Russian ballistic missiles, drones rock Kyiv, fires break out, 4 killed

Editor's Note: This is a developing story and will be updated.

Four people have been killed, and 15 others injured after Russia launched drones and ballistic missiles against Kyiv on July 8, with explosions heard in the capital shortly before air raid alerts were activated, according to Kyiv Independent journalists on the ground.

The missile attack that began shortly after midnight was the third ballistic strike on the capital in just six days. Russian Shahed-type drones targeted Kyiv throughout the following day.

Ukraine's Air Force warned of the threat of Russian ballistic missiles heading toward the capital in the early hours of the morning as local officials urged residents to remain in shelters.

Tymur Tkachenko, the head of the city's military administration, reported that as a result of the missile strikes on Kyiv, one woman was killed, while two people were injured.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said a missile strike sparked a fire at warehouse facilities in the city's Desnianskyi district, while a separate fire broke out in a non-residential building in the Sviatoshynskyi district.

"In the Sviatoshynskyi district, an administrative building and storage facilities caught fire. Two people were injured, one of whom was hospitalized," the State Emergency Service reported.

At another location in the district, a fire broke out at a garage complex. Trams and an administrative building were damaged.

As of 08:30 a.m. local time, emergency services were continuing to tackle fires at two locations in the Sviatoshyn and Desnianskyi districts, according to the State Emergency Service.

Russian drones continued to attack Kyiv throughout the day, and air-raid sirens sounded several times in the morning, with multiple drones flying over the city and explosions reported.

Three people were killed as a result of a drone crash in the Desnianskyi district of Kyiv at around 12 p.m., Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.

According to Klitschko, a drone crashed into a three-story non-residential building next to a market, and near a gas distribution station.

At 5:29 p.m. local time, a drone struck a 25-story residential building on the 16th floor in the Desnianskyi district, Klitschko added. ‌‌Emergency services were heading to the scene.

Overall, 14 people, including a 17-year-old boy, were injured in Russian daytime drone attacks.

Russian troops launched five ballistic missiles, two Kh-31P anti-radar missiles, and 169 drones against Ukraine overnight on July 8, Ukraine's Air Force reported.

Air defenses shot down 139 drones, while five ballistic missiles struck four locations, and 20 drones hit targets at 11 locations. Debris from intercepted targets fell at seven sites, and the two Kh-31P missiles failed to reach their targets.

As Russian troops' gains on the front line have stalled, Moscow has increasingly relied on ballistic missiles to inflict maximum damage in large-scale aerial strikes on Ukrainian cities.

Ukraine's ability to protect its cities from Russian ballistic missiles depends heavily on its dwindling supply of Patriot interceptors — ammunition for the U.S.-made air defense system that remains the only weapon to have proven effective against ballistic threats.

"We simply don't have the missiles. We have nothing to use against ballistic missiles," Serhii "Flash" Beskrestnov, a military expert and adviser to Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, told Radio NV on July 6.

The latest attack comes one day after Russia launched one of its deadliest attacks on Kyiv overnight on July 6, killing at least 26 people and injuring dozens more across the capital and surrounding Kyiv Oblast.

That assault followed another major attack just four days earlier on July 2, when Russian missiles and drones killed 31 people and injured more than 100 others in Kyiv.

Meanwhile, at the July 7–8 summit in Ankara, President Volodymyr Zelensky reiterated Europe's need for its own "effective anti-ballistic systems and missiles," warning that ballistic missiles remain "Russia's last major advantage."

Zelensky urged European allies that their need for affordable, mass-produced anti-ballistic systems "cannot wait until 2030 or beyond" and must be met "as soon as possible, in fact, today."

"It's about providing the strongest possible protection. First of all, protection for hundreds of millions of Europeans, and that protection is needed today, not years from now," Zelensky said in his address at the Defense Industry Forum.

Zelensky once again pleaded to Western allies for more air defense missiles to counter ballistic missiles, while adding that Ukraine is developing its own anti-ballistic interceptors and hopes "it will deliver real strong results."