Major Russian Attack Kills 18 in Kyiv  07/02 06:36

   Russia hammered Kyiv in an 11-hour drone and missile attack overnight into 
Thursday morning, killing at least 18 civilians in the city and injuring scores 
more in what Moscow said was retaliation for Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil 
facilities.

   KYIV, Ukraine (AP) -- Russia hammered Kyiv in an 11-hour drone and missile 
attack overnight into Thursday morning, killing at least 18 civilians in the 
city and injuring scores more in what Moscow said was retaliation for Ukrainian 
strikes on Russian oil facilities.

   Loud explosions shook the Ukrainian capital for hours during the night, with 
many people sheltering in subway stations after authorities issued air raid 
warnings. Emergency crews were still digging through the rubble of collapsed 
and charred apartment buildings in search of victims as dawn broke.

   Russia's Defense Ministry said in a statement that the deadly bombardment 
was in response to Ukraine's long-range strikes that have caused severe fuel 
shortages and put pressure on President Vladimir Putin.

   Ukraine's increasingly frequent and large-scale attacks -- described by 
Zelenskyy as a 40-day blitz -- have especially targeted oil refineries, causing 
a fuel crisis that has frustrated Russians, more than four years after Moscow's 
full-scale invasion of its neighbor.

   Ukrainian officials say they are trying to force Putin to the negotiating 
table, but so far Moscow's response has been to hit back.

   Diplomatic efforts to end the war, most recently by the Trump 
administration, haven't produced results. Putin thinks that time is on his 
side, that Western support will peter out and that Ukraine's resistance will 
eventually collapse under pressure from strategic bombing, Western analysts say.

   Ukraine's top diplomat says it was a 'night of horror' in Kyiv

   The attack killed 18 people in Kyiv, the Emergency Service said. More than 
90 others were injured, according to Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko.

   Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said it was a "night of horror" in the 
capital.

   Damage was recorded in 30 locations across the city, mainly residential 
buildings and civilian infrastructure, according to Tymur Tkachenko, head of 
the Kyiv City Military Administration. Some 20 residential buildings were 
damaged, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said.

   Flashes from exploding drones and missiles lit up the night, and loud booms 
echoed through Kyiv. Tracers from air defense fire streaked through the air as 
a huge pall of black smoke rose into the sky.

   Kyiv resident Serhii Budko said three or four ballistic missiles hit his 
district of the city. "We were inside the shelter and felt the shelter shaking 
-- the ceiling and floor, everything," the 24-year-old told The Associated 
Press.

   In Kyiv's Desnianskyi district, people were trapped inside a damaged 
nine-story residential building, and in the Darnytskyi district six levels of a 
nine-story building collapsed.

   Russia's General Staff chief Gen. Valery Gerasimov reported the results of 
the "massive retaliatory strike" to Putin, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov 
said.

   The bombardment was "exclusively against military or military-linked 
targets," Peskov said.

   Russia's aerial attacks on Ukraine have repeatedly hit civilian areas. More 
than 16,000 Ukrainian civilians have been killed in the war, according to the 
United Nations.

   Sybiha said in April that domestic production meets up to 75% of Ukraine's 
military needs and accounts for up to 95% of long-range strikes against Russia. 
The location of the factories making those weapons is secret.

   Elsewhere, in Ukraine's central Dnipropetrovsk region a Russian guided bomb 
strike killed a 7-year-old girl and wounded four other people, including an 
11-year-old girl, all members of the same family, regional head Oleksandr 
Hanzha said.

   Ukrainian officials urge countries to provide more air defenses

   The attack used "high-precision long-range weapons" and drones on "military 
industry facilities and fuel and energy complexes in Kyiv and the Kyiv region, 
as well as military airfield infrastructure in four other regions of Ukraine," 
the Russian Defense Ministry's statement said.

   It published a list of targets it said the barrage hit, mostly plants 
manufacturing and assembling Ukrainian drones, missiles and components.

   Russia fired 74 missiles, 24 of them ballistic, and 496 drones of various 
types in the attack, Ukraine's air force said.

   Ukraine's air defenses have improved throughout the war, especially in 
countering Russian drones. But ballistic missiles are harder to stop, and 
Ukrainian officials have repeatedly pleaded with partner countries to supply 
more Patriot missile systems that offer the best protection.

   Sybiha urged countries not to delay decisions on supplying air defense 
systems and missiles.

   He rejected any Russian attempts to justify the strikes as retaliation for 
Ukraine's long-range attacks, saying Ukraine was exercising its right to 
self-defense under Article 51 of the U.N. Charter while Russia remained the 
aggressor.

   Sybiha said on X that the death toll may rise as rescue teams continue their 
work.

   Ukraine attacks another Russian oil refinery

   Ukrainian forces struck one of Russia's largest oil refineries overnight in 
the Nizhny Novgorod region east of Moscow, starting a fire, Ukraine's General 
Staff said.

   Also, Ukrainian forces struck a railway bridge over the Siverskyi Donets 
River in the Russian-occupied Luhansk region, it said. The bridge was used by 
Russian forces to transport personnel, weapons and military supplies, according 
to the General Staff.

   Ukraine's recent success with drone strikes that keep Russian troops pinned 
down on the front line, disrupt Russian supply lines in the rear and damage oil 
facilities have brought a significant change in the war, Western analysts say.

   "Russia's spring-summer 2026 offensive has failed to achieve operationally 
significant gains thus far, and Russian forces' rate of advance in June 2026 
(was) a fraction of the rate of advance that Russian forces achieved in June 
2025," the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, said 
in an assessment late Wednesday.