Russia launched a major missile and drone attack on the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, early on July 6, with reports of residents being trapped inside a damaged building near the city center and at least three people killed.
More than 10 explosions were heard in the early morning hours, according to AFP journalists on the scene, with witnesses reporting Ukrainian air defenses in action against the incoming projectiles.
“The enemy is hitting with ballistic missiles,” Tymur Tkachenko, head of Kyiv’s military administration, wrote on Telegram. “Please stay in shelters.”
“We are working to clarify information about the victims” of the attacks, he added. He later said that at least three people had been killed and seven injured.
The attack comes two days after US President Donald Trump held separate phone conversations with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russia’s Vladimir Putin, pressing Washington’s effort to position itself as the key mediator in a conflict.
The strikes also come just ahead of a NATO summit set for Ankara, where Zelenskyy is scheduled to meet with Trump on the sidelines of the event as he seeks to keep the US engaged in supporting his country in its battle against Russia’s full-scale invasion, launched in February 2022.
Zelenskyy Warns Of Attack
On July 5, Zelenskiy warned that Ukrainian intelligence indicated Russia was preparing a new massive strike.
"This is typical of Putin: Right after America's Independence Day and before the NATO Summit in Ankara. Russia wants to bring more evil and kill people," Zelensky wrote in a Facebook post.
"Any delay with missiles for our air defense -- missiles for Patriots [air defense systems] -- means the loss of lives, and it encourages Russia to continue the war," he wrote.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko wrote on Telegram that a residential building had been struck in the city’s Podil district.
"People are trapped on the seventh to ninth floors," he wrote, adding that debris had fallen on a second residential building in the same area.
Russia has stepped up its attacks on Ukrainian civilian areas in recent weeks as the peace process has stalled, with special emphasis on the capital.
Ukrainian officials said at least 30 people were killed and scores of others wounded in the large-scale attack on Kyiv on July 2, which caused fires and extensive damage to civilian infrastructure and residential buildings across several districts.
The scale of that assault drew swift condemnation from lawmakers in Washington.
Republican Joe Wilson of South Carolina, a longtime backer of US support for Ukraine, called the strikes further proof that the Kremlin is faltering militarily.
"This horrible war crime is yet more evidence that Russia is badly losing its war," Wilson told RFE/RL. "The USA and its allies should do even more of what it's doing. The strategy is working. Russia is losing."
Russia denies that it targets civilian areas despite widespread evidence of such attacks.
Sevastopol Blackout
Meanwhile, Sevastopol, a city of some 500,000 people in Crimea -- Ukraine’s Black Sea peninsula that Russia illegally annexed in 2014 -- was left without electricity on July 6 after a Ukrainian attack on energy infrastructure, Kremlin-installed officials said.
“As a result of an enemy attack on energy infrastructure outside Sevastopol, our city was temporarily left without power supply,” Mikhail Razvozhayev, the governor appointed by Moscow, wrote on Telegram.
A drone campaign by Ukraine has led to rolling blackouts and widespread fuel shortages as well as soaring black market prices on the peninsula. Kyiv has launched an effort to isolate Crimea, targeting fuel trucks, bridges, and other infrastructure sites, in an effort to reverse the illegal annexation.
Russia-installed authorities in Crimea have suspended fuel sales to private individuals and businesses amid a severe fuel shortage, and residents are reporting empty shelves in grocery stores and purchase limits on a number of basic goods.
