Russia hit Kyiv with one of its biggest missile attacks of the war — Ukraine sent 400 drones back
A ballistic missile barrage killed six people in Kyiv and ten near Odesa. Ukraine answered with roughly 400 drones aimed at Moscow.
Russia launched one of its largest ballistic missile attacks on Kyiv since the war began, killing at least six people and injuring dozens in the Ukrainian capital on Monday. Near the southern port city of Odesa, another Russian strike killed ten. Kyiv residents described two waves of blasts — buildings shaking, front doors blown off hallways, then a huge explosion.
How did Ukraine respond?
With a swarm: roughly 400 drones were sent against Moscow, wounding two people and setting buildings on fire in the Russian capital. That is the shape this war has taken over the summer — missiles against Ukrainian cities, mass drone raids against Russian soil — and every exchange seems to climb one step higher.
The attack lands in a politically turbulent stretch for Kyiv. Ukraine has just sworn in a new prime minister with protests still on the street, while European allies keep debating what to send next — the UK, for one, has promised Kyiv new ballistic missiles by 2027.
What does this mean for civilians?
They absorb every escalation. The United Nations has been documenting the human cost of strikes on Ukrainian residential areas — the reports are on the UN Human Rights Office site — and this summer Kyiv’s metro stations are once again filling up with families at night. Four and a half years in, normal life in the capital still means coffee in the morning and sirens after dark.
With no talks in sight and both sides investing in longer range and bigger volleys, the quiet fear in Brussels is a simple one: that autumn brings more nights like this.
Image: Ralf Roletschek / Wikimedia Commons (GFDL 1.2)
