'Nothing but terror and murder' — Russia pounds Kyiv with record overnight drone, missile attack, 2 dead, 26 injured
A view of damage after a massive drone and missile attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, on July 4, 2025. (Andre Luis Alves / Anadolu via Getty Images)
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Explosions rocked the city of Kyiv for more than seven hours overnight on July 4, as Russia launched a record missile and drone attack targeting the capital and other cities across Ukraine.
At least two people were killed, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said. The State Emergency Service reported that 26 others were injured
Tymur Tkachenko, head of the Kyiv City Military Administration, confirmed on July 4 that a body had been recovered during rescue operations. The following day, Klitschko said that a 25-year-old man who had been hospitalized in serious condition also died.
"Today’s attack was like the worst nightmare come to life," Kyiv resident Olha Vershynina told the Kyiv Independent at the site of damaged residential buildings in the capital's Solomianskyi district. "Because when the strike happened, the lights went out and glass came crashing down on my head.
"It was terrifying. Our entire building was shaking."
President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia launched a record 550 drones and missiles during the seven-hour barrage. Kyiv Independent journalists on the ground heard multiple rounds of explosions in the city beginning around 8 p.m. local time on July 3 and continuing into the early hours of July 4
The attack damaged apartment buildings, businesses, a school, a medical facility, railway lines, and other civilian infrastructure in multiple districts. Fires blazed across the city, making the air dangerous to breathe.
Tymur Tkachenko, head of the Kyiv City Military Administration, warned residents to close their windows due to dangerous levels of "combustion products" in the air.
"Russia, a terrorist country, has wreaked havoc," Tkachenko wrote on Telegram. "The Russians bring nothing but terror and murder. That is a fact."
Liliia Kuzmenko, 23-years-old and eight months pregnant, moved to Kyiv a month ago with her husband from the embattled city of Pokrovsk, Donetsk Oblast.
"The kind of explosions I heard here were unlike anything I heard in Pokrovsk. It’s just beyond words," she told the Kyiv Independent. "Fortunately, everything in our apartment is intact. But in others, the windows were blown out, and everything fell apart."
"Russia is once again demonstrating that it is not going to end the war and terror."
Ukraine's Air Force reported that Russia had launched a ballistic missile towards Kyiv at around 12:30 a.m, and then additional missiles around 2:30 a.m.
"This time was truly terrifying.," Maria Maznichenko, a pensioner who lives in Kyiv's Solomianskyi district. "The explosions kept coming. Shaheds drones were flying in every minute, like a swarm of bees — one after another. It was very frightening."
As officials reported real-time updates on damage and casualties amid the ongoing assault, Kyiv Independent reporters in the city said that smoke from explosions clogged the air even in neighborhoods far from the attack sites.
The massive assault came hours after a phone call between Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump, during which Putin reaffirmed that "Russia will continue to pursue its goals" in Ukraine despite calls for a ceasefire from the West.
"The first air raids in our cities and regions began yesterday almost simultaneously with the start of media discussions of President Trump's phone call with Putin," Zelensky said in a post on social media on July 4.
"This was one of the most large-scale air attacks – deliberately massive and cynical... Russia is once again demonstrating that it is not going to end the war and terror."
Tkachenko reported that an earlier drone strike damaged a residential building in the city's Obolon district, causing a fire to break out on the roof.
In the Sviatoshynskyi district, drone wreckage caused fires at storage facilities and hit the courtyard of a 16-story apartment building, Klitschko said. Vehicles in the area caught fire after the attack. Another fire broke out at a business in the district due to falling drone debris.
In the Dniprovskyi district, drone debris fell near a school and several residential buildings, Tkachenko reported.
Fires also broke out in the Solomianskyi district, Klitschko said. An administrative building was in flames after the attack, as were storage facilities and a garage. Debris damaged "non-residential buildings" in the area.
Klitschko reported another fire on the first floor of an 8-story residential building in the Shevchenkivskyi district, but said the building was not inhabited. Another fire broke out at a business in the same district.
A medical facility in the Holosiivskyi district was damaged in the attack, Klitschko said.
Ukrainian Railways (Ukrzaliznytsia) said that the attack damaged rail infrastructure in Kyiv and cautioned residents to expect delays due to diverted routes.
Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said that the consular section of Poland's embassy in Kyiv was damaged during Russia's attack on Kyiv. "I just spoke with Ambassador (Piotr) Lukasiewicz; everyone is safe and unharmed," Sikorski said.
He added that Ukraine urgently needs air defense systems.
Russia also targeted other regions of Ukraine with overnight attacks. Downed drones struck property and a vehicle in the city of Poltava, regional Governor Volodymyr Kohut reported. The strike injured two people.
Kyiv and other major Ukrainian cities have faced intensified drone and missile strikes in recent weeks, with Russia deploying Iranian-designed Shahed drones in record numbers.
Russia on June 17 launched one of its largest attacks against Kyiv since the start of the full-scale war, killing 28 people and injuring 134 others. Less than a week later, ballistic missiles and kamikaze drones assailed the city in another mass strike.
Ukrainian officials have warned that continued attacks are aimed at wearing down air defense systems and terrorizing civilians.
Despite Russia's escalating attacks and Ukraine's desperate need for air defense munitions, the U.S. has decided to halt shipments of Patriot missiles and other promised weapons to Kyiv, claiming it needs to bolster its own stockpiles.
