For second time in 4 days, Russia targets Kyiv with mass missile attack, killing at least 17
A garage cooperative burns near a suburban residential area after a Russian missile strike in Kyiv, Ukraine, on July 6, 2026. (Kostiantyn Liberov / Libkos / Getty Images)
on GoogleKey developments:
- At least 17 people have been killed and dozens of others injured in Kyiv and the surrounding oblast after a mass Russian missile and drone strike overnight
- Several residential buildings in the capital were hit
- The attack comes on the eve of a NATO summit in Turkey on July 7
- More than 600 residents are being evacuated from the town of Vyshneve after the attack "due to the threat of a second detonation"
- Kyiv has said a lack of Patriot air defense interceptors is severely hampering its ability to defend against Russian ballistic missiles
Russia launched waves of missiles and drones toward Kyiv overnight on July 6, killing at least 17 people and injuring dozens more, including five children, just hours after President Volodymyr Zelensky warned of yet another large-scale attack targeting the capital.
Tymur Tkachenko, head of the Kyiv City Military Administration, reported that a residential building was partially destroyed between the 5th and 9th floors in the Podilskyi district of the city. Photos and videos posted to social media show part of the facade of the building caved in following a missile strike.
"Our apartment is on the seventh floor. The emergency services got us out because the door was jammed," 45-year-old Lesia Yuskova told the Kyiv Independent from the scene of the attack. "One person is still missing. All the walls have shifted. Maybe we'll be able to take at least something from the apartment."
Yuskova said a friend who lived on the ninth floor had gone to stay with her mother the previous day. "Her apartment is gone now," she said.
Additional residential multi-story buildings were also struck in the Podilskyi, Obolonskyi, and Holosiivskyi districts, and three other apartment buildings were targeted in the Darnytskyi district.
Ukraine's Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVS) said five people had been killed and 21 others injured in the town of Vyshneve around 2 kilometers (1.6 miles) southwest of Kyiv.
More than 600 people had been evacuated from the town due to what Minister of Internal Affairs Ihor Klymenko said was the "threat of a second detonation." He did not provide further details.
More than 400 rescuers and police officers were involved in the emergency response, Zelensky said.
Ukraine's Air Force said Russia launched a combined attack involving 23 ballistic missiles, 39 cruise missiles, six hypersonic Zircon missiles, and 351 attack and decoy drones overnight, with Kyiv as the primary target. Air defenses shot down 37 missiles and 326 drones, while 29 ballistic missiles and 18 drones struck 34 locations across the country.
Unlike during previous attacks, 26-year-old Kyiv resident Olha Pavlenko said she chose to spend the night in a shelter.
"I used to stay in my apartment during the missile attacks for almost five years," Pavlenko, a literature program manager at Ukrainian Institute, told the Kyiv Independent. "But the attacks are getting stronger and bigger."
Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said Russia was increasingly relying on ballistic missiles to strike residential areas, as it seeks to exploit Ukraine's shortage of Patriot interceptor missiles. He said Moscow is launching ballistic missiles "on a scale never seen before", adding that the world is producing fewer Patriot interceptors each month than Russia fires at Ukraine over the same period.
Responding to the attack, Zelensky said Ukrainian forces had achieved "good results" in intercepting Russian drones and cruise missiles but remained unable to stop the ballistic missiles because of the shortage of Patriot interceptor missiles.
He urged the U.S. and European allies to leave the upcoming NATO summit in Ankara with "strong decisions" on strengthening Ukraine's air defenses, saying that until Patriot missiles sitting in the allied stockpiles "only encourage Russia to keep 'defeating' residential buildings."
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko further reported that the attack destroyed "non-residential buildings" in the Podilskyi and Obolonskyi districts, as well as several garages, a warehouse. "Non-residential" buildings were also damaged in the Holosiivskyi and Darnytskyi districts.
Kalashnyk said homes, businesses, and "other civilian infrastructure facilities" have been damaged in the communities of Bucha, Vyshhorod, and Brovary in Kyiv Oblast.
It follows one of the deadliest Russian attacks on Kyiv just four days earlier on July 2, which killed 31 people and injured more than 100 others.
Several explosions were reported around 1:40 a.m. local time, and then again during subsequent waves of strikes at 2:10 a.m., and 3:15 a.m., according to Kyiv Independent journalists on the ground and local media outlets.
Thousands of Kyiv residents headed to underground metro stations for shelter, as Ukraine's Air Force warned of several dozen missile flying towards Kyiv.
Local residents also reported power outages in the Sofiivska Borshchahivka neighborhood of Kyiv Oblast, a suburb immediately west of the capital.
The attack also damaged facilities operated by DTEK, Ukraine's largest private energy company, including company buildings and premises, destroyed some office equipment, and damaged repair vehicles with shrapnel, the company said. No employees were injured, and Kyiv's power grid remained stable despite the damage.
DTEK said the hardest-hit communities were the towns of Boyarka and Vyshneve in Kyiv Oblast, which remained without electricity following the strikes.
Air raid alerts were issued for almost all of Ukraine's regions overnight. In response to the missile launches, Poland's Air Force said it scrambled fighter jets to preventively protect the country's own airspace.
The all-clear was given in Kyiv just after 5 a.m., but air raid sirens sounded again around 8 a.m. due to Russian attack drones over the capital.
Despite the escalation in mass attacks, Kyiv residents said they have no plans to leave the city.
"Honestly, I got so used to it that I'm just tired because I slept badly, but life continues," said Alina Kuvshynova, a Kyiv-based product designer originally from Donetsk. "I don't plan on leaving."
Zelensky warned during his evening address that Russia was preparing for another large-scale attack against Ukraine, urging civilians to heed air raid alerts and calling on allies to accelerate deliveries of Patriot air defense missiles.
"Intelligence once again indicates that the Russians are preparing a new massive strike," Zelensky said. "This is typical of Putin: right after America's Independence Day and before the NATO Summit in Ankara."
The attack comes days before Zelensky is scheduled to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Turkey on July 8 as part of a renewed effort to end Russia's war against Ukraine.
The planned meeting will come days after Trump held a nearly 90-minute phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, during which the U.S. president offered to help end the war in Ukraine, according to Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov.
In the days prior to the call, Putin pledged to continue Moscow's campaign of large-scale missile and drone strikes against Ukrainian cities.
Some Kyiv residents see the increasingly frequent large-scale attacks as an attempt to terrorize civilians as Russia fails to achieve its objectives on the battlefield.
"They just want us to be scared. They want to break us, to make the nation feel weak and powerless," Olha Pavlenko told the Kyiv Independent. "They understand they cannot do this, so they just keep targeting civilians."
