'Nearly everything was aimed at Lutsk' — Russia launches record 741 drones, missiles, targeting western Ukraine
Editor's note: This is a breaking story and is being updated.
Russia launched what seems to be its largest missile and drone attack against multiple Ukrainian cities overnight on July 9, with the far-western city of Lutsk coming under the heaviest attack of the war.
Late spring and early summer in Ukraine have been marked by disturbingly frequent mass attacks on civilian targets, with Russia regularly terrorizing cities with ballistic and cruise missiles alongside record-breaking numbers of kamikaze drones.
Explosions rocked Kyiv at around midnight on July 9, according to Kyiv Independent journalists on the ground. Mayor Vitali Klitschko announced that Russian drones were attacking the city center and that air defenses were shooting down targets.
Ukraine's Air Force reported that dozens of Russian attack drones and ballistic missiles were also targeting Ukraine's far-west regions, with alerts of overhead drones approaching the western cities of Lutsk, Lviv, Khmelnytskyi, and Ternopil.
Russia launched what seems to be the most extensive aerial attack against Ukraine during the full-scale war. Russian forces deployed 728 Shahed-type attack drones and decoys, as well as seven Kh-101 or Iskander-K cruise missiles and six Kinzhal missiles, the Air Force reported.
Ukrainian air defenses shot down 296 drones and all seven cruise missiles, while 415 drones disappeared from radars, according to the statement.
"Most of the targets were shot down. Our interceptor drones were used – dozens of (Russian) targets were downed, and we are scaling up this technology," President Volodymyr Zelensky said on X.
Explosions were heard in the city of Lutsk in western Volyn Oblast just before 4 a.m. local time, Suspilne reported, amid warning of drones and missiles overhead. The city was one of the hardest hit during the attack.
"It was very loud," 30-year-old Lutsk resident Yaroslava Savosh-Davydova, told the Kyiv Independent, Adding: "The air defense was working, mobile fire teams were working, and the Shahed (drone) was howling."
"I reassured myself that if I heard this sound above my head, it means that the beast has flown on and we are alive," she added.
Volyn Oblast Governor Ivan Rudnytskyi said the region had approximately 50 drones and five missiles present in the airspace overnight, adding that "nearly everything was aimed at Lutsk."
Lutsk Mayor Ihor Polishchuk said that a fire damaged an "industrial site" as well as a garage, in what he called the "most massive Russian attack" on the city since the start of full-scale war.
Elsewhere in the region, the roof of a home in Khmelnytskyi Oblast caught fire, the regional military administration said.
At least one person was injured amid the attack, with a woman sustaining a chest fracture in the city of Brovary in Kyiv Oblast, the regional military administration reported.
Ukraine's Air Force warned late on July 8 that Russia had launched MiG-31 aircraft from the Savasleyka airfield in Nizhny Novgorod, putting the entire country under an hours-long active missile threat. Swarms of drones were also heading towards multiple cities in Ukraine, the military said.
The Polish Air Force said it scrambled fighter jets amid the attack to protect Poland's airspace. The air raid alerts were lifted in western Ukraine around 6:15 a.m. local time, after nearly seven hours of warnings from the Air Force.
Explosions were also reported in communities closer to the front line, including Dnipro, Sumy, as well as over Zaporizhzhia Oblast.
Russian ballistic missiles and kamikaze drones have targeted Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities with renewed ferocity in recent weeks, killing dozens of civilians and injuring hundreds more.
The renewed attacks on Ukraine come as U.S. President Donald Trump has promised to send 10 Patriot interceptors to Ukraine, amid escalating tension between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"It's a horrible thing, and I'm not happy with President Putin at all," Trump said. "I'm disappointed frankly that President Putin hasn't stopped (the attacks)," Trump said on July 8. The comments come after the Pentagon halted air defense weapon shipments to Ukraine.
Zelensky stressed that the heaviest Russian attack of the war "comes precisely at a time when so many efforts have been made to achieve peace, to establish a ceasefire."
"This is yet another proof of the need for sanctions... Our partners know how to apply pressure in a way that will force Russia to think about ending the war, not launching new strikes."
