KYIV, Aug 5: At least 15 people were killed and 42 others injured after Russia launched a massive overnight missile and drone attack on Kyiv and the surrounding region, Ukrainian emergency authorities said on Wednesday.
According to Ukraine’s State Emergency Service, 14 people were killed and 27 injured across the wider Kyiv region, while one person died and 15 others were wounded in the capital.
The latest assault is part of a series of large-scale Russian ballistic missile strikes that have intensified during the summer, placing increasing pressure on Ukraine’s air defence systems.
Officials said fires broke out at multiple locations across the Brovary, Bucha and Fastiv districts following the strikes.
Large warehouse fires were reported in the city of Brovary and the villages of Velyka Dymerka, Kvitneve and Peremoha. Emergency crews also extinguished a fire involving vehicles at an enterprise in the Fastiv district.
In Bucha district, firefighters battled a warehouse blaze in the village of Chaiky after bringing another fire at a logistics facility in Sofiivska Borshchahivka under control.
In Kyiv city, emergency teams extinguished fires triggered by the strikes in the Obolonskyi, Sviatoshynskyi, Holosiivskyi and Desnianskyi districts, according to the Kyiv City Military Administration.
Ukraine said repeated large-scale ballistic missile attacks have become increasingly difficult to counter because of the limited availability of interceptor missiles for its US-supplied Patriot air defence systems, the only systems currently capable of intercepting ballistic missiles.
Meanwhile, Ukraine has intensified its own long-range attacks on Russian oil refineries and energy infrastructure.
Serhii Beskrestnov, an adviser to the Ukrainian President on defence technology development, said the conflict has entered a new phase of attrition.
“The enemy is attacking everything indiscriminately—retail warehouses, food storage facilities, logistics hubs, enterprises and building materials warehouses,” he said in a post on Facebook.
