Russia launched a massive overnight strike on Kyiv using ballistic and cruise missiles along with drones. All districts of the Ukrainian capital sustained damage. By the morning of July 2, at least 13 people had been killed and more than 80 wounded.
A nine-story apartment building in the Desnianskyi district was destroyed, leaving people trapped inside. In the Darnytskyi district, a five-story apartment building was partially destroyed, and a second nine-story building was destroyed from the first through the sixth floors.
In the Shevchenkivskyi district, a building housing one of the emergency medical substations was damaged. Six medical workers were wounded — one of them critically — Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.
Ukrainian Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko reported more than 20 residential buildings damaged in the attack. Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said 20 residential buildings took direct hits and roughly a hundred more in Kyiv were damaged overall. Klitschko said the worst destruction was at a residential building in the Darnytskyi district, where part of the structure had been “literally demolished.”
NASA’s Fire Information for Resource Management System shows the largest fire from the overnight attack burning near a WOG fuel depot on Bohatyrska Street in the Obolonskyi district.
Ukraine’s State Emergency Service put the overnight death toll at 13, with more than 30 injured, in its latest figures. Klitschko reported 86 casualties, 70 of whom were hospitalized. July 3 has been declared a day of mourning in Kyiv.
The previous evening, Volodymyr Zelensky warned in his nightly address that Ukrainian intelligence had determined Russia was preparing another large-scale strike.
Ukraine’s Air Force said Russia fired 74 missiles and 496 drones of various types during the overnight attack, of which 48 missiles and 476 drones were shot down. Kyiv was the primary target. The Air Force identified the attack’s distinguishing feature as the simultaneous use of different types of air weapons from multiple directions, combined with a large number of ballistic missiles and jet-powered drones. Klitschko called it the most massive attack on Kyiv to date.
The independent Russian investigative outlet Agentstvo noted that this was the first large-scale Russian strike on Kyiv since Ukraine’s largest drone attacks on Moscow on June 16 and 18. The previous major strike on Kyiv came overnight on June 15, when Russian drones hit the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra.
Russia’s Defense Ministry announced on the morning of July 2 that Russian armed forces struck Kyiv in response to Ukraine’s “terrorist attacks.” The ministry claimed the strike hit defense industry facilities and energy infrastructure in Kyiv and the surrounding region, as well as military airfield infrastructure in the Dnipropetrovsk, Poltava, Cherkasy, Chernihiv, and Kyiv regions.
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