Russia missiles hit Kyiv, exposing Ukraine air defence gaps

Kyiv,UPDATED: Jul 6, 2026 17:48 IST

Russia launched waves of missiles and drones at Ukraine early on Monday, killing at least 18 people and injuring at least 60, according to Ukrainian authorities. The attack, mainly aimed at Kyiv, exposed gaps in Ukraine's air defences as all the ballistic missiles fired by Russia hit their targets.

The strikes came days after another Russian attack killed 31 people in Kyiv, the deadliest assault on the capital this year. Ahead of a NATO summit in Ankara, Turkiye, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the latest attack showed Ukraine urgently needs more Patriot interceptor missiles from its allies.

Twelve people were killed in Kyiv, local officials said, while another six died in the wider Kyiv region, according to regional head Mykola Kalashnyk. Emergency workers searched through rubble at residential high-rises in two parts of the capital that suffered direct hits.

Ukraine's air force said Russia fired 351 drones and 68 missiles overnight, mostly targeting Kyiv, and said all 29 ballistic missiles struck their targets. Air force spokesman Yurii Ihnat said on national television, "To intercept ballistics, we need the means for interception. Russians are certainly using the fact that there is a serious deficit of interceptor missiles now, in Ukraine and the world."

On X, Zelenskyy said Ukrainian forces had performed well against drones and cruise missiles but not against Russian ballistic missiles because of a shortage of interceptors. He urged US and European partners to take strong decisions at the NATO summit. "As long as Patriot missiles remain in our allies' stockpiles, Russia is only encouraged to keep vanquishing residential buildings. The United States and Europe have enough strength to stop this terror," he said.

Ukraine's Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said Russia was deliberately increasing ballistic missile attacks on a scale not seen before, taking advantage of the shortage of Patriot interceptors. "Fewer such missiles are produced worldwide each month than the enemy fires at Ukraine in that same period," he said.

Russia's Defence Ministry said the attack targeted weapons factories in Kyiv, including facilities it claimed produced drones, sea drones, armoured vehicles and missiles, as well as sites repairing air defence systems and fuel and energy infrastructure in the city and surrounding region. The claims could not be independently verified. Russia has repeatedly hit civilian areas in its air attacks on Ukraine. More than 16,000 Ukrainian civilians have been killed in the war, according to the United Nations.

"These are residential buildings. Places where people slept and lived their ordinary lives," Tymur Tkachenko, head of Kyiv's Military Administration, said on Telegram. He said a residential building in the Podilskyi district partially collapsed, while several multi-storey buildings in the Darnytsia district were damaged and people were believed to be trapped under the rubble. In Kyiv's suburb of Vyshneve, around 600 residents were evacuated because of the risk of unexploded munitions, Ukraine's Emergency Service said.

Khrystyna Piatetska, 20, from Kyiv's Darnytskyi district, said she began screaming after the first strike, which was followed by a second blast that blew out the windows in her apartment building. She said the lights went out, the smell of burning filled the air and the stairwell was thick with smoke. "When we were leaving the building, bodies were lying there," Piatetska said. "When we got downstairs, cars started exploding, and we came out from under the rubble straight into the fire."

Halina Ivanivna, 61, said she woke up to the first strike at around 2 am and moments later her apartment building began collapsing around her. "Everything was falling down," she said, adding that water poured through the building while smoke filled the air and emergency crews evacuated residents. She said a second strike hit about five minutes after the first.

Meanwhile, an energy provider in Russia-occupied Crimea reported a blackout across the peninsula due to what it called "external impact". Sevastopol's Moscow-appointed head, Mikhail Razvozhayev, said Ukrainian attacks cut power supplies to the city early on Monday, though power was later restored using backup equipment. In Russia's Yaroslavl region, Governor Mikhail Yavrayev said two people were wounded in a Ukrainian drone attack on the city of Yaroslavl and that more than 70 drones were downed. He did not say if any facilities were damaged, but Astra reported that an oil refinery was targeted and caught fire. Russia's Defence Ministry said its air defences downed 519 Ukrainian drones overnight.

The latest round of attacks underlined the pressure on Ukraine's air defences, especially against ballistic missiles, even as fighting and long-range strikes continue on both sides. The strikes left deaths and destruction in and around Kyiv, while Ukrainian attacks also caused disruption in occupied Crimea and inside Russia.

With PTI Inputs

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