Russia Pummels Kyiv With Missiles, Drones Overnight
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- Russia fired waves of ballistic missiles—including hypersonic Zircon missiles—and strike drones at Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities overnight July 1-2, with open-source monitors reporting up to 10 strategic bombers launched, per the Kyiv Independent.
- Mayor Vitali Klitschko reported at least five people injured in Kyiv, with a hotel in the Shevchenkyivskyi district (the Cityhotel Residence) set ablaze by a drone strike, a 9-story building collapsed in the Desnianskyi district, and an apartment building destroyed in Shevchenkivskyi.
- Five medics were injured in the Shevchenkivskyi district when a building housing an ambulance station was damaged, with one paramedic in critical condition, Klitschko said.
- President Zelensky, speaking alongside Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin hours before the attack, said Ukraine had intelligence showing Russia was preparing another mass strike—occurring once or twice a week.
- Russian strikes also hit Zaporizhzhia, Pavlohrad in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, Sumy, Kharkiv, Mykolaiv, Konotop, and Kherson, with explosions reported across all locations and drones attacking Kyiv "from all directions," per Kyiv City Military Administration Head Tymur Tkachenko.
- WOG announced its gas stations in Kyiv and seven oblasts would close from 9 p.m. to 7 a.m. starting July 1 due to overnight attack threats, with similar restrictions in Sumy, Chernihiv, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipropetrovsk, Kherson, and parts of Poltava.
- The escalation followed Russia's pledge to retaliate for Ukraine's June drone strikes on Moscow, which disabled the Moscow Oil Refinery and deepened a nationwide fuel shortage—and came the same day a Kharkiv glide-bomb attack killed a 15-year-old and injured 32 civilians.
Why it matters: Russia's overnight barrage—with hypersonic Zircons and up to 10 strategic bombers in the mix—destroyed a hotel, an ambulance station, and a 9-story apartment block in Kyiv, leaving five civilians and five medics injured (one critical). The attack underscores Moscow's stated retaliation for Ukraine's drone campaign that crippled the Moscow Oil Refinery, and the WOG gas-station closures across eight regions show how routine wartime shutdowns have become for Ukrainian civilians.
