KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia launched hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles against Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities overnight, killing at least 18 civilians and wounding more than 100 others, authorities said Tuesday.The damage trapped some people under the rubble of apartment buildings. Emergency crews digging through the wreckage pulled out the body of a 3-year-old child and the bodies of a mother and her 8-year-old son in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro, officials said.The attack stretched from night into day and the boom of explosions reverberated across cities. Officials said that 12 people were killed in Dnipro and six in Kyiv.Kyiv residents had been on edge for days after Russia warned that a massive aerial attack was coming and warned foreign diplomats to leave the Ukrainian capital. None appeared to heed the call.President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appealed for more U.S. and European support, describing the massive overnight attack as “an explicit statement by Russia: If Ukraine is not protected from ballistic missiles and other missile strikes, those strikes will continue.”Russian President Vladimir Putin has stepped up Moscow’s aerial campaign against Ukraine, with Russian forces recently launching a powerful hypersonic Oreshnik ballistic missile for only the third time in the four-year war.The Russian strategy seeks to take advantage of Ukraine’s shortage of U.S.-made Patriot air defense missiles, with international stocks depleted by the Iran war. That has left civilians especially vulnerable to the Russian ballistic missile barrages, even as air defenses stop most of the attack drones.A rescue worker climbs to the roof of a car dealership damaged after a Russian strike on Kyiv, Ukraine, on June 2, 2026. Russia attacked Ukraine with a barrage of missiles and drones overnight, killing at least 11 people, injuring dozens and trapping others, authorities said.AP Photo/Evgeniy MaloletkaKyiv Mother And Daughter Shelter In A Bath TubAt least 64 people were wounded in the capital, emergency services said. Kyiv resident Iryna Salikova, 37, spent the night lying in a bath tub for protection with her 3-year-old daughter, as blasts reverberated across the city.“Our window was broken. A cobblestone flew into the children’s room,” Salikova said, though they weren’t hurt. “Thank God we’re alive. Today we’re alive, today we’re lucky.”Russia unleashed 73 missiles and 656 drones across Ukraine, according to the country’s air force, with the main targets including Kyiv, the central city of Dnipro, and the eastern cities of Poltava, Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia. Ukrainian air defense forces destroyed or suppressed 40 missiles and 602 drones.In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Services on June 2, 2026, a rescue worker puts out a fire of a storage facility after a Russian strike on Kharkiv region, Ukraine.Ukrainian Emergency Service via APPutin Seeks To Change The Narrative Of The WarPutin is keen to generate some positive news from the conflict that began with Russia’s February 2022 invasion of its neighbor and hasn’t gone according to plan.Western officials and analysts say Ukrainian drones are pinning down Russian troops on the front line, choking Russian supply lines in occupied regions of Ukraine and disrupting oil facilities deep inside Russia that provide vital revenue for Moscow. That has made the war, which Moscow refers to as a “special military operation,” more visible to Russians and increased pressure on Putin.U.S.-led peace efforts have fizzled out as the sides made no progress on key differences and after the Gulf and Middle East grabbed Washington’s attention. Zelenskyy accepted an unconditional ceasefire demanded by U.S. President Donald Trump but Putin refused.Russia’s Defense Ministry said in a statement that the military launched a “massive” strike with long-range precision weapons on military-industrial facilities in the Kyiv, Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Poltava, Khmelnytsk and Sumy regions.Putin signaled that Russia won’t let up its attacks. He said Tuesday that Ukraine’s May 22 drone attack on a college dormitory in Starobilsk in the Russia-controlled Luhansk region of Ukraine that killed 21 had given the war “a whole new dimension.”Ukraine said it hit a Russian drone pilot training center in Starobilsk.Man Thrown Out Of Kyiv Apartment By BlastHits of 30 ballistic missiles, three cruise missiles and 33 drones were recorded at at least 38 locations across Ukraine, according to regional authorities. Debris from destroyed drones fell on 15 locations, the air force said.At least four people were killed in Kyiv and 63 people were injured, including three children, Ukraine’s state emergency service said. Residential buildings and other civilian infrastructure were damaged in eight Kyiv districts.In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Services on June 2, 2026, rescue workers carry an injured woman on a stretcher from the rubble of a residential building destroyed after a Russian strike on Dnipropetrovsk region, Ukraine.Ukrainian Emergency Service via APOlena Dniprovska, 65, and her husband Yevhen, 64, were wounded in their apartment in Kyiv’s Podilskyi district during the attack.“I went out into the corridor with the phone, and before I understood what happened, everything fell on my head, the glass, and the door blew off,” said Dniprovska, dried blood streaked across her face and a bandage wrapped around her chin. “I ran out into the front door and started calling my husband from the room, but he was also blown out by the blast wave.”“Now I have nowhere to live, the apartment is completely destroyed, no doors, no windows, no balcony. You can step straight from the room out onto the street,” she said.In Kharkiv, at least 14 people were wounded and residential homes, garages and cars were damaged. People were also trapped beneath the rubble of a four-story apartment block.___AP reporters Illia Novikov in Kyiv and Barry Hatton in Lisbon, Portugal, contributed to this story.___Follow the AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
Russian Attack Kills At Least 18 In Ukraine, Some Of Them Children Buried Under Rubble
Kyiv residents had been on edge for days after Russia warned that a massive aerial attack was coming and warned foreign diplomats to leave.












