Russian drone and missile attack, one of the biggest in the war, kills 2
and wounds 13 in Ukraine
[June 10, 2025]
By VASILISA STEPANENKO and SAMYA KULLAB
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia sent waves of drones and missiles in an
attack on two Ukrainian cities early Tuesday that killed two people and
wounded at least thirteen others, Ukrainian officials said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in an online statement called
the attack on Kyiv "one of the biggest" in the war that has raged for
over three years, and said that Moscow's forces had fired over 315
drones, mostly Shaheds, and seven missiles at Ukraine overnight.
“Russian missile and Shahed strikes are louder than the efforts of the
United States and others around the world to force Russia into peace,”
Zelenskyy wrote, urging “concrete action” from the U.S. and Europe in
response to the attack.
A maternity hospital and residential buildings in the center of the
southern port city of Odesa were damaged in the attack, regional head
Oleh Kiper said. Two people were killed and nine injured in the city,
according to a statement from the regional prosecutor's office.
Four people were injured in the attack on the capital, Kyiv Mayor Vitali
Klitschko said. Associated Press journalists heard explosions and the
buzzing of drones around the city for hours.
The fresh attacks came a day after Moscow launched almost 500 drones at
Ukraine in the biggest overnight drone bombardment in the three-year
war. Ukrainian and Western officials have been anticipating a Russian
response to Ukraine's audacious June 1 drone attack on distant Russian
air bases.
Russia has been launching a record-breaking number of drones and
missiles targeting Ukraine while the two countries continue to swap
prisoners of war, the only tangible outcome of recent direct peace talks
held in Istanbul on June 2.
Both sides traded memoranda during the meeting setting out conditions
for a potential ceasefire in the more than 3-year-old war - but the
inclusion of clauses that both sides see as nonstarters make any quick
deal unlikely. A ceasefire, long sought by Kyiv, remains elusive.
Plumes of smoke were visible in Kyiv as air defense forces worked to
shoot down drones and missiles Tuesday morning.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian residents took shelter and slept in metro stations
during the hourslong attack. Nina Nosivets, 32, and her 8-month-old son,
Levko, were among them.
“I just try not to think about all this, silently curled up like a
mouse, wait until it all passes, the attacks. Distract the child somehow
because its probably the hardest thing for him to bear," she said.
Krystyna Semak, a 37-year-old Kyiv resident, said the explosions
frightened her and she ran to the metro at 2 a.m. with her rug.
Russia has been launching a record-breaking number of drones and
missiles targeting Ukraine while the two countries continue to swap
prisoners of war, the only tangible outcome of recent direct peace talks
held in Istanbul. A ceasefire, long sought by Kyiv, remains elusive.
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A resident reacts as he passes by burning debris following Russia's
missile and drone attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, June 10, 2025.
(AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
In Kyiv, fires broke out in at least four districts after debris
from shot down drones fell on the roofs of residential buildings and
warehouses, according to the Kyiv City Military Administration.
Vasyl Pesenko, 25, stood in his kitchen, damaged in the attack.
“I was lying in bed, as always hoping that these Shaheds (drones)
would fly past me, and I heard that Shahed (that hit the house),” he
said. “I thought that it would fly away, but it flew closer and
closer and everything blew away.”
The Russian attack sparked 19 fires across Ukraine, Interior
Minister Ihor Klymenko wrote on Telegram. “Russia must answer for
every crime it commits. Until there is justice, there will be no
security. For Ukraine. And for the world,” he said.
The death tolls from previous Russian strikes also continued to rise
Tuesday. In Kharkiv, rescuers found the body of a person trapped
under the rubble of a building that was hit in a drone-and-missile
attack Saturday, city mayor Ihor Terekhov wrote on Telegram. The
discovery brings the number of casualties to five, with five more
people potentially still trapped under the debris, Terekhov said.
Meanwhile, in the northern city of Sumy, a 17-year-old boy died in
the hospital Tuesday morning after being injured in a Russian strike
on June 3, acting mayor Artem Kobzar wrote on Telegram. It brings
the number killed in the attack to six.
Airports close amid strikes on Russia
Elsewhere, the Russian Defense Ministry on Tuesday morning reported
downing 102 Ukrainian drones over Russian regions and Crimea, the
Black Sea peninsula Moscow illegally annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
The drones were downed both over regions on the border with Ukraine
and deeper inside Russia, including central Moscow and Leningrad
regions, according to the Defense Ministry’s statement.
Because of the drone attack, flights were temporarily restricted in
and out of multiple airports across Russia, including all four
airports in Moscow and the Pulkovo airport in St. Petersburg, the
country’s second largest city.
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AP journalist Illia Novikov contributed to this report.
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