Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy blamed delays in allied air defence deliveries, saying, "If our partners had delivered on their promises in a timely manner, we could have saved more homes and lives today."
Rescuers work at the site of an apartment building damaged during a Russian missile and drone strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine Jul 2, 2026. (Photo: REUTERS/Viacheslav Ratynskyi)
03 Jul 2026 01:46AM
KYIV: Russia launched hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles at Ukraine's capital Kyiv in the early hours on Thursday (Jul 2), killing at least 21 people, wounding scores more and damaging around 130 buildings in one of the biggest attacks of the war.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. Huge columns of smoke filled the skyline.The attack was the deadliest in Kyiv since at least May, and the wide spread of destruction across the breadth of the capital had little precedent even in a war now in its fifth year.President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who cut short his visit to Ireland and rushed home, visited a site on the city's left bank where a nine-storey residential building was half destroyed. He blamed the destruction in part on a failure of allies to deliver promised air defences.
