June 18 - Kyiv was struck by missiles early on Thursday, local officials said, as widespread air raid alerts were issued across much of Ukraine. Authorities urged residents to shelter while explosions were heard in the capital by a witness. Officials also reported casualties elsewhere, including a fatal drone strike in Sumy.
Tymur Tkachenko, head of Kyiv's military administration, posted on Telegram: "The enemy is attacking the capital with ballistic missiles. Stay in safe places until the air raid alert is over!"
The attack came hours after President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he had held a conversation with U.S. President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron, following discussions with other leaders attending a Group of Seven meeting. Zelenskiy described the exchange as a "coordinating conversation" aimed at seeking an end to the more than four-year-long Russian war on Ukraine.
Thursday's strike represents the second air attack on Kyiv this week. Earlier in the week, a major strike badly damaged a nearly 1,000-year-old monastery that stands as a symbol of Ukraine's spiritual and cultural heritage; that assault killed 10 people and prompted condemnation from European leaders.
Separately, in Enerhodar - the Ukrainian city where most staff of the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant reside - the Russia-appointed mayor Maksim Pukhov said on Telegram that Ukrainian strikes killed one person and injured four. In Russia's Belgorod border region, local officials reported that a Ukrainian drone strike killed a man in his car.
The day before, Moscow accused Ukraine of attacking a bus carrying Belarusian schoolchildren, an allegation Kyiv described as "false." Reports of the various strikes and incidents have not been independently verified. Both Russia and Ukraine deny deliberately targeting civilians in the conflict that began with Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022.
President Trump said on Wednesday that Russia was losing more soldiers than Ukraine, after suggesting that both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Zelenskiy appeared open to taking action to address the war. The Kremlin said this week that Putin had not discussed the possibility of a meeting with Zelenskiy during his most recent phone call with Trump. Russia has publicly maintained that it is Ukraine which is suffering greater losses.
Context and implications
The new missile strikes on the capital, coupled with reported attacks in other regions, underscore the continuing volatility across Ukraine. Damage to long-standing cultural sites and reports of civilian casualties add to the human toll and raise concerns about impacts on critical sectors such as energy - given reported strikes in areas tied to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant - and border-region security where incidents have spilled over into Russian territory.
Verification of many of the claims and counterclaims remains limited, leaving uncertainty over responsibility for specific incidents and the immediate trajectory of diplomatic efforts to de-escalate the conflict.