Russian attacks kill 26 civilians in Ukraine as Zelenskyy seeks more
Western help
[June 25, 2025]
By ILLIA NOVIKOV
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian drones, missiles and artillery killed at
least 26 civilians and injured more than 200 others in Ukraine,
officials said Tuesday, as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy sought
guarantees at a NATO summit of further Western help to repel Moscow’s
invasion.
Russian forces have relentlessly struck civilian areas throughout the
3-year-old war. More than 12,000 Ukrainian civilians have been killed,
according to the United Nations. Ukraine has also launched long-range
drones against Russia, hitting residential areas.
Zelenskyy joined Western leaders at a NATO summit in The Hague,
Netherlands, and is keen to lock in additional military support for
Ukraine, as recent direct peace talks have made no progress on a
settlement.
Key U.S. military commitments to Ukraine left over from the Biden
administration are expected to run out within months, according to
analysts, and there is uncertainty over whether U.S. President Donald
Trump is willing to provide more.
A Russian ballistic missile attack on Dnipro hit multiple civilian sites
in the central Ukrainian city around midday Tuesday, killing 17 people
and injuring more than 200 others, officials said. “The number of
casualties is constantly being updated,” Dnipro’s regional
administration head Serhii Lysak wrote on Telegram.
In the nearby town of Samar, an attack killed two people and injured 14,
he said.
The barrage damaged 19 schools, 10 kindergartens, a vocational school, a
music school and a social welfare office, as well as eight medical
facilities, according to Dnipro Mayor Borys Filatov. Schools are closed
for the summer break.
One of the blasts blew out the windows of a passenger train carrying
about 500 people. Filatov declared Wednesday to be an official day of
mourning.
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A view of the damaged flat of an apartment building where the
Ukrainian drone fell in Krasnogorsk, just outside Moscow, Russia, on
Tuesday, June 24, 2025. (Moscow News Agency via AP)
In a post on Telegram, Zelenskyy said Russia needs foreign
components to build its ballistic missiles and he urged countries to
crack down on Moscow's “schemes” to obtain them. “Sanctions against
Russia must also be significantly strengthened,” he said.
Russia also shelled residential neighborhoods and critical
infrastructure across Ukraine’s southern Kherson region, killing
four civilians and wounding at least 11 others, according to
Oleksandr Prokudin, head of the regional military administration.
In the Sumy region of northeastern Ukraine, a drone attack late
Monday killed three civilians, including a 5-year-old boy, and
injured six others, local authorities said. Among the injured were
two 17-year-old girls and a 12-year-old boy, according to officials.
Russian air defense forces overnight shot down 20 Ukrainian drones,
the Russian Defense Ministry reported Tuesday. It said 14 were
downed over the Kursk region, which borders Ukraine, while two had
been flying over the Moscow region.
One drone slammed into a tower block on the outskirts of the Russian
capital, sparking a fire on its 17th floor, local Gov. Andrei
Vorobyov said. He said a 34-year-old resident suffered shrapnel
wounds to his arm and leg. Two other drones were shot down while
approaching Moscow, according to Mayor Sergei Sobyanin.
Air traffic was briefly halted as a precaution at two major Moscow
airports, Vnukovo and Sheremetyevo, according to a representative of
Russia’s aviation authority Rosaviatsiya.
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