Russia Strikes Kyiv in Massive Air Assault, Dozens Killed

Russia launched a massive aerial assault on Ukraine overnight Sunday into Monday, deploying 73 missiles and 656 long-range drones against Kyiv and at least six other regions in what officials described as one of the largest attacks in months. The strikes targeted military industrial facilities and critical infrastructure, with Kyiv bearing the heaviest toll: at least four people were killed and 63 others wounded, including three minors, after residential buildings including a nine-story and a 24-story apartment block were hit and partially collapsed. In Dnipro, located in central Ukraine, eight people including a three-year-old child were killed and 36 more injured, and a rescue worker was fatally struck during a second attack on emergency responders, a practice that may constitute a war crime. The bombardment came nine days after Russian President Vladimir Putin declared the war had entered a "new phase" following a Ukrainian drone strike on a student dormitory in the Russian-controlled city of Starobilsk in the Luhansk region on May 22, which killed 21 people including minors. Putin accused Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky of opening "a new chapter in a series of crimes" and warned of systematic attacks against military command centers and industrial facilities in Kyiv, even urging foreign diplomats and citizens to leave the capital. Ukraine has denied responsibility for the Starobilsk attack. Ukraine's air defenses intercepted 40 missiles and 602 drones during the assault, though 33 missiles and dozens of drones struck targets across 38 different locations. Meanwhile, overnight, Ukrainian drones struck Russian energy infrastructure, setting fire to the Ilsk refinery in the southern Krasnodar region near the Black Sea. Russian authorities reported that air defenses shot down 148 Ukrainian drones over eight regions, Crimea, and the Black and Azov Seas. The coordinated attacks on both sides mark a significant intensification of the two-year conflict, with both militaries targeting each other's rear infrastructure.