Non-stop sirens and an assassination attempt in the heart of Kyiv: A UAV hit the SBU chief's office
While Ukraine and Russia await the arrival of Witkoff and Kushner, further escalation is occurring in the war as a UAV hit the central headquarters of the Ukrainian Security Service. At the same time, Russia is changing tactics and moving to non-stop attacks throughout the day, shattering the daily routine of Kyiv residents. Ukraine continues to strike oil facilities.
10 days of non-stop Russian attacks in Kyiv: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that a Russian UAV attack today (Friday) hit the central headquarters of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) in Kyiv.
"The UAV was aimed directly at the office of the head of the Security Service in the same building," Zelensky emphasized, noting that he spoke with the acting security chief, Oleksandr Poklad.
The agency's headquarters that was hit is located near a historic church and international hotels. The mayor of Kyiv said that seven people were injured in this attack, and according to reports in the country, heavy black smoke rose from the scene. Zelensky said he had ordered a "proportionate and tangible response — and if possible, one that reflects this attack to the Russians — as soon as everything is ready."
The SBU is a vast, secret, and highly essential agency for the Ukrainian war effort, which, among other things, carries out offensive operations deep inside Russian territory, including against energy infrastructure. It alone is responsible for some of the most ambitious operations against Russia — such as the explosion on the bridge to the Crimean Peninsula in 2022 or the UAV attack that hit Russian strategic bombers last year. It is also seen as a leading player in the Ukrainian assassination campaign against senior figures in the Russian army and other figures accused by Kyiv of committing war crimes.
Diplomacy under fire
Meanwhile, and while Trump's envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner will travel over the weekend to Moscow — and Zelensky expects their arrival in Kyiv — Russian attacks during the night killed at least three people in Ukraine.
"They confirmed that they will hold a meeting in Moscow and another one in Kyiv, — Zelensky said. — We expect the latter to take place in the coming days. This is very important. It is important that America remains actively involved."
He added that Ukraine is ready for substantive negotiations at a high level. Kushner and Witkoff recently visited Moscow in January 2026, where they met with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The planned visit will be their first to Kyiv. After that meeting with Putin, his aide Yuri Ushakov described the talks as constructive, but said that "it is impossible to expect to achieve a long-term settlement without resolving the territorial issue" — the territories that Russia captured from Ukraine in the war and claims belong to it. The talks that began then lost momentum after the White House's attention focused on the war with Iran, which began at the end of February.
Now, the latest diplomatic developments are taking place in parallel with the massive Russian attacks, including one at night on the Odesa region — which killed one person and injured at least five others. The attacks caused damage to a number of residential buildings, including two high-rise buildings. Night attacks elsewhere in Ukraine killed two police officers in Dnipro, officials said, while a UAV attack in Kyiv injured three people after hitting a residential building.
Economic pressure and changing tactics
On the other hand, in Russia, a large-scale Ukrainian attack hit the resort city on the Black Sea coast, Sochi, and the nearby district of Sirius. According to local officials in Russia, the attack ignited a fire in an oil reservoir. Media in Russia reported that two reservoirs were hit, with one fire in Sochi and another in Sirius. Ukraine, we note, is repeatedly attacking oil facilities that form the backbone of Russia's economy, one of the world's largest energy producers. The Ukrainian strategy has led to increasing economic pressure and growing public frustration in Russia, after months of escalation in attacks on refineries and e-commerce centers, which caused disruptions across the country.
These barrages prompted Putin to issue a decree last month stating that the state has the right to temporarily take over critical infrastructure facilities if private owners fail to protect them from Ukrainian UAV attacks or do not rebuild them after attacks. Commentators said the move was intended to force companies to pay for their own security and return damaged assets to service, despite the high cost.
As a result of the Ukrainian actions, Russia has recently changed its approach: for most of the war, Russian UAV and missile attacks in Kyiv were conducted at a certain pace — almost always occurring at night. Now, Russia has changed tactics using fast jet-powered UAVs, and thus the expectation in Kyiv that daylight would bring a return to normal life has been shattered. Since last week, attacks have been occurring day and night, intensifying the horror of night attacks — combined with the exhaustion caused by the non-stop disruptions during the day.
In Kyiv, they are currently experiencing to a large extent the reality that Israeli citizens in the north experienced during the war with Iran: the sound of alarm sirens has become part of daily life. The attacks claim human lives, but not only that: the sirens interrupt trips to work, shopping trips, and studies in children's schools, exhaust the residents, and cause some of them to wonder how much longer they will be able to stay in the city. Volodymyr Bovsunovsky told the AP news agency that he recently went to a mall to buy clothes for his daughter, almost 4 years old. After 20 minutes, a siren sounded, they rushed out and saw smoke rising nearby. They never managed to buy the clothes.
Like many residents, he hoped the attacks would subside — but they have yet to stop, while Ukraine struggles to find an effective way to deal with them. Train journeys that usually took a few hours have become much longer. GPS signals are jammed to block UAVs, and the use of a taxi app has become an absurd process. Ivan Datsiv, a high-tech worker, was in his apartment in the Podil district of Kyiv when a Russian UAV pierced the floor on Tuesday, scorching the ceilings and walls of his apartment and completely destroying the neighboring apartment. According to him, the sirens have become so frequent that he no longer sees the point of going down to the shelter again and again. "The sirens sound all the time," Datsiv said. "You don't even have time to go down and come back up. It's just a waste of time to run back and forth." Now, he is thinking of leaving Kyiv.
