Russia strikes Kyiv with deadly missile and drone barrage, 17 killed

Russian missiles and drones tore through Kyiv overnight, killing at least 17 people and damaging more than 30 locations across the capital. The assault came hours after President Volodymyr Zelensky cut short a visit to Dublin and warned that Ukrainian intelligence had detected preparations for a large-scale Russian strike.

Ukraine’s Air Force said Russia launched 74 missiles and 496 long-range drones in the barrage. Officials said 25 ballistic missiles and 12 drones struck 33 locations, while Ukrainian defenses shot down or suppressed most of the incoming weapons. The State Emergency Service and city officials reported dozens of injuries, including children, and rescuers were still searching collapsed residential buildings in Kyiv’s Darnytskyi district.

The attack ripped open apartment buildings and hit an ambulance station, a scientific institute, a hotel and other businesses. Vitali Klitschko, Kyiv’s mayor, called it the most massive attack on the capital since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion more than four years ago. Kyiv authorities declared a Day of Mourning for July 3, a signal of the scale of the losses and the toll on neighborhoods that have spent years living under air-raid alerts and repeated missile fire.

The barrage also laid bare the pressure on Ukraine’s air-defense network. Russia’s ability to fire nearly 600 missiles and drones in a single night forced Ukrainian crews to intercept targets across nearly all of Kyiv’s districts, underscoring how heavily the city still depends on timely Western systems, interceptor stocks and sustained military aid to blunt attacks of this size. The timing of the strike, following Zelensky’s warning from Dublin, suggested a deliberate effort to punish civilians, disrupt daily life and show that Moscow intends to keep escalating despite international warnings.

The attack quickly widened beyond Ukraine. Poland scrambled fighter jets and put air defenses on alert to protect its airspace, reflecting the risk posed by strikes of this scale near NATO territory. Kaja Kallas, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, said she would propose new sanctions against companies supporting Russia’s military-industrial complex, as European governments weighed a response to Moscow’s latest escalation and the growing cycle of long-range attacks between Russia and Ukraine.