Russia pummelled ​Ukraine’s capital Kyiv with ⁠ballistic missiles early on Saturday (july 11, 2026), injuring at least six ‌people, officials said.

A Reuters witness heard a ‌series of powerful ‌explosions in the city before ⁠the air alert was announced.

The attack damaged a non-residential ​building in ‌one district, while smoke was coming from another and an office building was ‌in flames as a ​result of the strike, the city military ⁠administration said on the Telegram messaging app.

A transformer ‌substation was on fire as well, said Mayor Vitali Klitschko, while windows were blown out in some residential ‌buildings.

Russia has stepped up attacks ​in the capital in recent weeks. So far ⁠this month, strikes on ⁠Kyiv and the surrounding region have killed ‌more than 60 people.

Russian missile and drone strikes rocked Kyiv early on Thursday (July 2, 2026), setting off fires and wounding at least five people, after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that Moscow was preparing a “massive attack”.

Russia has routinely launched waves of missiles and drones at Ukrainian cities, including Kyiv, during its more than four-year invasion, which has become Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War II.

The attack came after the Ukrainian air force warned that ballistic missiles were headed towards the capital and followed Mr. Zelenskyy cutting short a visit to Dublin on Wednesday (July 1), citing intelligence reports of an impending Russian strike.

AFP journalists in central and eastern Kyiv heard more than a dozen explosions and saw residents -some with children and pets -rushing into metro stations being used as shelters.

“Kyiv is under attack from ballistic missiles and UAVs,” Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Telegram, adding that blasts could be heard across the city.

“The enemy continues to launch missiles at the capital,” he said.

Five healthcare workers were wounded in the Shevchenkivskyi district, one of whom was in a critical condition, the mayor added in a later post.

The attacks set off fires, destroyed a residential building and damaged a medical facility, Tymur Tkachenko, head of Kyiv’s military administration, said on Telegram.

Hours earlier, an AFP reporter witnessed an explosion in central Kyiv during an air-raid alert, followed by a cloud of smoke and flames. Firefighters and ambulances were at the scene.

Around 50 minutes later, a second blast erupted near the initial impact site, sending debris into the air.

Mr. Zelenskyy said earlier on Wednesday that he was rushing home from a visit to Dublin due to intelligence reports that Russia was about to launch a massive attack.

“I urge our people to be especially careful, to protect themselves, their children, and, of course, their families; to use shelters and heed air raid alerts in Ukraine – this is very important,” he told a news conference.

He said Russian President Vladimir Putin “has been preparing this massive strike against Ukraine for some time now”.

Ukraine has also stepped up long-range drone attacks inside Russia in recent weeks, targeting energy infrastructure and military targets.

Russian officials have reported repeated strikes in border regions, while Moscow has said its air defences had intercepted hundreds of drones from Ukraine in recent days.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has caused more than two million military casualties, with Moscow’s forces bearing the brunt of the losses, according to a study published on Wednesday (July 1) by U.S. think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

U.S. efforts to broker an end to the conflict have so far failed.

A Russian strike on the eastern Ukrainian city of Bogodukhiv killed four people, including three young children, an official said on Wednesday (February 11, 2026).

Two one-year-old boys and a two-year-old girl died as a result of an enemy strike, according to regional military head Oleg Synegubov.

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A 34-year-old man in the same house as the children also died from his wounds, Synegubov said on Telegram.

He added that a 74-year-old woman was wounded and was receiving medical assistance.

In an earlier statement, he also said a 35-year-old pregnant woman had been wounded in the strike.

Bogodukhiv is located in Kharkiv region, where Russian forces have recently stepped up attacks on transport and energy infrastructure.

Ukrainian and Russian officials have held U.S.-mediated talks in Abu Dhabi aimed at ending Moscow’s four-year invasion.

The two sides conducted a prisoner swap last week, though an agreement to draw a line under the conflict still seems a way off.

According to the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (HRMMU), around 15,000 Ukrainian civilians have been killed since Russia invaded in February 2022.

HRMMU said that 2025 was the deadliest year with more than 2,500 civilians killed.