Russia's mass missile attacks on Ukraine 'must continue,' Putin says

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on July 3 that Moscow "must continue" its campaign of large-scale missile and drone strikes against Ukrainian cities.

Putin's comments come two days after Russia launched its largest attack on Kyiv of the entire full-scale war, killing nearly 30 people and injuring over 90.

During a visit to the auxiliary command post of Russia's Joint Group of Forces, Putin held a meeting with several top military commanders and members of the General Staff. He called for continued mass attacks on Ukraine, framing the strikes as attacks on military targets.

"In this regard, I note that massive, coordinated strikes against the infrastructure of Ukraine's military-industrial complex and the facilities supporting its operation must continue," Putin said.

In the overnight attack on July 1-2, Russia launched 74 missiles and 496 long-range drones, most of which targeted Kyiv. The aerial barrage included 28 ballistic missiles, a record number for a single attack on the capital.

Dozens of civilians, including first responders, were killed or wounded in the strike.

The attack caused the collapse of residential buildings, set fire to a historic hotel, and destroyed 800,000 books at the central warehouse Ukrainian publisher BookChef. Extensive damage to civilian infrastructure was reported across the city.

When briefing Putin on the state of the war on July 3, Valery Gerasimov,  chief of the Russian army's General Staff, mentioned none of this. According to Gerasimov, Russia "launched another massive strike using long-range precision-guided weapons and strike unmanned aerial vehicles against military-industrial complex facilities in Kyiv."

Putin, who showed up at the meeting in military uniform, called for the attacks to continue.

The Russian president also said that the "security zone" along the border must be expanded in response to Ukrainian attacks on Russia.

President Volodymyr Zelensky has accused Russia of resorting to a campaign of aerial terror in response to failures on the battlefield and domestic turmoil.

"Putin is losing this war," Zelensky said the day after the attack on Kyiv. "That's what's happening. He understands that the only thing he can do is intimidate people and simply kill civilians with missile strikes."