Russia Launches Large Overnight Missile-and-Drone Attack on Kyiv, Ukraine Says

Ukraine’s military said Russia launched one of its largest combined missile-and-drone attacks in recent months overnight into July 6, with 419 aerial threats recorded and Kyiv identified as the main direction of the strike. In a morning Telegram update, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said the attack began at 6 p.m. on July 5 and continued into July 6, involving 68 missiles and 351 drones.

As of 8:30 a.m., Ukraine’s General Staff said air defenses had shot down or otherwise suppressed 363 targets, including 37 missiles and 326 drones. The military said the intercepted weapons included 31 Kh-101 cruise missiles, six Kalibr cruise missiles and 326 drones of various types. The General Staff’s figures were preliminary, as is often the case in wartime operational reporting, and may be revised later as debris is examined and local authorities consolidate information.

In Kyiv, authorities and multiple media outlets reported damage to residential buildings in the capital and ongoing rescue work after the strike. Early casualty figures were inconsistent in public reporting. The Kyiv City Military Administration, cited by Ukrainian outlet UNN, reported three people killed in Kyiv, while other early media reports carried higher provisional tolls. International coverage also showed firefighting and rescue operations in the city after the attack.

Ukraine’s General Staff said preliminary information indicated that 29 ballistic or anti-ship missiles and 18 strike drones hit 34 locations, while debris from downed drones fell at 16 locations. The military said the incoming barrage included a mix of ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, anti-ship missiles, and large numbers of strike and decoy drones. It also said the attack was still ongoing when the morning statement was issued, with several attack drones still in Ukrainian airspace.

The General Staff, Ukraine’s main official military source for interception figures, said Kyiv was the primary target of the overnight assault. The strike fit a broader pattern seen throughout the war, in which Russia has used combined waves of missiles along with Shahed-type attack drones and decoys in an apparent effort to complicate and stretch Ukrainian air defenses. As with other large-scale attacks, the military’s early counts and weapon identifications were preliminary and could change as authorities completed damage assessments and reviewed the results of the interception effort.