
Photo Editor: Olga Kovalova
Literary Editor: Yuliia Futei
