“It’s hard. My child is used to sleeping in complete silence and darkness.” A 32-year-old doctor said that to reporters in Kyiv after a night spent in a shelter while Russia hit the capital with missiles and drones.
The attack came in the early hours of Thursday, July 2, and it was far heavier than the first reports suggested. France 24 cited Ukrainian officials for at least 17 dead and dozens hurt. By afternoon, Time reported that Ukraine’s State Emergency Service had counted at least 25 killed and more than 80 injured, with rescuers still at work.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia fired “more than 70 missiles of various types against Ukraine overnight, nearly half of them ballistic missiles, along with almost 500 attack drones.” More than 30 locations were hit, in every district of Kyiv.
A warning, then the strikes
Zelensky had seen it coming. He cut short a visit to Dublin on Wednesday, and said Vladimir Putin “has been preparing this massive strike against Ukraine for some time now.” His message to residents was short: “use shelters and heed air raid alerts in Ukraine – this is very important.”
Families did. People crowded into basements, underground car parks and metro stations. Across the wider Kyiv region, fires broke out at warehouses and homes. Apartment buildings, a student dormitory and vehicles were badly damaged.
Kyiv’s mayor declared a day of mourning, and flags at city buildings were lowered to half-mast.
Moscow’s account and the reaction
Russia’s defense ministry called the strike a response “to the Kyiv regime’s terrorist attacks on civilian infrastructure.” The Kremlin said the targets were “military or military-related facilities” and linked the barrage to Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian infrastructure.
European officials were not persuaded. UK Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said “Russia has again chosen escalation over peace with this deplorable onslaught on Kyiv.” EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas promised to “sanction more entities supporting Russia’s military-industrial complex in response.”
Zelensky toured damaged areas and turned to Washington. “We are asking President Trump, his team… rush,” he told reporters, pressing for faster US military support. The invasion has now run for more than four years.
Sources
- Russia Conducts Deadly Missile, Drone Strikes on Kyiv (France 24)
- Russia Launches Drone and Missile Attack on Kyiv in Deadly 'Night of Horror' (Time, Tiago Ventura)
