KYIV: Russia pummelled Kyiv with the largest drone attack of the war, killing one person, injuring at least 23 and damaging buildings across the capital hours after US President Donald Trump spoke to Russia’s Vladimir Putin, officials said on Friday.
As air raid sirens, the whine of kamikaze drones and booming detonations reverberated from early evening until dawn as Russia launched what Ukraine’s Air Force said was a total of 539 drones and 11 missiles, the UN nuclear watchdog said Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant lost all off-site power on Friday.
Acrid smoke hung over the city centre. Kyiv’s military administration chief said a body had been found in the wreckage of one of the strike sites. Outside a high-rise apartment block damaged by a drone, residents stood around surveying the scene as the clean-up job began. Some cried. Others looked on silently.
Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant loses all off-site power
“I woke up to the sound of explosions, first the Shahed drones started buzzing, and then the explosions began,” said 40-year-old resident Maria Hilchenko.
“Then people started screaming outside. The explosions from the Shaheds kept coming.”
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who is due to speak to Trump later on Friday about the war and a US pause in some deliveries of air defence missiles, called the attack “deliberately massive and cynical”. “Notably, the first air raid alerts in our cities and regions yesterday began to blare almost simultaneously with media reports discussing a phone call between President Trump and Putin,” Zelenskiy said on X.
“Yet again, Russia is showing it has no intention of ending the war and terror,” he added, calling for increased pressure on Russia and more air defence equipment.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said a Chinese component had been found in one of the Shahed drones attacking Kyiv, adding it had been found shortly after China’s consulate in the southern city of Odesa suffered minor damage in a separate strike.
Published in Dawn, July 5th, 2025