Russian strike on Kyiv Oblast at least 26, injures 64; Ukraine intercepts no ballistic missiles amid lack of Patriot missiles (updated)

At least 19 people were killed in Kyiv following a second night of Russian strikes on the Ukrainian capital in a week, the city’s top military administrator has said. Some 64 people were injured in Kyiv, including five children, Timur Tkachenko, head of the Kyiv City Military Administration, added. Seven people were killed in the wider Kyiv region,  Mykola Kalashnyk, Head of Kyiv Oblast Military Administration, reported.

Hours before the latest strikes, Zelenskyy had warned that Moscow was preparing a second “massive strike” on Kyiv following its attacks on Thursday that killed 31 people.

Rescue efforts are continuing at more than 20 locations, according to Tkachenko. He also reported that residential high-rise buildings were hit in two districts.

Kyiv Mayor Vitaly Klitschko stated that Russian ballistic missiles hit several buildings across the city. According to Klitschko, fires had broken out in some apartment complexes.

The Darnytskyi and Podilskyi Districts of Kyiv were the hardest hit by direct strikes and falling debris from Russian munitions. Damage was also reported in the Holosiivskyi and Obolonskyi Districts. Specifically, in the Podilskyi District, apartments on the fifth through ninth floors of a single building were destroyed.

In the Darnytskyi District, a fire broke out, and apartments on the second through fifth floors of a 25-story building were destroyed. Additionally, falling debris sparked fires in apartments within a 30-story high-rise in a separate complex.

Rescuers of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine have been trying to reach people trapped inside the ruins.

Warehouses and a garage workshop were also damaged, according to Klitschko.

Update: At 2:44 p.m., Tkachenko reported that in Kyiv’s Podilskyi District, rescuers recovered the body of a man from the rubble following the massive Russian attack.

The State Emergency Service stated that 21 people who were injured in the Kyiv Oblast are currently being treated in the hospital.

Update: Next day, on 7 July, Mayor Klitschko reported that the death toll from the Russian strike on Kyiv has risen to 19 after rescuers recovered another body from the rubble in the Darnytskyi District. Search and rescue operations at the site of the residential building strike in the Darnytskyi District have concluded, with 11 fatalities confirmed there. The mayor said that overnight, rescue workers pulled the bodies of a 12-year-old boy and his mother from the debris at the site.

In the Podilskyi district, eight people were killed.

A Russian strike on Kyiv overnight damaged the apartment of Yuliia Bilonizhko, a design project manager at public broadcaster Suspilne, in the capital’s Darnytskyi District.

On the night of July 6, Ukrainian air defences did not intercept any of the 29 inbound ballistic missiles due to a critical shortage of Patriot system interceptors capable of downing ballistic targets, Air Force spokesperson Col. Yuriy Ihnat told the national joint 24/7 newscast.

“To shoot down ballistic missiles, you need the assets to do so. We have enough systems, but what we need is a steady supply of missiles. Russia is exploiting the fact that Ukraine – and indeed the world – is facing a serious shortage of PAC-2 and PAC-3 interceptor missiles. That is why it is increasingly focusing on ballistic missile strikes,” Ihnat said.

According to Ihnat, Ukrainian intelligence reports had indicated it would involve a wide range of weapons, including a large number of ballistic missiles.

Ukraine accused Moscow of deliberately attacking civilian areas in that attack, which left at least 31 people dead. Ahead of the NATO meeting, Zelenskyy urged allies not to delay in sending air defence missiles to counter Russian ballistic missiles. As long as Patriot missiles remain in our allies’ stockpiles, Russia is only encouraged to keep “vanquishing” residential buildings, he said. 

“Any delay with missiles for our air defence… means the loss of lives, and it encourages Russia to continue the war,” Zelenskyy wrote on X.

Zelensky has also appealed to the US to grant Ukraine licences to manufacture Patriot defence missiles.

The strikes come on the eve of the NATO summit in Türkiye, where Ukrainian President Zelenskyy is expected to hold talks with U.S. President Donald Trump.

Ukraine has also initiated an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council following another large-scale Russian attack.

Human rights organisations and Ukrainian authorities emphasise that structural economic pressure remains a key tool to halt such atrocities. They urge every nation and individual government worldwide to strictly enforce global sanctions, close existing regulatory loopholes, and completely sever remaining commercial and technological ties with the Russian Federation. Civil society groups stress that any continued cooperation by foreign businesses directly contributes to the resources Moscow uses to sustain its ongoing war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ukraine.

Meanwhile, European officials and diplomats in Brussels, speaking to European Pravda on condition of anonymity, reported that a proposed EU-wide entry ban on people who fought against Ukraine on Russia’s side, included in the European Commission’s draft 21st Russia sanctions package, may be replaced with non-binding recommendations because of opposition from France and Italy.

A full travel ban on Russian combatants in the 21st sanctions package could be replaced, under pressure from Italy and France, with more neutral guidance for EU member states on issuing visas.

European Pravda has learnеd that France and Italy have been the most active opponents of the measure, arguing in favour of preserving tourist flows from Russia, which have already declined because of the war.

The reference to Russian combatants is expected to remain in the package, but in a more flexible form – as recommendations rather than a binding rule.

“I think the paragraph on Russian combatants will remain in the sanctions package; it will not be removed entirely. But it will become more symbolic rather than creating a directly enforceable mechanism,” another diplomat said.

The EU’s 21st Russia sanctions package is currently being discussed by the Council of the European Union and is in the final stages before adoption.

The next discussion is scheduled for Wednesday, 8 July, at a meeting of the Committee of Permanent Representatives (Coreper).