Deadly explosions rock Kyiv as Russia says it carried out ‘massive strike’
A man holds up his phone in front of a burning residential building during a night of Russian missile and drone strikes in Kyiv
Kyiv (CNN) — At least 10 people were killed in a series of attacks on Kyiv overnight into Thursday, hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that intelligence data showed Russia was planning a “massive” strike.
Kyiv officials said Russia launched ballistic missiles and drones at Ukraine’s capital, with damage reported at more than 30 locations across the city.
Dozens of people were wounded in the attacks, including at least one child and several medical workers who were hurt in a strike on an ambulance substation, according to Ukrainian authorities.
“There have been very significant direct hits on residential buildings, where, unfortunately, the bodies of the deceased are being recovered from under the rubble,” said Tymur Tkachenko, head of the city’s military administration.
Russia’s Ministry of Defence said it military launched a “massive strike using high-precision, long-range weapons,” including drones, targeting military and energy infrastructure in Kyiv and the Dnipropetrovsk, Poltava, Cherkasy, Chernihiv regions.
But Ukraine alleged civilian infrastructure and residential buildings had been hit.
“We demand strong international responses. Not only words of condemnation but concrete action to stop Russian terror,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha said, warning that the death toll would likely rise.
Photos and videos from Reuters news agency showed fires burning on crumbling buildings, and rescuers combing through large piles of rubble and debris.
The strikes were presaged by a request from Zelensky Wednesday for residents to be “especially careful” and to heed air-raid sirens, warning that Russian President Vladimir Putin has been “preparing a massive strike against Ukraine for some time.”
“That is exactly the threat we are facing tonight,” Zelensky said in a post to X.
Residents packed into metro stations Wednesday evening, preparing for a long night of sirens, which began sounding around 8 p.m. local time and continued well into the morning.
More than four years on from Russia’s full scale invasion, Ukraine’s cities face near nightly attacks from Moscow’s drones and missiles. But Kyiv’s forces have also found ways to strike back at its much larger neighbor.
Ukraine has launched an unprecedented drone campaign against Russia in the past month, targeting energy infrastructure in long-range drone attacks that Zelensky has framed as a key strategy to force Moscow to end the war.
On a single night last week, Russia reported intercepting 660 drones across 12 regions – suggesting one of the largest Ukrainian attacks since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022.
Those attacks have penetrated deeper into Russia, bringing the realities of war to cities much further from the frontlines.
But Moscow’s damaging air assaults on Ukraine also keep coming.
Earlier in June, a Russian attack in the heart of Kyiv set fire to a prominent Ukrainian monastery complex, the UNESCO-listed Kyiv Pechersk Lavra.
Teele Rebane contributed reporting.
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