Ukraine’s capital Kyiv came under a deadly Russian attack early Monday morning, on the eve of a critical NATO summit in Turkey that US President Donald Trump plans to attend.
Massive explosions lit up the night sky as ballistic missiles and drones hammered parts of the city, killing at least 14 people in the city and three others in the surrounding region, with dozens more wounded, city officials said.
Residential buildings were badly damaged in the assault, leaving people trapped in multi-story apartment blocks and an entire family that was killed pulled from the rubble, while cars were seen burning on city streets.
There was “destruction and damage” in four districts of the city, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said, adding that the Podilsky district was hit the hardest.
Rescuers evacuated residents, including children, from the upper floors of a damaged building in the district early Monday, while many in the capital spent hours in air raid shelters.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had warned just hours earlier that Moscow was “preparing a new massive strike,” and the fresh assault comes just days after a ferocious Russian attack on Kyiv killed 30 people last Thursday – the third-deadliest attack on the capital since the war began.
“This is typical of Putin: right after America’s Independence Day and before the NATO Summit in Ankara,” Zelensky said Sunday in a post on X ahead of the attack.
Residential buildings in Kyiv’s southeastern Darnytskyi district, an area of the city that suffered significant damage last week, were also badly damaged in the Monday strikes.
The lethality of the Russian assaults on Kyiv in the last week displays the challenge Ukraine faces in protecting its capital as Russia innovates and steps up its attacks.
None of the ballistic missiles fired at Ukraine on Monday were shot down by air defenses, according to data from its air force, which said 29 ballistic missiles and 18 attack drones had struck 34 locations across the country. More than 350 drones and 66 missiles were launched toward Ukraine, with Kyiv the main target, it said.
Monday’s attacks led to power outages across a number of regions in Ukraine, including Kyiv, Sumy, Kharkiv and Dnipropetrovsk, the country electricity transmission agency.
Russia’s defense ministry said it used “high-precision, long-range weapons” to target military-industrial facilities and fuel and energy sites in Kyiv on Monday. It said the attacks were in response to Ukrainian attacks on civilian infrastructure in Russian territory.
War in focus at NATO summit
Russia’s war in Ukraine will form the backdrop to the NATO summit this week in Turkey, where Trump will meet with Zelensky. The pair spoke on the phone on Saturday.
Trump then offered again to help end the war on Sunday during a nearly 90-minute call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to Russia’s foreign ministry.
The US president had vowed to solve the war within 24 hours of taking office for a second time, but more than 500 days into his current term, the administration has yet to find a path to peace between the neighbors, despite multiple attempts.
Ahead of the summit, Zelensky is using the attacks on Kyiv to renew his plea for allies to supply Ukraine with missiles for Patriot systems.
The “insufficient supply of interceptor missiles” was the reason Ukraine was unable to shoot down any ballistic missiles in Monday’s assault, Zelensky said in a statement.
“It is critically important that the world – first and foremost the United States and our European partners – come out of the NATO Summit in Ankara with strong decisions in support of our air defense,” he said
“As long as Patriot missiles remain in our allies’ stockpiles, Russia is only encouraged to keep ‘vanquishing’ residential buildings,” he added.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that the country “urgently needs more air defence. We will discuss it this week in Ankara at the @NATO Summit.”
Zelensky sees Patriots as key for shooting down Russia’s arsenal of ballistic missiles, loitering munitions and increasingly its Geran-4 jet-powered drones –– which fly too fast for Kyiv’s mobile fire groups and can only be shot down with ground-to-air missiles or fighter jets.
The latest versions of Patriot interceptors are capable of engaging incoming short-range ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and drones at altitudes up to 15 kilometers (9.3 miles) and distances of up to 35 kilometers.
Geran-4 UAV’s were used in both Monday and last Thursday’s attacks.
Russian forces have also stepped up efforts to take more of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region – a key objective for the Kremlin, and Ukraine’s cities face near-nightly attacks from Moscow’s drones and missiles.
Ukraine, meantime, has also recently ramped up missile and drone attacks against key infrastructure deep inside Russian territory, including oil refineries, ports and military factories. Russia shot down 519 Ukrainian drones launched toward it overnight into Monday, the state news agency TASS reported.
This story has been updated with additional information.
CNN’s Kevin Liptak and Tim Lister contributed reporting.
