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Russian drones and missiles pummelled Ukraine overnight into Thursday, intensifying a brutal campaign aimed at overwhelming the country’s stretched air defences and destroying critical infrastructure.
The attack lasted nearly 10 hours and involved about 400 attack drones and 18 missiles, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The main target of the attack was Kyiv and the surrounding region, he said. Elsewhere in the country the regions of Chernihiv, Sumy, Poltava, Kirovohrad and Kharkiv were also struck.
“This is an obvious escalation of terror by Russia: hundreds of ‘Shaheds’ every night, constant strikes, massive attacks against Ukrainian cities,” Zelenskyy said, referencing the Iranian-designed suicide drones that have become a key weapon in the Russian army’s arsenal.
The barrage came a day after Russia launched its heaviest bombardment of the war so far and hours before Kyiv’s allies are preparing to meet in Rome on Thursday for a summit focused on funding Ukraine’s reconstruction needs.
Minister of internal affairs Ihor Klymenko said at least two people were killed in Kyiv on Thursday: a 68-year-old civilian and a 22-year-old police officer. The death toll could climb, he warned. Residential, medical, educational, commercial, and transport infrastructure in eight districts of the capital suffered damage, he said. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko reported 10 of 16 people injured in the attack had been hospitalised.
Russia’s defence ministry claimed it had carried out strikes on Ukrainian military facilities and an airfield in Kyiv and its broader region. “The strike’s goal was achieved. All designated objects were hit,” the ministry said in a statement carried by state media.
Ukrainian foreign minister Andriy Sybiha said the “massive” assault was more evidence that Russian President Vladimir Putin was set on continuing his full-scale war, now in its fourth year with no end in sight.
He said the Kremlin leader “rejects any peace efforts and diplomacy in favour of terror and war crimes”, imploring Kyiv’s western partners “to move quickly” on new sanctions “to defund Russia’s war machine”.
Zelenskyy said harsher sanctions and more “pressure on Russia” was needed for Russian leaders to “feel the consequences of their terror.”
“Our partners need to move faster in investing in weapons production and technological development” to help Kyiv build up its defences, he added.
In recent weeks, Zelenskyy has announced partnerships with US and European companies to jointly produce new arms, including interceptor drones to take down Russia’s attack drones. He said he intends to discuss additional funding for the production of Ukrainian air defence supplies with western partners at the summit in Italy on Thursday.
Explosions from the drones and missiles shook Kyiv residents from their beds and sent them rushing to the city’s numerous bomb shelters and underground metro stations. Flood lights mounted on the tops of skyscrapers illuminated the paths of Russia’s Iranian-designed drones for Ukrainian air defences units, which lit up the sky with anti-drone missiles and machine gun fire in their attempts to take down the enemy aircraft.
Russia launches the drones in swarms to try to overwhelm and confuse Ukraine’s air defences. The aircraft designs have been improved in recent months to fly higher and faster to better avoid air defences and to carry larger payloads for greater explosive impact. The characteristic whirr of their engines has become an ominous warning of the destruction to come.
Weary residents of the capital emerged from bomb shelters at dawn into a familiar and harrowing scene: acrid black smoke curling through the sky and flames clawing at the sides of apartment buildings. A neighbourhood grocery store, a popular chain restaurant and a wine shop were in ruins. First responders worked quickly to extinguish the fires and picked through debris in search of anyone caught under the rubble.
Combined with cruise and ballistic missiles, Russia’s recent drone attacks have killed dozens of civilians and wreaked havoc on residential areas, critical infrastructure and military facilities. Wednesday’s attack involved 728 strike drones and various decoys, seven cruise missiles and six ballistic missiles.
The air campaign is unfolding alongside a grinding summer ground offensive on the battlefields of eastern Ukraine, where Russian troops are advancing at their fastest pace since November.
The US last week abruptly halted the delivery of several weapons that are crucial for Ukraine’s defence against the type of Russian aerial attacks that Kyiv and other cities suffered overnight on Thursday.
That shipment included 30 Patriot interceptor missiles for the air-defence systems that help defend from Russia’s ballistic missiles, as well as 142 Hellfire missiles, 250 precision-guided GMLRS missiles, and 8,500 howitzer rounds.
The Pentagon said the pause was tied to a review of US military stockpiles launched over concerns that quantities of some weapons might be running low. On Wednesday, President Donald Trump said Washington had resumed some shipments of arms to Ukraine.
