NPR
Russian missiles and drones kill 11 and cause damage across Ukraine capital
+750 words added -549 words removed
− By
The Associated Press
People look at the site of a Russian missile strike that hit a residential building in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, July 2, 2026.
+ By
The Associated Press
A woman looks at an apartment building burning after a Russian missile attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, July 2, 2026.
− Danylo Antoniuk/AP hide caption
KYIV, Ukraine — Russia launched a large-scale attack on Ukraine's capital overnight into Thursday that killed at least eight people and injured dozens as loud explosions shook Kyiv for hours.
+ (AP Photo/Danylo Antoniuk) Danylo Antoniuk/AP hide caption
KYIV, Ukraine — Russia hammered Kyiv in a major drone and missile attack overnight into Thursday morning, killing at least 17 civilians and injuring scores more in what Moscow described as retaliation for Ukrainian strikes on oil facilities that have caused fuel shortages and put pressure on President Vladimir Putin.
− The attack with ballistic and cruise missiles and drones damaged buildings and civilian infrastructure across the city.
Many residents took shelter at metro stations after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other authorities issued the first warnings of the attack.
The attack killed 11 people in Kyiv and damaged 20 residential buildings, according to Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko.
+ Loud explosions shook the Ukrainian capital for hours during the night, with many people sheltering at subway stations after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other authorities issued the first warnings of an incoming attack.
− Tymur Tkachenko, head of the Kyiv City Military Administration, said 54 people were injured, including two children. Damage was recorded in 30 locations across the city, mainly residential buildings and civilian infrastructure, he added.
+ Emergency crews were still digging through the rubble of collapsed and charred apartment buildings in search of victims as dawn broke.
− A woman walks past a burning apartment building after a Russian missile attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, July 2, 2026.
+ Russia's Defense Ministry said in a statement that the deadly bombardment was in response to Ukraine's long-range strikes on its civilian infrastructure.
− Danylo Antoniuk/AP hide caption
Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha called on Ukraine's allies to strengthen the country's air defenses following what he described as a "night of horror" in Kyiv, urging partners not to delay decisions on supplying air defense systems and missiles. Writing on X, Sybiha said the death toll after the attack may rise as the rescue teams continued their work.
+ Ukraine's increasingly frequent and large-scale attacks — described by Zelenskyy as a 40-day blitz — have especially targeted oil refineries, causing a fuel crisis that has frustrated Russians, more than four years after Moscow's full-scale invasion of its neighbor.
− Russia has intensified its attacks on Kyiv in recent weeks, even as Ukraine's own long-range drone campaign against Russian military sites and energy facilities has caused fuel shortages and disrupted supply lines inside Russia.
+ The attack killed 17 people in Kyiv and injured more than 90 others, according to Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko.
− Ukraine invasion — explained Inside a secretive Ukrainian team launching deep drone strikes at Russia Sybiha rejected any attempts to justify Russian strikes as retaliation for Ukraine's long-range attacks, saying Ukraine was exercising its right to self-defense under Article 51 of the U.N.
+ Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said it was a "night of horror" in the capital.
Damage was recorded in 30 locations across the city, mainly residential buildings and civilian infrastructure, according to Tymur Tkachenko, head of the Kyiv City Military Administration.
− Charter while Russia remained the aggressor.
+ Some 20 residential buildings were damaged, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said.
− Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko urged residents of the capital to remain in shelters due to the ongoing "furious enemy attack."
He said a paramedic in extremely critical condition was among the injured in the Shevchenkivskyi district.
+ Kyiv resident Serhii Budko said three or four ballistic missiles hit his district of the city.
− Ukraine's Emergency Service says a hotel and two five-story residential buildings were damaged in the area.
+ "We were inside the shelter and felt the shelter shaking — the ceiling and floor, everything," the 24-year-old told The Associated Press.
− In the Desnianskyi district, people were trapped inside a damaged nine-story residential building and rescuers headed to the scene, Klitschko said.
+ In Kyiv's Desnianskyi district, people were trapped inside a damaged nine-story residential building and rescuers were at the scene, Klitschko said. In the Darnytskyi district, six levels of a nine-story building collapsed.
− In the Holosiivskyi district, a fire broke out on the roof of a 16-story building, according to the Emergency Service.
+ In the Holosiivskyi district, a fire broke out on the roof of a 16-story building, according to the Emergency Service, which said it deployed nearly 500 personnel and 100 specialized vehicles.
− In the Sviatoshynskyi district, fire broke out in two private residencies, the Emergency Service said.
+ The attack used "high-precision long-range weapons" and drones on "military industry facilities and fuel and energy complexes in Kyiv and the Kyiv region, as well as military airfield infrastructure in four other regions of Ukraine," the Russian Defense Ministry's statement said.
It published a list of targets it said the barrage hit, mostly plants manufacturing and assembling Ukrainian drones, missiles and components.
Russia fired 74 missiles, 24 of them ballistic, and 496 drones of various types in the attack, Ukraine's air force said.
Ukraine's air defenses have improved throughout the war, especially in countering Russian drones.
− Debris trapped people in one of them, according to the mayor.
+ But ballistic missiles are harder to stop, and Ukrainian officials have repeatedly pleaded with partner countries to supply more Patriot missile systems that offer the best protection.
− In the Darnytskyi district, six levels of a nine-story building collapsed after a Russian strike and another five-story residential building was damaged, Klitschko said.
+ A woman walks past a burning apartment building after a Russian missile attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, July 2, 2026.
− The Emergency Service said a 16-story building and private residencies were damaged in the area.
+ Danylo Antoniuk/AP hide caption
Sybiha urged countries not to delay decisions on supplying air defense systems and missiles.
− Tkachenko said the attack partially destroyed a residential building in the Desnianskyi district, sparked fires near residential buildings at two locations in the Pecherskyi district, and ignited a fire near an administrative building in the Solomianskyi district.
+ He rejected any Russian attempts to justify the strikes as retaliation for Ukraine's long-range attacks, saying Ukraine was exercising its right to self-defense under Article 51 of the U.N.
− He said authorities were also recording damage in the Obolonskyi and Podilskyi districts.
+ Charter while Russia remained the aggressor.
− The head of the Kyiv Regional Administration, Mykola Kalashnyk, said damage occurred in five regional districts.
+ Sybiha said on X that the death toll may rise as rescue teams continue their work.
Ukrainian forces struck one of Russia's largest oil refineries overnight in the Nizhny Novgorod region east of Moscow, starting a fire, Ukraine's General Staff said.
Ukraine invasion — explained Inside a secretive Ukrainian team launching deep drone strikes at Russia Also, Ukrainian forces struck a railway bridge over the Siverskyi Donets River in the Russian-occupied Luhansk region, it said.
− Three people sustained injuries in Bucha district, he said.
+ The bridge was used by Russian forces to transport personnel, weapons and military supplies, according to the General Staff.
+ Ukraine's recent success with drone strikes that keep Russian troops pinned down on the front line, disrupt Russian supply lines in the rear and damage oil facilities have brought a significant change in the war, Western analysts say.
"Russia's spring-summer 2026 offensive has failed to achieve operationally significant gains thus far, and Russian forces' rate of advance in June 2026 (was) a fraction of the rate of advance that Russian forces achieved in June 2025," the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, said in an assessment late Wednesday.