Russian missiles hit Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities overnight, killing at least three, ahead of NATO summit
Missile attacks on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities killed at least three people and wounded dozens overnight, as President Zelensky prepared to meet Donald Trump at a NATO summit in Ankara.
Overnight barrage on Kyiv
Multiple explosions rocked Kyiv in the early hours of Wednesday, with the first blast heard even before air raid sirens sounded. A series of four more detonations followed, according to AFP journalists on the ground. Mayor Vitali Klitschko said the strikes caused fires in a storage area and a non-residential building in two districts on opposite banks of the Dnipro River. Two people were injured, one requiring hospital treatment, and the air alert lasted about an hour. Klitschko urged residents to take cover, writing on social media:
The enemy is attacking the capital with ballistic missiles. Stay in shelters!
Casualties mount across the country
The Kyiv attack killed at least one woman, confirmed by Tymur Tkachenko, head of the city's military administration. In the southern Mykolaiv region, a Russian guided aerial bomb killed a mother and her child and wounded two others. Further east, four people were wounded in Dnipropetrovsk from drones and artillery, two in Zaporizhzhia, and two in Kharkiv, where more than 20 houses were damaged. The overnight toll added to the 30 people killed in Monday's strikes, which were the deadliest on the capital in weeks.
- Kyiv
- 3 people
- Odesa
- 10 people
- Mykolaiv
- 4 people
- Dnipropetrovsk
- 4 people
- Zaporizhzhia
- 2 people
- Kharkiv
- 2 people
Odesa hit with cluster munitions
Earlier on Tuesday evening, a ballistic missile struck the port city of Odesa, injuring 10 people, eight of whom were hospitalised. Regional governor Oleh Kiper accused Russia of using a cluster munition warhead, saying:
The attack set a building at a production facility and several cars on fire.Once again, cynically ignoring the norms of international humanitarian law, the Russian army struck the civilian area of Odesa, using a ballistic missile with a cluster warhead.
Summit diplomacy in Ankara
The strikes came as President Volodymyr Zelensky prepared to meet US President Donald Trump on the sidelines of a NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey. Zelensky renewed his call for Ukraine to join the alliance, stating his country "belongs in NATO". He also urged European partners to ramp up production of anti-ballistic missile systems, as Kyiv struggles with dwindling interceptor stocks against Russia's increasing use of ballistic missiles.
- Russian ballistic missile with cluster warhead strikes Odesa, injuring 10 people.
- Multiple explosions in Kyiv; fires in storage and non-residential buildings, two injured.
- Russian guided bomb kills mother and child in Mykolaiv; attacks reported in Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kharkiv.
- Trump and Zelensky scheduled to meet at NATO summit in Ankara.
Drone cooperation deals signed
Separately, Ukraine announced the signing of military drone cooperation agreements with Denmark, the Netherlands, and Estonia, and said it was preparing similar deals with Germany, Finland, Norway, and Canada. The mechanism, launched earlier in July, allows partner countries to purchase Ukrainian weapons and technologies, capitalising on Kyiv's battlefield drone expertise developed over more than four years of war.
