Russia strikes Kyiv again as rescuers search rubble before Nato summit

Rescuers searched through damaged homes and apartment blocks in Kyiv after Russian air strikes injured 46 people, including at least five children, in a fresh assault that came as Ukraine braced for the NATO summit in Turkey. Air raid sirens sounded across the city and explosions echoed while residents took shelter underground, turning the capital into a scene of both rescue work and wartime waiting.

Timur Tkachenko, Kyiv’s top military administrator, said emergency crews were racing to find survivors under the rubble. The timing gave the attack an unmistakable diplomatic edge: it landed on the eve of the summit in Turkey, where Volodymyr Zelensky was expected to hold talks with Donald Trump. Hours before the strikes, Zelensky warned that Moscow was preparing a second “massive strike” on Kyiv.

The new attack followed a major Russian barrage on Thursday, July 2, 2026, that killed 30 people in Kyiv and damaged around 130 buildings. Hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles hit the capital in what was the deadliest strike on the city this year. That earlier assault left scores wounded and sharpened concerns in Kyiv that Moscow was escalating its air campaign ahead of the summit.

Ukraine has repeatedly said Russia is intensifying air attacks before the gathering in Turkey, and the latest strike fit that pattern. By hitting Kyiv again as rescuers worked through the debris, Moscow added pressure to a summit already shaped by the war. Leaders now face a capital under fire, a Ukrainian president seeking allied backing, and a battlefield message delivered just as the diplomacy was set to begin.