A large Russian drone and missile attack on Kyiv early on Monday killed at least six people and injured nearly 20, the local authorities said — the latest in a series of deadly and intensifying Russian strikes on Ukraine.
The six people killed appeared to have been in a residential building that was struck. Ukraine’s emergency services released photos showing part of the five-story structure collapsed into rubble. As crews worked to clear the debris, officials warned that more people were probably still trapped beneath the wreckage.
The Ukrainian Air Force said Russia had launched more than 350 drones and decoys during the attack, as well as firing 16 ballistic missiles. It said it had intercepted most of the drones and three-quarters of the missiles. The figures could not be independently verified.
It was the second lethal barrage on Kyiv in the past week. Last Tuesday, 28 people died in a Russian assault, most of them the victims of a strike on another apartment building. That was the deadliest attack on the Ukrainian capital in nearly a year.
The new salvo of strikes has reinforced many Ukrainians’ belief that Moscow is not interested in a cease-fire, especially as its military pushes ahead with a summer offensive in eastern Ukraine. A strike on Sunday in Kramatorsk, a city near the eastern frontline, killed four people.
“Russia is once again striking at human lives and destinies. This is not a trend, not an accident — it is a plan,” Tymur Tkachenko, the head of Kyiv’s military administration, said on Monday after the attack.
There were also concerns that the recent attacks might receive little response from the West as the Trump administration shifts its focus to the war between Israel and Iran, a conflict it directly entered this weekend by striking Iran’s nuclear facilities.
Last week, President Trump skipped a scheduled meeting with Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, at the Group of 7 summit in Canada, citing the need to return to Washington to handle the situation in the Middle East.
Now Mr. Zelensky is worried that he could get similar treatment from world leaders at a NATO summit set to begin on Tuesday in The Hague. He has yet to announce whether he will join that meeting of leaders of the bloc, which has promised to eventually make Ukraine a member.
Western leaders’ shift in focus to the Middle East could leave Ukraine in a difficult position, stripped of the diplomatic leverage it hoped to use this year to end the war. Cease-fire talks have largely stalled, and without American support and pressure for new negotiations, Ukraine may have to endure a prolonged conflict on the battlefield, where its troops are slowly but steadily losing ground.
If he manages to speak with Mr. Trump face-to-face in The Hague, Mr. Zelensky has said, he plans to request authorization for the sale of U.S.-made Patriot air defense systems to Ukraine and to discuss new sanctions against Russia.
“Frankly, we need to talk about revitalizing diplomacy,” Mr. Zelensky told journalists last week. “We need more clarity and more global pressure on Putin.”
Oleksandra Mykolyshyn contributed reporting.
Constant Méheut reports on the war in Ukraine, including battlefield developments, attacks on civilian centers and how the war is affecting its people.
The post Russian Attack on Kyiv Kills at Least 6, Ukraine Says appeared first on New York Times.
