Russia hits Ukrainian capital with ballistic missiles and drones,
killing at least 9
[August 01, 2026]
By VASILISA STEPANENKO
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia launched an intense barrage of ballistic
missiles and drones overnight into Saturday, killing at least nine
people and wounding 30 civilians in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv,
Ukrainian authorities said.
The strikes follow a major Russian attack two days earlier that killed
at least 10 people and injured more than 50 others across Ukraine, as
Moscow apparently looks to exploit Kyiv’s critical shortage of
Western-supplied anti-ballistic missile defenses. The relentless cycle
of attacks dims the potential of reaching a diplomatic end to Russia’s
more than 4-year-old invasion of its neighbor.
Russia’s defense ministry said Saturday it had launched a “massive
strike” against “Ukrainian military-industrial complex facilities and
logistics centers in Kyiv.”
A five-story residential building in the city's Solomianskyi District
was damaged by falling debris and a fire broke out. Rescue workers
evacuated 35 people from the upper floors of the building and two people
died, with eight reported injured, including two children, according to
Ukraine’s state emergency service.
In the Darnytskyi District of Kyiv, seven people were killed and another
14 injured after the attack caused fires and damage to houses, vehicles,
an administrative and non-residential building, the emergency services
said.
Elsewhere, emergency workers extinguished a fire in a non-residential
building in the capital’s Shevchenkivskyi district. There was no
additional information about earlier reports by the district mayor that
people were trapped in another residential building.
Damage to commercial and residential buildings was reported in two other
city districts.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has pressed the United States and other
Western partners over Ukraine’s need for more Patriot anti-ballistic
missile defense systems to counter missile attacks from Russia.
The Ukrainian leader late Friday said he spoke to U.S. Vice President JD
Vance and discussed a meeting with President Donald Trump earlier this
week in Washington, which Zelenskyy described as “positive and
productive.”
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Emergency services personnel work to extinguish a fire following
Russian missile attacks in Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, Aug. 1, 2026.
(AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
“The Russian air strikes on our country continue and air defense,
specifically interceptors for Patriot systems against ballistic
missiles, remains a top priority,” Zelenskyy said Friday in a post
on Telegram.
At a NATO summit in Ankara in July, Trump said the U.S. would give
Ukraine a license to make Patriot systems, but he appeared to move
away from that commitment on Friday during a Cabinet meeting at the
presidential retreat in Camp David, Maryland, saying he had not yet
made a final decision on the matter.
From a basement shelter where she was taking cover as a second air
alarm sounded for another wave, Liudmyla Nakonechna, 64, described
how she was woken by loud explosions at 1:30 a.m.
“I ran into the corridor and was standing there when the bathroom
door was blown off its hinges and struck me in the leg,” said
Nakonechna, whose health is poor after undergoing cancer treatment.
“I heard the sound of shattering glass. My balcony was covered in
glass and it was completely blown apart, while the windows in my
bedroom were also blown out.”
Nakonechna had not taken cover in a shelter since Russia’s
full-scale invasion on Feb. 24, 2022, but the stress became too
much, she said.
“It’s getting worse by the day,” Nakonechna said. “Whereas before
there was an attack once every two weeks, or maybe once a week, now
it happens practically every day. It is incredibly hard to bear this
psychologically.”
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