Russian Air Barrage on Kyiv Kills At Least 10

By Reuters July 2, 2026 Residents pass through debris at a site of a Russian missile and drone strikes in Kyiv on July 2, 2026. REUTERS / Alina Smutko Russian forces attacked the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on Thursday, killing at least 10 people and wounding more than 50, as drones and missiles struck residential buildings in what Russia said was retaliation for recent attacks on its civil infrastructure. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had earlier warned of a possible overnight attack and said he was cutting short his visit to Dublin for the start of Ireland's six-month term in the rotating presidency of the EU. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko, writing on Telegram, said 10 people were killed, while damage included six floors of an apartment building that had partially collapsed after a direct hit from a Russian projectile. Reuters video footage showed emergency services working through the rubble of what used to be a nine-story building as the sun was rising over Kyiv and as fires flared up around the city. Tymur Tkachenko, the head of the capital's ​military administration, said 56 people, including two children, were injured and three dozen locations across the city had been damaged in the attacks. "The enemy has once again deliberately targeted residential neighbourhoods and killed civilians. We have sustained extensive damage and a significant number of casualties, including children," he wrote on Telegram. In an earlier post, Klitschko said the injured included paramedics and drivers at an ambulance station, and that some people were still trapped inside damaged residential buildings. Pictures posted online showed a fire burning out of control at the top of a building on the central Shevchenko Boulevard, while elsewhere in the city, windows blew out and cars were destroyed. Multiple explosions were heard in Kyiv, a Reuters witness said, and authorities in the region surrounding the capital said on Telegram separately that there were also casualties there. People crowded into underground stations carrying children, belongings, tents and pets as air raid alerts were issued for most of Ukraine's territory overnight in Russia's deadliest attack on the country since mid-June. Neighboring Poland, a NATO and European Union member, briefly scrambled fighter jets on Thursday as a preventive measure before calling those back and saying no airspace violation was recorded. Finland also briefly issued a temporary aviation restriction zone in the eastern Gulf of Finland before lifting it later, its defense forces said on X. Russia's Defense Ministry, in a Telegram post, said it targeted military and energy facilities, as well as airports in Kyiv and other locations. The ministry said the strikes were retaliation for Ukraine's attacks on Russian civil infrastructure, without elaborating. Russia downed 327 drones overnight, the ministry said. This number includes drones shot down over Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine. Elsewhere in Russia, one person was killed, four people were wounded and an industrial facility was damaged in a drone attack on the Nizhny Novgorod region, Governor Gleb Nikitin said on Thursday. The region is home to the NORSI oil refinery, one of Russia's largest. Governor Alexander Drozdenko of Russia's northwestern Leningrad region, where large export and oil refining facilities are located, said on Telegram that Russian forces brought down seven drones on Thursday. In the Belgorod region bordering Ukraine, a man was killed and his wife injured after a drone hit their home, local authorities said separately on Telegram. 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