Moscow said the strikes targeted\u00a0military-industrial facilities, fuel and energy complexes in Ukraine’s capital and the Kyiv region, as well as military airfields in the Dnipropetrovsk, Poltava, Cherkasy and Chernihiv regions.<\/p>\n
“Kyiv is under attack from ballistic missiles and UAVs,” Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Telegram,<\/a> adding that there were 10 deaths and 34 injured.<\/p>\n It was not immediately clear how many missiles and drones were launched at Ukraine, or how many Ukraine had managed to intercept.<\/p>\n Finland temporarily imposed<\/a> an “aviation restriction zone” in the eastern Gulf of the country on Thursday morning, before lifting the measure shortly thereafter.<\/p>\n Poland also scrambled fighter jets<\/a> in response to Russia’s attack on Ukraine, saying on X that “fighter jets have begun operating, while ground-based air defense systems and radar reconnaissance have reached a state of readiness.”<\/p>\n A damaged residential building is seen following missile strikes on the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv on July 2, 2026, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Russian missile and drone strikes rocked Kyiv early on July 2, killing at least eight people and wounding dozens, after President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that Moscow was preparing a “massive attack”<\/p>\n Genya Savilov | Afp | Getty Images<\/p>\n Poland’s Armed Forces Opertaional Command said the measures were of a preventive nature and aimed at securing and protecting the airspace, “especially in areas adjacent to the threatened regions.” <\/p>\n Olga Stefanishyna, Ukraine’s ambassador to the U.S., said on X <\/a>that residents spent the night in shelters. Kyiv was seeing fires and the destruction of residential buildings in several districts of the city, she said.<\/p>\n Ukraine says Putin ‘refusing to end the war’<\/p>\n Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had warned of an imminent “massive” Russian strike on Wednesday evening, urging citizens to take shelter and pay attention to air-raid alerts across the country. <\/p>\n Zelenskyy, who said he was cutting short a trip to Ireland to return to Ukraine, said it was known that Russian President Vladimir Putin had been preparing to launch another large-scale strike against Ukraine for some time.<\/p>\n “Russia’s head is completely refusing to end the war,” Zelenskyy said via social media. <\/p>\n “And although through all possible official and unofficial channels \u2013 including through people close to him \u2013 we have conveyed that the war can and must be ended, and that we in Ukraine are ready for meetings and meaningful negotiations, he sees only further aggression against Ukraine and against other neighbors and Europe as a whole,” he added.<\/p>\n Ukraine’s president recently signed off on a 40-day operation designed to influence the Kremlin to bring an end to the war.<\/p>\n Russia’s latest attack comes as Kyiv has stepped up long-range drone strikes inside Russia, targeting oil refineries, military facilities and major cities, including Moscow and St. Petersburg.<\/p>\n Ukraine’s deep-strike successes had prompted some analysts to suggest the conflict could be turning in Kyiv’s favor, with Putin acknowledging the impact of Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian fuel production for the first time. <\/p>\n “As envisaged by the Defense Strategy of Ukraine, we are depriving the enemy of resources for waging war,” the ministry said on Telegram on July 1<\/a>, adding that the effort is intended to pressure Russia to end the war, now in its fourth year.<\/p>\n![\"Ukraine](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/108325941-17822910921782291089-46740399791-1080pnbcnews.jpg\")
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