Russian strikes kill 14 in Kyiv, Ukrainian air defences run short

Russian missile and drone strikes on Kyiv killed at least 14 civilians overnight and injured more than 80 others, leaving apartment blocks and other civilian infrastructure badly damaged across the capital. Ukrainian officials said the barrage was not only another deadly assault, but also a stark measure of how vulnerable the city has become as interceptor stocks run low.

The attack landed four days after another major strike on Kyiv that killed at least 30 civilians, a pace that has turned repeated bombardment into a daily test of air defenses and public endurance. During the earlier assault on July 2, many of Kyiv’s roughly three million residents spent up to 11 hours in shelters or taking cover at home, and nearly 90 people were injured, including children. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that attack was one of the largest on Kyiv since the escalation of the war.

Ukraine’s military said none of the 23 ballistic missiles aimed at Kyiv in the latest strike were intercepted, blaming a shortage of air-defense missiles. That shortage has sharpened President Volodymyr Zelensky’s appeal to allies for more Patriot interceptors and additional air defenses ahead of the NATO summit in Ankara. Ukraine’s foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, said Kyiv’s message to summit participants was that protecting Ukrainian children from Russian ballistic missiles had become the country’s top priority.

The latest figures add to a broader civilian toll that has been climbing through the spring and into July. The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine said 1,272 civilians were killed and 6,871 injured in the country from December 1, 2025, to May 31, 2026, a 40% increase from the same period a year earlier. The mission’s data show that the war’s pressure on civilians has deepened alongside the strikes on energy, transport and housing that continue to displace residents and strain hospitals and emergency responders.

Matthias Schmale, the UN’s top aid official in Ukraine, said the scale of the suffering was unbearable, pointing to attacks in Dnipro, Kherson, Kyiv and Zaporizhzhia that have disrupted access to basic services. The UN said civilian casualties across Ukraine are averaging about 170 killed or injured each day so far in July, a rate that outpaces last year’s pace. Ukraine has asked for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council in New York after the latest strike.

The violence is widening beyond Kyiv. Russian strikes hit Odesa on Monday, damaging homes and injuring one resident, while Ukrainian drones hit ports and an oil refinery in Yaroslavl inside Russia, adding another layer to the escalation. UN Secretary-General António Guterres condemned the attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure as clear violations of international humanitarian law and said they must stop immediately.