One person was killed and 13 others injured after Russian missile and drone strikes hit Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, on Sunday, hours after Ukraine launched a wave of drones targeting e-commerce warehouses in Russia.
The latest exchange underscores the escalating conflict as the war enters its fifth year, with Ukraine contending not only with near-daily Russian bombardments but also with growing domestic political tensions following a sudden reshuffle of its wartime military leadership.
AFP journalists in Kyiv reported hearing several explosions shortly after Ukraine’s air force issued a Telegram warning about incoming ballistic missiles. One blast was powerful enough to trigger car alarms across the city centre, according to an AFP journalist.
Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said via Telegram that one person died and 13 others were wounded in the attack. Police said six districts of the capital were targeted.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko and local officials said an apartment building in the Solomianskyi district sustained damage, while a supermarket caught fire. In the Sviatoshynskyi district, a residential house was engulfed in flames. Authorities also reported damage to a shopping and entertainment centre in the Dniprovskyi district, an apartment building in the Shevchenkivskyi district, and a non-residential building.
Elsewhere in Ukraine, Russian drone strikes killed one person in the central Dnipropetrovsk region, which borders the frontline, regional official Oleksandr Ganzha said on Telegram.
On the Russian side, authorities said a Ukrainian strike claimed one life in the frontline Kursk region. Regional Governor Alexander Khinshtein announced the casualty on Telegram.
Russia has maintained an almost daily campaign of missile and drone attacks on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities since launching its full-scale invasion in 2022.
On Saturday, Ukraine carried out drone attacks on e-commerce warehouses in Russia’s Moscow and Tambov regions. The strikes reportedly killed eight people and sparked major fires.
The same day, Russian attacks across southeastern Ukraine killed five people and left nearly 20 others injured.
“In response to Russian strikes on our civilian infrastructure and on our cities and communities, two major logistics facilities were hit – in the Moscow and Tambov regions,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had said on X.
He alleged the centres were used “to supply sanctioned components for drone production and navigation equipment”.
Ukraine has intensified long-range attacks inside Russian territory in recent months, describing the operations as retaliation for years of Russian bombardments. Kyiv has branded the campaign “long-range sanctions”, with many of the strikes targeting Russia’s oil infrastructure and contributing to a worsening fuel crisis in one of the world’s largest oil-producing nations.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said more than 370 Ukrainian drones were launched toward the Russian capital overnight. He also stated that nearly 1,892 drones heading for Moscow were intercepted between July 11 and July 18.
Amid the continuing conflict, Ukraine is also facing rare public unrest. Thousands of people gathered in major cities for a third consecutive day on Saturday to protest the dismissal of Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov.
Fedorov, known for spearheading Ukraine’s digital transformation, was removed by President Zelensky during an unexpected government reshuffle despite what many viewed as improving momentum on the battlefield. His dismissal sparked an uncommon wave of public criticism.
The protests coincided with two days of meetings between Zelensky and senior military commanders, prompting media speculation that the president could be considering replacing Army Chief Oleksandr Syrsky.
During his roughly six months in office, Fedorov reportedly clashed repeatedly with Syrsky, 60, over efforts to digitise and modernise Ukraine’s armed forces as they continue to endure more than four years of war.
