Ukraine’s Air Force said Russia launched its largest drone assault on Kyiv late Thursday, injuring at least 23 people and damaging multiple buildings across the capital, just hours after United States President Donald Trump spoke with Russia’s Vladimir Putin.

The ICIR reports that Trump called Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday but said that his conversation with Putin yielded no progress toward ending the war. At the same time, the Kremlin maintained that Moscow would continue working to address the conflict’s “root causes.”

Ukraine’s Air Force announced this on Friday, July 4, that air raid sirens, the whine of kamikaze drones, and booming detonations reverberated from early evening until dawn as Russia launched a total of 539 drones and 11 missiles.

Reuters reported that the officials said the drone assault damaged around 40 apartment buildings, passenger railway infrastructure, five schools and kindergartens, several cafés, and numerous vehicles across six of the city’s 10 districts.

Ukraine further reported that the Russian shelling killed five people in and around the eastern city of Pokrovsk, a strategic location that has been under sustained Russian assault for months.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who is due to speak to Trump later on Friday about the war and a United States pause in some deliveries of air defence missiles, called the attack “deliberately massive and cynical.”

“Notably, the first air raid alerts in our cities and regions yesterday began to blare almost simultaneously with media reports discussing a phone call between President Trump and Putin,” Zelenskiy said on X.

“Yet again, Russia is showing it has no intention of ending the war and terror,” he added, calling for increased pressure on Russia and more air defence equipment.

Russian airstrikes on Kyiv have intensified in recent weeks, with some of the deadliest attacks of the war targeting the capital, home to three million people.

Washington’s decision earlier this week to suspend certain shipments of critical weapons to Ukraine has sparked warnings from Kyiv, cautioning that the move could undermine its ability to repel escalating airstrikes and battlefield advances.

On Friday, Zelenskiy urged the international community to step up pressure on Moscow to put an end to its “dumb, destructive behavior”.

“For every such strike against people and human life, they must feel appropriate sanctions and other blows to their economy, their revenues, and their infrastructure,” he said.

Ukraine’s Air Force reported that it intercepted 478 Russian air weapons overnight. Despite this, airstrikes hit eight locations across the country, with a total of nine missiles and 63 drones launched, the military added.

Both Russia and Ukraine deny deliberately targeting civilians in the war that began with Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022. However, thousands of civilians, mostly Ukrainians, have been killed in the conflict. While military casualties are believed to be significantly higher, neither side discloses official figures.

Nanji Nandang VENLEY

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Nanji is an investigative journalist with the ICIR. She has years of experience in reporting and broadcasting human angle stories, gender inequalities, minority stories, and human rights issues.