At least two people were killed and 13 others injured after Russia launched a series of drone and missile strikes on two Ukrainian cities, according to officials.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky described the assault on Kyiv as “one of the largest” since the war began over three years ago.
He stated that Russian forces had launched more than 315 drones—mostly Shaheds—and seven missiles during the overnight attack.
“Russia’s missile and Shahed assaults speak louder than the efforts by the United States and other global actors to push for peace,” Zelensky said, calling on the U.S. and Europe to take “decisive action” in response.
A maternity hospital and residential buildings in the centre of the southern port city of Odesa were also damaged in the attack, regional head Oleh Kiper said.
Two people lost their lives and nine others were wounded in the city, the regional prosecutor’s office reported.
In Kyiv, four people were injured during the assault, according to Mayor Vitali Klitschko. Journalists from the Associated Press reported hearing explosions and the sound of drones buzzing throughout the city for several hours.
These latest strikes followed just one day after Moscow launched nearly 500 drones in what became the largest overnight drone attack since the war began three years ago. Both Ukrainian and Western officials have been expecting retaliation from Russia after Ukraine’s bold June 1 drone strike on remote Russian air bases.
Russia has been carrying out an unprecedented number of drone and missile attacks on Ukraine, even as both nations continue exchanging prisoners of war — the only concrete result so far from the recent direct peace negotiations held in Istanbul on June 2.
During the recent meeting, both Ukraine and Russia exchanged written proposals outlining their terms for a possible ceasefire in the war that has lasted over three years. However, the inclusion of conditions considered unacceptable by both sides makes a swift agreement unlikely. A ceasefire, which Kyiv has long pursued, remains out of reach.
In Kyiv, fires broke out in at least four districts after debris from intercepted drones landed on the roofs of homes and warehouses, according to the Kyiv City Military Administration.
Across Ukraine, the Russian assault triggered 19 fires, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko reported on Telegram.
“Russia must be held accountable for every crime it commits. Without justice, there can be no safety—for Ukraine or the world,” he stated.
Meanwhile, casualties from earlier Russian attacks continued to rise. In Kharkiv, rescue teams recovered the body of a person trapped under the rubble of a building struck during Saturday’s drone and missile attack, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said on Telegram.
The discovery brings the number of casualties to five, with five more people potentially still trapped under the debris, Terekhov said.
In the northern Ukrainian city of Sumy, a 17-year-old boy died in the hospital on Tuesday morning from injuries sustained during a Russian attack on June 3, according to acting mayor Artem Kobzar on Telegram. His death raises the total number of fatalities from that strike to six.
Meanwhile, Russia’s defense ministry reported that it had shot down 102 Ukrainian drones across various regions, including Crimea — the Black Sea territory that Moscow unlawfully annexed in 2014.
According to the ministry, the drones were intercepted not only near the Ukrainian border but also deeper within Russian territory, including the Moscow and Leningrad regions.
As a result of the drone attacks, flight operations were temporarily suspended at several Russian airports, including all four in Moscow and the Pulkovo Airport in St. Petersburg, the country’s second-largest city.
