Russia attacks Ukraine’s two largest cities, Kyiv and Kharkiv

Russian forces attacked Ukraine’s two largest cities on Sunday (30 June), with missile fragments falling on a suburban Kyiv apartment building and a guided bomb killing one person in Kharkiv.

More than 28 months into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Russian forces maintain regular attacks on Ukrainian cities as well as on energy infrastructure.

Attacks on Kyiv are less frequent than other cities, although the capital endured a series of assaults in March. Kharkiv has come under regular attack, but military analysts say the frequency has dipped since the United States authorised Ukrainian use of its weapons on certain Russian targets.

In Kyiv’s Obolon suburb, the local military administration said falling fragments from a Russian missile started a fire and damaged balconies on a 14-storey apartment building on Sunday.

Emergency services, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said five female residents were treated for stress, and Mayor Vitali Klitschko said 10 residents had been evacuated.

Emergency services posted a picture online showing at least four blackened balconies.

The head of the military administration of Kyiv region said missile fragments had also fallen outside the capital, causing injuries and damage, though no details were provided.

Russian forces were prevented from advancing on Kyiv in the early weeks of the February 2022 invasion and were redeployed along the 1,000-km front line in the east.

In Kharkiv, which never fell into Russian hands in the early stages of the war, a guided bomb started a fire and killed a delivery service driver outside a depot on Sunday.

Regional Governor Oleh Synehubov said nine people were injured, including an 8-month-old infant. Pictures posted online showed the depot and trucks outside it badly damaged.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in a post on Telegram, said Russia had used more than 800 guided bombs on Ukrainian targets in the past week. He issued a fresh plea in his nightly video address for better weapons systems.

“The sooner the world helps us deal with the Russian combat aircraft launching these bombs, the sooner we can strike – justifiably strike – Russian military infrastructure…and the closer we will be to peace,” he said.

Russia says Ukraine launched scores of drones

Russia’s air defence systems destroyed 36 drones that Ukraine launched at three regions bordering Ukraine, Russia’s defence ministry said on Monday.

Eighteen drones were downed over the Bryansk region in Russia’s west, nine were destroyed in the Kursk region south of Bryansk and nine over the Belgorod region further south, the ministry said on the Telegram messaging app.

Governors of the Bryansk and Kursk region said on Telegram that there were no injuries or extensive damage as a result of the attacks. Russian officials often do not disclose the full extent of damage inflicted by Ukrainian attacks.

Reuters could not independently verify the reports. There was no immediate comment from Ukraine.

Kyiv has said attacks on Russia’s military, transport and energy infrastructure are in response to Moscow’s continuous attacks on Ukraine’s territory since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

(Edited by Georgi Gotev)

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