WarAugust 1, 2026 2:05 am • 2 min readPhoto for illustrative purposes. Sunrise in central Kyiv, Ukraine. (Daniel Leal/AFP via Getty Images)Editor's Note: This is a developing story and is being updated.Smoke filled the sky over Kyiv and multiple explosions rocked the city overnight on Aug. 1, as Russia launched ballistic missiles at the capital.A rapid succession of "very loud" explosions rattled Kyiv beginning at approximately 1:33 a.m. local time, according to Kyiv Independent journalists on the ground. At around the same time the blasts shook the city, Ukraine's Air Force warned that multiple ballistic missiles were heading toward Kyiv.Less than a half hour later, Kyiv Independent journalists reported another round of explosions. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko urged residents to take shelter, saying that Russian ballistic missiles were attacking the city. The bombardment marks Russia's second large-scale attack against Ukraine in 48 hours. Overnight on July 30, Russia hit multiple cities in the country, including far-western Lviv, with drones and missiles, killing at least eight people and injuring over 50 others. The mass attack triggered air raid alerts in eastern Poland after a Russian missile fell into a field in the Lublin region. Russian has targeted Ukraine's capital with ballistic missile barrages throughout spring and summer 2026. Moscow's new tactic in its full-scale war entails overwhelming the country's strained air defenses, inflicting maximum damage on residential neighborhoods and cultural sites.