Russian Drone Strike Near Kyiv-Odesa Highway Kills Three During the Morning Commute

Three people were killed and four were wounded on Tuesday morning when a Russian drone struck near the Kyiv-Odesa highway in Chabany, a community just south of Kyiv, the Kyiv Oblast Prosecutor's Office said.

The drone struck close to a shopping center beside the highway, setting several cars on fire. Reuters reported that the drone came down near a petrol station on the highway heading south out of the capital, and footage released by Ukraine's emergency services showed firefighters battling a large blaze among twisted wreckage. Kyiv Post reported that the strike hit during the morning commute, when the road was busy with people driving to work.

On their way to work

Tymur Tkachenko, head of the Kyiv Regional Military Administration, described the victims as people who were simply on their way to work, going about their business. The strike happened in Fastiv district, on the main route south from Kyiv toward the Black Sea port of Odesa.

Emergency services, prosecutors and investigators from the Security Service of Ukraine worked at the scene. Traffic was restricted on the affected stretch of the highway while crews dealt with the fire and investigators documented the strike.

Prosecutors said the casualty figures were preliminary and could still change as officials identify the dead and the wounded. The prosecutor's office has opened an investigation into a suspected violation of the laws and customs of war.

A road hit before

Chabany sits just outside Kyiv, beside the highway that links the capital with towns and communities to the south and, further on, with Odesa. A strike beside that road at the height of the morning rush leaves drivers and passengers in the open, with little shelter from a blast or from the fire that follows.

The attack followed a similar incident in Vyshneve, in the Kyiv region, on Sep 27, 2026, when a Russian drone crashed onto a road as cars were passing. One person was killed and three others were injured in that strike, and five vehicles were damaged.

Kyiv Post reported that since late August, Russia has shifted toward long waves of smaller groups of drones, sent alongside faster jet powered variants. The pattern can keep residents under air raid alerts for hours at a time and disrupt transport, work and daily routines across the capital region.

Tuesday's strike was one of several Russian attacks reported across Ukraine during the night and morning, as emergency crews responded in a number of regions. On the Kyiv-Odesa highway, the war arrived in the middle of an ordinary drive to work.