At least 21 people were killed and over 80 people were injured after after Russian drones and missiles hit residential buildings in Kyiv, according to statements from Ukrainian officials including the head of the city’s military administration, Tymur Tkachenko, and reports from Ukraine's State Emergency Service. Seventy of the injured were hospitalized, according to Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko, who called it the "most massive enemy attack" since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Search and rescue operations are continuing at a damaged apartment building in the Darnytskyi District.
The attack on the Ukrainian capital began on the evening of July 1 and lasted for several hours. Ukraine’s Air Force said Russia launched 570 aerial targets during the attack, including nearly 500 drones. The Russian military also fired 24 Iskander ballistic missiles and about 50 cruise missiles of various types at Kyiv.
The missiles included four Zircon hypersonic guided missiles, which were designed primarily to target ships.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, citing intelligence data, had warned the day before that Russia was preparing a new massive strike.
The Shevchenkivskyi district in central Kyiv was hit hardest. A building housing an ambulance substation was damaged there. Five medics and drivers were injured, including a paramedic who is in extremely serious condition. In the same district, falling debris set fire to a market and the roof of a hotel.
In the Darnytskyi district, floors one through six of a nine-story apartment building were destroyed, and a five-story residential building was partly destroyed. In the Desnianskyi District, a nine-story building was damaged, trapping residents inside. In the Holosiivskyi District, the roof of a high-rise building caught fire, while warehouses burned in the Obolonskyi District.
July 3 has been declared a day of mourning in Ukraine.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said the strike on Kyiv had been carried out in response to what it called Ukrainian “terrorist attacks” on civilian infrastructure in Russia. It claimed the targets were facilities connected with the Ukrainian defense industry and fuel and energy infrastructure in Kyiv and the Kyiv Region, as well as military airfield infrastructure in the Dnipropetrovsk, Poltava, Cherkasy, Chernihiv, and Kyiv regions.
According to the ministry, the sites hit included the Radionix plant, Athlon Avia, the state-owned Antonov enterprise, the Kyiv Radio Plant, Trymen-Ukraine, PV Group Ukraine, the MLP-Chaika logistics center, the Grandterminal fuel depot, and various gas distribution stations.
In early June, a similar combined drone and missile attack killed six people in Kyiv and injured 81, including three children.
