• Russia fires nearly 500 drones, 74 missiles in overnight barrage; claims ‘retaliatory’ strikes targeted military, energy infrastructure
• 85 wounded as apartment blocks ripped apart; Zelensky vows retaliation, blames allies for delayed support
• EU weighs fresh sanctions on Moscow after diplomatic building damaged

KYIV: Russia launched hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles at Ukraine’s capital Kyiv in the early hours of Thursday, killing at least 25 people, wounding at least 85 people and damaging around 130 buildings in the deadliest attack on the capital this year.

Multiple explosions shook central Kyiv and reverberated across the capital throughout the night as thousands of residents rushed to bomb shelters and underground metro stations. Huge columns of smoke filled the skyline.

Tymur Tkachenko, head of the capital’s military administration, said on Telegram that the death toll stood at 25 and was likely to rise as rescue teams worked through the night, sifting through rubble in search of trapped residents.

He said teams at one site in an eastern suburb on the capital’s left bank of the Dnipro River had recovered five bodies while eight residents were unaccounted for.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky vowed his forces would “definitely” retaliate for the overnight pummelling of the capital as he inspected the site of a partially destroyed apartment block.

In Moscow, the Kremlin vowed to further ramp up the pressure on Kyiv after the strike, sticking to its no-compromise rhetoric and framing the assault as retaliation for recent Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian soil.

The assault, described by Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko as the “enemy’s most massive attack on the capital”, sent some 52,000 people, including 4,500 children, packing into underground metro stations to shelter. Klitschko announced a day of mourning in the city for Friday.

Russia fired 496 drones and 74 missiles, including hard-to-intercept ballistic projectiles, according to Ukraine’s air force.

Air defences shot down 48 missiles and 476 drones. The widespread destruction damaged around 130 buildings, including the National Institute of Biochemistry and a Red Cross warehouse, where around $2 million worth of humanitarian aid was lost.

“Half the building has been destroyed. The roof is gone,” said Sabina Mambetova, a 32-year-old factory worker, standing outside the rubble of her home in the eastern Darnytskyi district. “I’ve been left without an apartment, alone with my child. I don’t know what to do now.”

Zelensky, who cut short a visit to Dublin citing intelligence reports of an impending strike, blamed the devastation in part on a failure of allies to deliver promised air defences. He urged the United States to grant licenses allowing Ukraine to manufacture Patriot air defence missiles domestically.

“If our partners had delivered on their promises in a timely manner, I think we could have saved more homes and lives today,” Zelensky said. “All we ask of our partners is simply to do what we’ve agreed on. We’re not even asking for more.”

The Russian Defence Ministry said its massive attack used long-range, high-precision weapons to hit military and energy facilities.

Moscow said the strikes were retaliation for Kyiv stepping up attacks on Russia’s domestic fuel supply, including an overnight strike on an oil refinery in the Nizhny Novgorod region.

The European Union’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, proposed new sanctions on Moscow, noting that a building hosting EU diplomats was also damaged in the strikes.

Published in Dawn, July 3rd, 2026