![\"Smoke](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/AFP__20260702__B8YR7CQ__v1__HighRes__UkraineRussiaConflictWar-1782956877.jpg\")
Smoke rises during a Russian missile strike on the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, on Thursday morning, setting off fires and causing casualties [Sergei Supinsky\/AFP]<\/p>\nAt least eight dead and dozens injured as Ukraine\u2019s forces defend against ballistic missiles, drones targeting capital city.<\/p>\n
By Al Jazeera, AFP, Reuters<\/p>\n
Published On 2 Jul 20262 Jul 2026<\/p>\n
At least eight people have been killed and dozens injured in a Russian missile and drone attack on Ukraine\u2019s capital, Kyiv, which came just hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned of an impending \u201cmassive\u201d attack by Moscow.<\/p>\n
Tymur Tkachenko, head of Kyiv\u2019s military administration, said eight people died in the overnight and early morning attacks on Thursday that targeted about three dozen locations across the city.<\/p>\n
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Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko, writing on Telegram, said that 34 people were also injured.<\/p>\n
\u201cKyiv is under attack from ballistic missiles and UAVs,\u201d Klitschko wrote earlier, using the acronym for unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones.<\/p>\n
Klitschko also reported people trapped \u2060in a damaged nine-storey residential building and the collapse of a large part of a high-rise apartment building that sustained a direct strike.<\/p>\n
Journalists with the AFP news agency in the central and eastern districts of Kyiv reported hearing more than a dozen explosions as Ukraine\u2019s Air Force warned that ballistic missiles were approaching the city.<\/p>\n
Smoke rises during a Russian missile strike on the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, on Thursday morning, setting off fires and causing casualties [Sergei Supinsky\/AFP]<\/p>\n
Pictures \u2060shared on unofficial Telegram channels showed city residents crowding into underground stations to shelter from the Russian strikes.<\/p>\n
In the streets, residents were seen making their way to the shelters, carrying sleeping mats under their arms, according to AFP.<\/p>\n
Zelenskyy issues warning before Russian attack<\/p>\n
The deadly strikes on Kyiv came just hours after Zelenskyy said he was cutting a visit to Ireland short, warning of an imminent \u201cmassive Russian strike\u201d and urging Ukrainians to take shelter.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday, we have information about another massive Russian strike; we have relevant intelligence data,\u201d Zelenskyy said during a joint news conference in Dublin with Irish Taoiseach Micheal Martin on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
In a post on X, Zelenskyy said: \u201cImmediately after this conversation, I am returning to Ukraine\u201d.<\/p>\n
He called on citizens to be \u201cespecially careful\u201d and \u201cstay safe and protect your families and children\u201d by heeding air raid alerts.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know that [Russian President Vladimir] Putin has been preparing a massive strike against Ukraine for some time. That is exactly the threat we are facing tonight,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Zelenskyy also accused Russia of \u201ccompletely refusing to end the war\u201d it launched in February 2022, despite Ukrainian efforts through \u201call possible official and unofficial channels\u201d to convey readiness for \u201cmeetings and meaningful negotiations\u201d.<\/p>\n
Putin \u201csees only further aggression against Ukraine and against other neighbours and Europe as a whole\u201d, Zelenskyy said.<\/p>\n
Amid the attacks on Ukraine, neighbouring Poland, a NATO and European Union member, briefly scrambled fighter jets on \u2060Thursday as a preventive measure before calling them back, saying no airspace violation was recorded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At least eight dead and dozens injured as Ukraine\u2019s forces defend against ballistic missiles, drones targeting capital city.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":48038,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[188,4061,591,498,8,9,790,349,7,536,804,2073],"class_list":["post-48037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-top-stories","tag-conflict","tag-drone-strikes","tag-europe","tag-government","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-russia","tag-russia-ukraine-war","tag-top-stories","tag-ukraine","tag-vladimir-putin","tag-weapons"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@news\/116848503323532451","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48037\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}