Russian drone and missile barrage on Kiev kills eight

KIEV

This handout photograph taken and released by Ukrainian State Emergency Service on June 23, 2025 shows a firefighter working outside a residential building following night Russian drone and missile strikes in Kiev, amid Russian invasion in Ukraine.

Ukraine said on Monday that Russia had fired dozens of drones and missiles at the country, killing eight in Kiev.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said six people were killed in Kiev and another person was left dead in Bila Tserkva just outside the capital.

Zelensky said Russia had launched 352 unmanned aerial vehicles - including Iranian-designed drones - and 16 missiles at Ukraine, adding that some of the munitions were provided to Moscow by North Korea.

"Everyone in countries neighbouring Russia, Iran and North Korea should be thinking carefully about whether they could protect lives if this coalition of murderers persists and continues spreading their terror," he added.

He also announced a visit on Monday to the United Kingdom -- one of Kyiv's staunchest allies -- where he said he would be discussing defence issues and sanctions on Russia with Ukraine's partners.

The visit comes ahead of a NATO summit later this week in The Hague.

Diplomatic efforts to end the three-year war have stalled, with the last direct meeting between the two sides almost three weeks ago and no follow-up talks scheduled.

AFP journalists in Kiev heard the buzzing of a drone flying over the city centre and explosions, as well as gunfire.

"Another massive attack on the capital. Possibly, several waves of enemy drones," said a statement from Tymur Tkachenko, head of Kiev's military administration.

Four people were killed in Shevchenkivsky district, where part of a residential high-rise building was destroyed, and another person was killed to the south in Bila Tserkva, said Interior Minister Igor Klymenko.

AFP journalists saw around 10 people sheltering in the basement of a residential building in the centre of the capital waiting for the attack to end, most of them scrolling their phones for news.

The latest strikes came after Ukrainian commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrsky vowed to intensify strikes on Russia.

"We will not just sit in defense because this brings nothing and eventually leads to the fact that we still retreat, lose people and territories," he told reporters, including AFP.

Syrsky said Ukraine would continue its strikes on Russian military targets, which he said had proved "effective".

"Of course we will continue. We will increase the scale and depth," he said.

Ukraine has launched retaliatory strikes on Russia throughout the war, targeting energy and military infrastructure sometimes hundreds of kilometres from the front line.

Kiev says the strikes are a fair response to deadly Russian attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure and civilians.

At least four people were killed in an overnight Russian strike on an apartment building in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk, while a strike on a Ukrainian army training ground later in the day killed three others, officials said.

In wide-ranging remarks, Syrsky conceded that Russia had some advantages in drone warfare, particularly in making fibre-optic drones that are tethered and difficult to jam.

"Here, unfortunately, they have an advantage in both the number and range of their use," he said.

He also claimed that Ukraine still held 90 square kilometres (35 square miles) of territory in Russia's Kursk region, where Kiev launched an audacious cross-border incursion last August.

"These are our pre-emptive actions in response to a possible enemy offensive," he said.

Russia said in April that it had gained full control of the Kursk region and denies that Kiev has a presence there.

Russia occupies around a fifth of Ukraine and claims to have annexed four Ukrainian regions as its own since launching its invasion in 2022 — in addition to Crimea, which it captured in 2014.

Kiev has accused Moscow of deliberately sabotaging a peace deal to prolong its full-scale offensive on the country and to seize more territory.

The Russian army said Sunday that it had captured the village of Petrivske in Ukraine's northeast Kharkiv region.

Russian forces also sent at least 47 drones and fired three missiles towards Ukraine between late Saturday and early Sunday, the Ukrainian air force said.