Russian strikes kill 32, including two children, and injure 159 peoppe in Kyiv overnight (updated)

Thirty-two people were killed, including two children, and more than 159 others were wounded in a barrage of Russian drones and missiles that struck several districts of the capital of Ukraine and brought down an apartment block overnight, Tymur Tkachenko, head of the Kyiv City Military Administration, said.

Photo by the State emergency services of Ukraine

BBC News points out the high-pitched hum of Russian drones could be heard for hours over the city, interrupted by the occasional loud thunder clap of a missile strike.

Russia launched 309 drones and eight cruise missiles during the night, according to Ukraine’s air force. And although officials say air defences did manage to destroy many of them, there were numerous hits, including from cruise missiles.

A six-year-old boy, Matviy Marchenko, and his mother were among the dead, as more than two dozen locations across the capital were hit.

The Ukrainian Karate Federation reported that Matviy was a promising young athlete who had trained for the past year and a half at the capital’s “Sen-Bin” Karate club.

His coach, Ihor Yefymenko, remembered Matviy as “a good and obedient child.”

“In the last six months, it was as if he had matured and begun to work towards results,” the coach recalled. “One day, he approached me on his own and said, ‘Yefymenko, I want to defeat everyone and surpass my brother Lyova in medals.'”

Liliia Stepanchuk, a patrol police officer, died in Russia’s overnight missile strike on Kyiv’s Sviatoshynskyi district, according to Ivan Vyhovskyy, head of the National Police of Ukraine. 

Liliia Stepanchuk

“The terrorist state deliberately targets civilians, strikes Ukrainian homes and ruthlessly takes lives… Tragically, our colleague, patrol police officer Liliia Stepanchuk, was killed in the missile strike on Sviatoshynskyi district in Kyiv,” – Vyhovskyy wrote. 

Moreover, Russians killed a kindergarten teacher from the village of Ivankovychi, Nataliia Haieva, 47, along with her two sons and her brother in that attack. The deaths were confirmed by the humanitarian development department of the Feodosiivska village council.

Nataliia Haieva

The woman worked as a teacher for a preschool group at the Ivankovychi Lyceum. Her body, along with those of her sons, aged 17 and 22, and her brother, were found under the rubble of a high-rise apartment building in Kyiv destroyed in the strike.

According to a fellow villager, Tetiana Rybalka, Haieva is survived by her husband and 10-year-old son, who were at their home in the village on the night of the attack.

“Nataliia Anatoliivna was a wonderful mother, an excellent specialist, always ready to help,” Rybalka wrote. “This is a grief that is hard to describe with words.”

Kyiv Mayor Vitalii Klitschko reported that a section of a residential building was destroyed in the Sviatoshynskyi District. Emergency services are working at the scene.

 

Moreover, the Russian attacks damaged apartments in several buildings in the Solomianskyi District. Cars caught fire. The strikes sparked fires and caused damage at several non-residential properties.

The attacks damaged some buildings in the Holosiivskyi District, including a school and a kindergarten.

The blast wave shattered windows in the children’s ward of a medical facility in the Shevchenkivskyi district.

 

Ivan Fedorov, head of the Zaporizhzhia Oblast Military Administration, reported that Russian strikes with FAB bombs injured a 17-year-old boy and a 64-year-old woman in the village of Veselianka in the  Zaporizhzhia Oblast.

The attack destroyed a house and sparked a fire in the village of Veselianka. Emergency crews have extinguished the fire. Fedorov reported that the strikes damaged houses in the village of Malokaterynivka. A fire broke out there as well, which crews have now extinguished.

Moreover, Russians hit a residential building in central Kramatorsk, the Donetsk Oblast, killing at least one person and injuring 11 others, some seriously, according to the Kramatorsk City Council and Vadym Filashkin, head of the Donetsk Oblast Military Administration

Russian forces hit a five-story residential building, destroying half of it. 

 

Emergency services are working at the scene.

These were the biggest airstrikes since U.S. President Donald Trump brought forward an earlier deadline to Russian ruler Vladimir Putin. The threat of more US sanctions appears to have done little to persuade the Russian president to change course.

Russian attacks have continued despite US President Donald Trump’s threat to impose tougher sanctions on Moscow if Russian ruler Vladimir Putin does not agree to a ceasefire by 8 August.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said the capital was the focus of Russia’s overnight attacks.

“The world has yet again seen Russia’s response to our, America’s, and Europe’s desire for peace. More demonstrative murder,” he said on social media.

“This is why peace without strength is impossible.”

Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said it was a “horrible morning” in Kyiv, and that there are “still people under the rubble”.

Sybiha added that Donald Trump had been “very generous and patient” with Putin, but now it was time to put “maximum pressure on Moscow” through sanctions.

Previously, Bohdan Bernatskyy, a member of the Sanctions Policy Working Group of the Crimean Platform Expert Network, revealed at the Third Parliamentary Summit in Latvia that over 1,300 Russian military companies and 2 million industrial workers continue to operate, many without international restrictions.

As is known, including  China, North Korea, India, and Brazil, assist Moscow in killing citizens of Ukraine in Russia’s war, including funding the Russian budget through trade. 

Reuters reported that Premiums for ESPO Blend crude oil loading from Russia’s Kozmino port in late August to early September for delivery into China have held firm as buyers seeking to meet robust demand ignore the threat of increased U.S. tariffs, four traders said on Wednesday.

In addition, Reuters reported that Saudi Arabia was the top destination for Russian seaborne fuel oil and vacuum gasoil (VGO) exports in June. 

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warned Chinese officials on July 29 during trade talks in Stockholm that continued purchases of sanctioned Russian oil would lead to big tariffs due to legislation in Congress, but was told that Beijing would protect its energy sovereignty.

Previously, Republican US Senator Lindsey Graham announced news for these countries. He wrote on X that Kremlin Putin has made a serious miscalculation with regard to President Donald Trump

Graham commented on Trump’s assertion that he will reduce the deadline for Putin to resolve the war he started against Ukraine.

He noted that Russia’s recent actions demonstrate “no real desire to come to the peace table”.

“Putin has seriously miscalculated President Trump. I hope countries like China, India, and Brazil – who prop up Putin’s war machine – are about to pay a long overdue price,” Graham wrote.

The senator also added that Congress stands ready, with an overwhelming majority of votes from both parties, “to help President Trump in his efforts to get the parties to the peace table”.

U.S. President Donald Trump has already announced the introduction of 25% tariffs on India starting from 1 August.

The President also highlighted that India is one of the largest buyers of Russian energy and purchases a significant amount of weapons from Russia “at a time when everyone wants Russia to stop the killing in Ukraine”.