Russian strikes kill at least 10 in Kyiv

Russia pounded Kyiv with missiles and drones early Monday, killing at least 10 people in the Ukrainian capital and damaging residential buildings in the second major assault on the city in less than a week, Ukrainian authorities said.

At least 46 people were injured in Kyiv, according to Tymur Tkachenko, head of the city’s military administration. Another person was killed and 10 others were injured in districts surrounding the capital, authorities said, according to Al Jazeera.

Emergency crews searched through rubble at residential high-rises hit in two locations, with officials warning that the toll could rise. A residential building in the Podilskyi district partially collapsed, Tkachenko said, while several multistory buildings were damaged in the Darnytsia district, where people were believed to be trapped under debris.

“These are residential buildings. Places where people slept and lived their ordinary lives,” Tkachenko wrote on Telegram.

Ukraine’s military said Russia fired 68 missiles and 351 drones overnight, Al Jazeera reported. The attack included waves of ballistic and cruise missiles as well as drones, and explosions echoed across Kyiv as residents took shelter in metro stations. The Kyiv Independent reported that the first explosions were heard at about 1:40 a.m. local time, followed by additional strikes at 2:10 a.m. and 3:15 a.m., as air raid sirens sounded across Ukraine.

Thousands of residents fled to underground shelters, according to the Kyiv Independent. At least 15 buildings were damaged in Kyiv, including four in the historic Podilskyi district, Tkachenko said.

“Unfortunately, this is not the final information,” Tkachenko told reporters as the death toll in Kyiv rose from seven to nine earlier Monday.

The barrage came hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that Russia was preparing another large-scale attack ahead of a NATO summit in Turkiye this week. Zelenskyy is due to meet U.S. President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the summit, which begins Tuesday, Al Jazeera reported.

“Intelligence once again indicates that the Russians are preparing a new massive strike,” Zelenskyy said in his Sunday night address, according to the Kyiv Independent. “This is typical of Putin: right after America’s Independence Day and before the NATO summit in Ankara.”

Zelenskyy also renewed appeals for Western partners to strengthen Ukraine’s air defenses, particularly by supplying more Patriot missiles. In a Telegram post late Sunday, he said failure to replenish those defenses only emboldens Russia to prolong its four-year war.

Monday’s attack followed a combined Russian strike late last week that killed at least 31 people in Kyiv. Al Jazeera reported that those strikes were the deadliest to hit the Ukrainian capital this year.

Both Russia and Ukraine have recently expanded their use of long-range weapons, including missiles, Al Jazeera reported, describing it as a new front in the war. Ukraine has focused attacks on Russian energy facilities to weaken Moscow’s war effort.

Mikhail Razvozhayev, the governor of Russian-controlled Sevastopol in Crimea, said Monday that a Ukrainian strike near the Black Sea port city had knocked out electricity supplies.

“Following an enemy attack on energy infrastructure near Sevastopol, our city was temporarily left without electricity,” Razvozhayev wrote on Telegram.