KYIV — The 12-year-old was sleeping when the Kh-101 cruise missile hit her apartment building at 4:17 a.m. Thursday. She never woke up.

Her name was Oksana Petrenko. She lived on the seventh floor of a residential block in Kyiv's Podilskyi district. The missile punched through the building's eastern wall and detonated in the corridor outside her family's door.

Russia's overnight barrage killed 16 people across Ukraine — the deadliest single attack in six weeks. But this strike cuts deeper than casualty counts suggest.

The Orthodox truce that wasn't

The killing spree began 14 hours after an Orthodox Easter ceasefire officially ended. Both Moscow and Kyiv had accused each other of violations during the 32-hour pause. Now the gloves are off.

Russia launched 659 drones and 44 missiles in 24 hours — the largest coordinated assault since February. Ukraine's air defenses intercepted 636 drones and 31 missiles. Not enough.

"The scale tells you something about Russian production capacity," said Michael Kofman, a Russia analyst at the Carnegie Endowment. "They're not running out of anything that matters."

Nine people died in strikes on Odesa's port district. The southern city's grain terminals — critical for global food exports — sustained what local officials called "significant damage" to loading infrastructure. Three people were killed in Dnipro when a drone hit a residential area.

Kyiv's mayor counts the cost

Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko toured the Podilskyi district Thursday morning, stepping over glass and concrete chunks. Forty-eight people were wounded in the capital. Seven buildings suffered structural damage.

"This is what Putin calls military targets," Klitschko said, gesturing at a playground where shrapnel had shredded swings and slides. "A 12-year-old girl. A playground. Apartments where families sleep."

The mayor's voice cracked when he said the girl's name.

Russia's Defense Ministry claimed the strikes hit "production facilities for cruise missiles and drones, as well as energy targets." Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said the attacks targeted infrastructure "supplying Kyiv's armed forces."

But the Podilskyi building housed 180 families. No weapons. No soldiers. Just people.

Ukraine hits back

Ukraine's overnight drone attack on Russia's Tuapse port killed two children — ages 5 and 14 — according to regional governor Veniamin Kondratyev. The strike sparked fires at oil storage facilities that were still burning Thursday afternoon.

The tit-for-tat escalation reflects a war that has shed any pretense of restraint. Four years in, both sides target civilian infrastructure as military strategy.

"The Easter truce was theater," said Olga Stefanishyna, Ukraine's deputy prime minister. "Putin used it to reposition assets and reload."

Ukrainian officials say Russia moved S-400 air defense systems closer to the front during the ceasefire. Moscow claims Ukraine repositioned HIMARS rocket launchers.

The Iran connection

Russia's missile surge comes as Moscow deepens military cooperation with Iran. Intelligence sources say Iran has delivered 2,400 Shahed drones to Russia since January — double the previous quarterly rate.

The timing isn't coincidental. Iran needs Russian air defense technology as it faces Israeli strikes. Russia needs Iranian drones as it burns through stockpiles in Ukraine.

"It's a marriage of convenience becoming a marriage of necessity," said Andrea Kendall-Taylor at the Center for a New American Security.

Energy targets, global impact

Thursday's strikes damaged three electrical substations serving western Ukraine. Rolling blackouts hit Lviv and Ternopil provinces. The outages affect grain processing facilities that export to Egypt, Bangladesh, and Somalia.

Global wheat futures jumped 3.2% on the Chicago Board of Trade. Corn rose 2.8%.

"Every attack on Ukrainian infrastructure ripples through global food markets," said Joseph Glauber, senior research fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute. "Putin knows this."

What's next

Ukraine's air force commander Mykola Oleshchuk warned Thursday that Russia is preparing "significantly larger" attacks for May. Intelligence suggests Moscow is stockpiling missiles for strikes around Victory Day on May 9.

EU Council President António Costa accused Russia of choosing to "deliberately terrorize civilians," calling Thursday's strikes a "horrendous attack against civilian targets."

But condemnation changes nothing. The war grinds on.

Oksana Petrenko's funeral is scheduled for Saturday. Her parents survived the missile strike. They were in the kitchen making tea when the explosion threw them to the floor.

Her father, Andriy, told reporters his daughter wanted to be a veterinarian. "She loved animals more than people," he said. "Maybe she was right to."

The next Russian missile barrage is already being planned. Ukrainian air defense crews are reloading interceptors. And somewhere in Russia, another family is about to lose a child to Ukrainian drones.

Four years of this. No end in sight.