Heaviest Russian attack on Kyiv since the start of the war kills at least 27

Destruction in the three-million city

Damage was recorded throughout the entire metropolitan area. 130 buildings were damaged or destroyed, including multi-story residential buildings and a hotel. Some apartment buildings were completely destroyed. Damage was reported at more than 20 locations in the capital, said Zelensky, who cut short a visit to Ireland in order to return to Ukraine.

Searches for people continue amid the rubble, including a 15-year-old girl and her family, as Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko reported. "The parents were not found under the rubble," Klitschko wrote. Thousands of Kyiv residents sought refuge in air-raid shelters and subway stations. "We no longer have an apartment," reporters quoted residents as saying.

Casualty figures and search for the missing

Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko stated on Telegram that Russia had fired almost 500 drones and over 70 missiles at Ukraine. In the evening, the death toll in Kyiv rose to 27, according to authorities. According to the capital's military governor, Tymur Tkachenko, at least 27 people were killed and a further 91 were injured. The police had previously spoken of 100 injured. 70 people had to be hospitalized, Mayor Klitschko announced in the morning.

According to authorities, not only Kyiv but also the regions around the cities of Dnipro, Oleksandriya, Zaporizhzhia and Nikopol in the east of the country were affected. Military governor Oleh Kiper reported on Telegram that 13 more people had been injured.

Russia's account and threats of retaliation

Despite the high number of civilian casualties, the Russian military once again spoke of strikes "with high-precision weapons" against military targets. Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov said, according to the news agency Tass, that the attack had targeted only "military or military-related objects." Moscow had in turn described the attacks as retaliation for previous strikes. Peskov said on Thursday: "Russia will continue to increase pressure on the regime in Kyiv in order to achieve its stated goals."

Ukraine had recently targeted energy infrastructure in Russia, which ultimately led to fuel shortages there. From the region in the east of the country occupied by Russia, Ukrainian drone attacks with one fatality and several injured were reported in the evening. Ukrainian President Zelensky announced retaliation for the Russian major attack on Kyiv.

Zelensky's response and demands

At one of the impact sites in the capital, Zelensky told journalists: "We are in favor of a just peace, a just end to the war, and as long as that does not exist, in favor of just responses." He had already warned on Wednesday of an imminent Russian "major attack." On the sidelines of a ceremony marking the change of the EU Council Presidency in Dublin, he stated that every one to two weeks there were attacks with hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles – and "today there is the unpleasant information about the next preparation of such a massive Russian attack."

Zelensky wrote on social networks: "The supply of air defense for Ukraine has an absolute and critical priority." Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov had already approached almost 40 partner countries of Ukraine and requested the delivery of Patriot missiles from their stocks as early as this month in exchange for agreed future deliveries.

International reactions and calls for sanctions

EU Foreign Policy Chief Kallas announced further sanctions in response to the attacks: "Today, in response to the attacks, I will propose sanctioning further entities and companies that support the Russian military-industrial complex," she said. She wrote on X: "The more Moscow attacks civilians, the more sanctions must be imposed."

Kyiv resident Iryna Plekhova wrote on Facebook under a photo of a half-destroyed apartment building: "The attack is still ongoing." Another resident was quoted as saying: "Part of the building was literally razed to the ground."

Biologist Yuriy Danylovych told the Reuters news agency about a destroyed research building: "This is a catastrophe for medical and biological science in Ukraine."

Military situation and overall cost of the war

In the war in Ukraine, which has been ongoing for more than four years, more than two million soldiers have been killed, wounded or reported missing, according to a study by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington. "The combined Russian and Ukrainian losses have exceeded two million," the study states.

Retired Major General Erhard Bühler stated on the podcast "Was tun, Herr General?" ("What to Do, General?") that Ukrainian attacks on the Russian oil industry and logistics were exacerbating the fuel crisis in Russia. Fuel is now becoming scarce in 78 Russian regions. The "Wall Street Journal" documented how Ukrainian units are also fed high-resolution satellite images directly to end devices at the front.

This news was broadcast on 03.07.2026 on the program Deutschlandfunk.