Russia launches record missile and drone attack on Kyiv, 31 killed

Russia fired 28 ballistic missiles at Kyiv in a record assault that killed at least 31 people and injured 102, a barrage Ukrainian leaders cast as a message to NATO as alliance leaders prepared for a summit. Kyiv said the attack was the war’s most massive on the capital and declared July 3 a day of mourning.

The deadliest toll came in the Darnytskyi district, where rescue crews pulled the last victim from the rubble of a partially collapsed multistory residential building. Kyiv authorities said damage was reported at more than 20 sites across the city, including apartment buildings, an ambulance station, a research institute and a hotel, underscoring how deeply the strike cut into civilian life and emergency infrastructure.

Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 74 missiles and 496 long-range drones in the attack. Officials said 25 ballistic missiles and 12 drones hit 33 locations. Air Force spokesperson Yurii Ihnat said 28 of the missiles fired at Kyiv were ballistic missiles, setting a record for a single attack on the capital. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said the destruction reached every district of the city.

Volodymyr Zelensky said the assault exposed Ukraine’s shortage of air-defense interceptors and argued that the country would need at least 140 Patriot missiles to counter an attack involving roughly 70 ballistic missiles. His warning landed as Washington and European capitals renewed calls for tougher military and economic pressure on Moscow, pressing the case that the scale of the strike should sharpen debate over air defenses, aid and deterrence rather than fade into another grim statistic of the war.

The attack also rippled beyond Ukraine’s borders. Poland scrambled fighter jets and air defenses as a precaution, while Finland briefly imposed an aviation restriction zone in the eastern Gulf of Finland before lifting it. For Kyiv residents, the immediate reality remained the same: shattered homes, overwhelmed rescuers and a death toll that kept rising as crews worked through the wreckage.