(July 2): Russia unleashed one of the most intense missile and drone attacks on Kyiv so far this year, killing at least 17 people and injuring dozens, according to Ukrainian officials.
Ukraine’s Air Defence said ballistic and cruise missiles were used in the overnight assault on Kyiv as well as jet-powered drones, while strikes were also reported in the Kharkiv, Sumy, Dnipro, Zaporizhzhia, and Cherkasy regions. According to military data, Ukraine shot down 48 out of 74 missiles and 476 out of 496 drones.
At least 86 people were injured and 70 hospitalised in attacks that damaged residential areas in seven city districts, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Telegram. Medical staff of an ambulance substation were among those hurt, he said.
Ukraine’s DTEK private energy company said its facility in Kyiv was also hit.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the attacks showed that supplies of air defences to Ukraine remained “an absolute and critical priority”.
“It is especially important that we move forward with implementing our agreements on the production of anti-ballistic capabilities,” Zelenskyy said in a post on the X platform. “We also very much count on a decision by the United States regarding licenses for Patriots and other forms of cooperation.”
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European Union foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas said she’d propose sanctions on more entities supporting Russia’s military-industrial complex in response to the strike.
Germany’s Foreign Ministry said the attacks demonstrated that Russian President Vladimir Putin “shows no willingness to negotiate”. Continued support for Ukraine’s defence would be a focus of next week’s North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit in Turkey, it said in a statement.
Russia’s Defence Ministry said it “delivered a massive strike” on Kyiv and the surrounding region in a post on Thursday on Telegram. The attacks targeted defence industry and energy complexes in the city and were in response to Ukrainian strikes on Russia, it said.
The Defence Ministry in Moscow earlier reported that Ukraine may have used a long-range ballistic missile for the first time. Air defences shot down a “long-range operational-tactical missile” in the past day as well as seven guided bombs and 602 fixed-wing drones, the ministry said in a statement.
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Ukraine has expanded the range and intensity of its missile strikes inside Russia, triggering alerts across nearly half of the regions in the world’s largest country so far this year.
While missile alerts earlier in the war were largely confined to Russian regions bordering Ukraine as well as Ukrainian territories occupied by Moscow’s forces, areas that are home to more than 70% of Russia’s population have sounded the alarm at least once, according to a Bloomberg analysis of statements by regional authorities.
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