KYIV, Ukraine – Russia launched hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles at Ukraine’s capital Kyiv in the early hours on Thursday, July 2, tearing apart several residential buildings, killing at least 18 people and wounding scores.
Multiple explosions shook central Kyiv and reverberated across the capital throughout the night as thousands of residents rushed to bomb shelters and underground metro stations.
The attack caused the widest destruction in Kyiv so far this year, and was the deadliest since at least May, when 24 people were killed in a strike that brought down an apartment block.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who cut short a visit to Ireland to rush home, said damage had been reported at more than 20 sites across the capital.
“The main strike was directed at Kyiv,” he said. “Air defence supplies for Ukraine are an absolute and critical priority,” he said, urging Ukraine’s allies to maintain contributions to a fund to buy US weapons, including Patriot air defence missiles for Ukraine.
