At least 15 people were killed and 42 others wounded in a Russian missile and drone barrage that struck Kyiv and its surrounding region overnight into Wednesday, according to Ukraine’s state emergency service.
The attack, which saw smoke rise over the capital, is the latest in a series of large-scale Russian ballistic missile strikes that have become frequent this summer. Fires broke out at multiple locations in the Brovary, Bucha, and Fastiv districts of the wider Kyiv region, with significant warehouse fires reported in Brovary and the villages of Velyka Dymerka, Kvitneve, and Peremoha. A fire involving vehicles at an enterprise in the Fastiv district was extinguished.
In the capital itself, one person was killed and 15 were wounded. Emergency crews extinguished all fires ignited by the strikes in the Obolonskyi, Sviatoshynskyi, Holosiivskyi, and Desnianskyi districts, the Kyiv City Military Administration reported.
Serhii Beskrestnov, an adviser to Ukraine’s president on defense technology development, stated that the ongoing conflict has entered a new phase. He noted on Facebook that "The enemy is attacking everything indiscriminately — retail warehouses, food storage facilities, logistics hubs, enterprises, building materials warehouses."
Ukraine possesses a limited stockpile of interceptor missiles for its U.S.-made Patriot systems, which are currently the only air defense system capable of downing ballistic missiles. This limitation makes it difficult to counter large volleys, even as Ukraine has increased its deep strikes on Russian oil refineries and energy infrastructure.