Russia launches large-scale missile, drone attack on Kyiv, striking residential buildings

Editor’s note: This is a developing story and is being updated.

Russia launched waves of missile and drone attacks across Ukraine overnight on July 4, striking a residential building in Kyiv, officials reported.

Kyiv Independent journalists on the ground reported hearing multiple rounds of explosions in the capital beginning around 10 p.m. local time and lasting into the early morning of July 4. Ukraine’s Air Force reported Russia had launched a ballistic missile towards the capital around 12:30 a.m, and then additional missiles around 2:30 a.m.

Tymur Tkachenko, head of the Kyiv City Military Administration, confirmed that a fire had broken out on the roof of a residential building in the Obolon district of Kyiv as a result of an earlier drone strike. Mayor Vitalii Klitschko said that there did not appear to be heavy damage or casualties as a result of the fire, however, the details are still being confirmed.

Similarly in the Sviatoshynskyi district of the city, a drone struck the roof of a home, likely resulting in casualties, Tkachenko reported, although the details of the attack are being clarified.

Officials said that Russia had struck at least 13 different locations with Kyiv.

In the Dniprovskyi district of Kyiv, Tkachenko said that drone debris had fallen near a school and several residential buildings. Debris from a downed drone also landed in an open area of the city’s Solomianskyi district. Preliminary reports indicate no casualties.

Later in the evening amid a subsequent drone wave, a fire had broken out at a “non-residential building” in the Solomianskyi district of the city, Tkachenko added. Emergency crews are currently on-scene.

Information was not immediately available as to the extent of the damage caused amid the attack.

“Stay in shelters,” Tkachenko wrote on Telegram, urging residents to remain cautious.

Elsewhere in the country, downed drones struck property as well as a vehicle in the city of Poltava, regional Governor Volodymyr Kohut said. The attack injured two people.

The drone assault comes hours after a phone call between Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump, during which the Kremlin said Putin reaffirmed that “Russia will continue to pursue its goals” in Ukraine despite calls for a ceasefire from the West.

Kyiv and other major Ukrainian cities have faced intensified drone and missile strikes in recent weeks, with Russia deploying Iranian-designed Shahed drones in record numbers.

Ukrainian officials have warned that continued attacks are aimed at wearing down air defense systems and terrorizing civilians.

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The Kyiv IndependentAndrea Januta