At least 13 killed, 46 hurt in Russian drone, missile strikes on Kyiv
by Paul Godfrey · UPIJuly 6 (UPI) -- At least 13 people were killed and 46 injured, five of them children, in a major Russian airborne assault on Kyiv overnight, a day before NATO heads of state and government gather for their annual summit with Ukraine a top agenda item.
Tymur Tkachenko, chief of the Kyiv City Military Administration, said search and rescue operations were underway in at least 20 locations across the capital, with missile strikes on multi-story buildings in the residential districts of Obolonskyi, Holosiivskyi, Darnytskyi and Podilskyi, where an apartment block was partially destroyed.
The State Emergency Service said three people were killed in the town of Vyshneve, just to the southwest of Kyiv, in strikes on the wider Kyiv region in which 16 people were injured. Authorities ordered the evacuation of people living near the site of the strike in Vyshneve as up to 400 emergency responders tackled a major blaze.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said in an online update that Tuesday had been declared a day of mourning for those killed, saying flags on municipal buildings across the city would be lowered and all entertainment events canceled.
The Ukrainian Air Force said that while air defenses downed 363 drones and cruise missiles, "a serious shortage" of interceptor missiles for Ukraine's U.S.-made Patriot surface-to-air batteries meant that none of the 29 ballistic missiles fired at Kyiv was stopped.
"The success rate is low, to put it mildly. 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," said Air Force spokesman Colonel Yurii Ihnat.
The attacks overnight came as leaders of the 32-country NATO defense alliance head to Ankara with "increased investment, industrial production and continued support for Ukraine" top of their to-do list and three days after 30 people were killed and dozens injured in massive Russian aerial strikes on Kyiv overnight Thursday and into Friday morning.
At least 25 ballistic missiles and 12 drones got past air defenses during the approximately 12-hour attack, with authorities saying some 25 locations in the city were hit, many of them residential areas.
In a post on X on Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky who will be in Ankara and is due to meet U.S. President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the summit Wednesday, called for "strong decisions to support our air defense, saying that Patriots remaining "in the warehouses of allies" gave a green light for Russia to attack apartment buildings housing ordinary people.
A senior U.S. official said Trump, who spoke separately with Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin on the phone on Saturday, was renewing efforts to resolve the Russia-Ukraine conflict as "a pressing priority."
"The president feels a real sense of urgency to try to bring this to a stop. Both sides have articulated as recently as yesterday, that President Trump plays a unique role in his ability to try to mediate this," the official told The Hill.
Russia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs gave a similar account of developments in a post on its Telegram account on Sunday.
"The U.S. president once again confirmed his readiness to facilitate the earliest possible cessation of hostilities and the search for peaceful solutions to overcome the crisis. His Special Envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, will continue their mediation efforts and will be ready to visit Moscow at a convenient time," the ministry wrote.
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Troops in landing craft approach Omaha Beach on D-Day in Normandy, France, on June 6, 1944. D-Day was the largest seaborne invasion in history and turned the tide of World War II. Photo by UPI | License Photo