Russian strikes kill at least nine civilians in Kyiv overnight
At least nine people were killed and several were injured in an overnight Russian missile and drone attack in the Kyiv Oblast, local authorities and the BBC News reported.
In the latest barrage, 352 Russian drones and 16 missiles targeted Ukrainian territory, mostly in the Kyiv area, the Ukrainian air force reported.
Starting at 20:00 on June 22, Russian forces launched 368 aerial assets:
- 352 attack UAVs, including Shahed drones and decoy UAVs of various types, from the directions of Kursk, Shatalovo, Orel, Bryansk, Millerovo and Primorsko-Akhtarsk in Russia (up to 160 of them were Shahed drones);
- 11 Iskander-M/KN-23 ballistic missiles from the areas of Taganrog and Bryansk Oblast in Russia;
- Five Iskander-K cruise missiles from the area of Kursk, Russia.
In a social media post, Ihor Klymenko said residential areas, hospitals, and sports infrastructure had been damaged. He also reported that at one of the impact sites following a nighttime Russian military attack, signs indicate that a Russian missile directly hit a residential building, penetrating the structure down to the basement.
Many thousands of Kyiv residents were forced into the shelters in the early hours of Monday morning as drones flew overhead and explosions shook the city.
Direct hits by Russian aerial weapons were confirmed in six locations. Debris from downed targets fell in 25 different sites across Kyiv and Kyiv Oblast.
Later, the Kyiv City Prosecutor’s Office confirmed the information to “UP. Zhyttia” news outlet that in the Shevchenkivskyy District of Kyiv, the body of an 11-year-old girl has been recovered from under the rubble of a five-story building that was hit by the Russians. Earlier, rescuers had recovered the body of her 41-year-old mother.
Myroslav Durdynets, Head of the Division of the Department of Administrative Affairs at the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, reported that as a result of a Russian attack, a married couple was killed in Kyiv, leaving their only son, Kyrylo, an orphan.
According to Durdynets, the boy had recently finished the 9th grade at Olena Teliha School No. 97. He was not harmed, as he was with his grandmother outside the city during the attack.
Parents of KyryloThe school’s parent committee has initiated a fundraiser, as Russia killed Kyrylo’s parents and grandfather, and also destroyed his home, where all the family’s belongings were stored. Card number: 4441 1111 2546 0422.
Along with those killed in the capital, one person reportedly died after a drone struck a hospital in the city of Bila Tserkva to the south.
Another two people were killed and 10 more were injured in a Russian drone strike on the outskirts of a village in Snovsk hromadaі in Chernihiv Oblast on the evening of June 22, according to Viacheslav Chaus, Head of the Chernihiv Oblast Military Administration.
Russia has intensified its air attacks against Ukrainian cities in recent weeks, sending large waves of missiles, drones, and decoys designed to overwhelm Ukrainian air defences. It is a tactic that Ukrainian forces are struggling to defend against.
The Security Service of Ukraine has initiated a pre-trial investigation under the procedural guidance of the prosecutor’s office into a war crime that resulted in civilian deaths.
The attack was among the biggest on the capital since the start of Russia’s full-scale war, which began in February 2022.
BBC News pointed out that diplomatic efforts to end the three-year war have stalled. The last direct talks between the two sides finished almost three weeks ago, with agreement only on limited exchanges of prisoners and the bodies of the dead.
No new talks have been scheduled.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had been due to meet Donald Trump on the sidelines of the G7 conference last week, but the meeting was cancelled after Trump left the conference early amid the escalating crisis in the Middle East.
Zelenskyy is travelling to London on Monday for talks with PM Keir Starmer on UK military support for Ukraine.
By way of background, the war in Ukraine has not ended 24 hours after the inauguration of US President Donald Trump, as he promised. His further attempts to facilitate an unconditional ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine have also failed.
By way of background, Ukraine urges the international community to unite to restore global security under the UN Charter and strengthen sanctions against Russia to enforce compliance with international law. Following Russia’s initial invasion in 2014, Ukraine has pursued the liberation of its territories within its internationally recognised 1991 borders while developing comprehensive reintegration strategies and policies for all liberated areas.
Meanwhile, the Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Péter Szijjártó, stated during a news conference that his country and Slovakia have decided not to support the European Union’s proposed 18th package of sanctions against Russia.
“We did this because the European Union wants to prohibit member states, including Hungary and Slovakia, from buying cheap Russian natural gas and cheap Russian oil, as they did before,” Szijjártó said.
