Rare orbital footage has captured a large-scale Russian missile strike on Ukraine. A time-lapse video recorded from aboard the International Space Station (ISS) shows a mass attack on Kyiv, including visible ballistic missile trajectories and the activity of Ukrainian air defense systems over the capital and surrounding areas.
The footage was released by the YouTube channel AstronautiCAST, which published an edited segment of nighttime recording captured by an ISS camera between December 26 and 27. In the accelerated sequence, the movement of ballistic objects is visible, along with flashes consistent with interception attempts over Kyiv and the surrounding region. The ISS recording shows multiple apparent interception efforts and explosions corresponding to impacts within Kyiv and near the Trypilska Thermal Power Plant. In the final seconds of the clip, two ballistic targets appear to have been successfully intercepted by air defense systems.
According to Ukrainian authorities, during that night’s attack Russia launched ten ballistic missiles, including Iskander-M systems and Kinzhal missiles, as well as thirty cruise missiles of various types, including Kh-101, Iskander-K, and Kh-22.
The recording provides a rare opportunity to observe from orbit how Russian missile attacks against Ukraine’s capital and energy infrastructure appear. Since the start of the full-scale invasion, Kyiv and strategically important facilities in the region have repeatedly been targeted in combined strikes involving both ballistic and cruise missiles.
Since late autumn, Russian forces have regularly combined ballistic and cruise missiles with unmanned aerial vehicles, forming coordinated waves of strikes. Such tactics are intended to saturate air defense systems and disrupt electricity and heating supply during the colder months of the year.
Ukrainian officials described the December 27 strike as one of the largest attacks on Kyiv this winter. In addition to damage to residential buildings and civilian casualties, energy and heating infrastructure facilities were reportedly hit.
On February 24, Energy Minister Denys Shmyhal, together with European leaders including Ursula von der Leyen, visited a Kyiv thermal power plant that has been repeatedly targeted by Russian strikes. According to Shmyhal, since 2022 the facility – supplying heat to approximately 500,000 residents – has been attacked 13 times. The most recent strikes caused disruptions to electricity and heating for hundreds of buildings.
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Source: united24media
