Russian Massive Strike on Kyiv Kills 18 Across Ukraine; Apartment Building Hit in Capital
Russian forces launched a large-scale missile and drone assault on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities overnight Monday-Tuesday, killing at least 18 across Ukraine, the largest single Russian strike of the early-summer offensive. Residential buildings in Kyiv were damaged; people are feared trapped under apartment-building rubble. President Volodymyr Zelensky has appealed for more US and European air-defence support. The strike comes alongside Russia’s anticipated summer offensive ramp-up and the constrained Ukrainian Patriot interceptor stockpile.
The Kyiv apartment-building strike is the most significant residential-area Russian strike on the Ukrainian capital since the early phase of the war. Each Patriot PAC-3 MSE interceptor costs roughly $4 million and is produced at a constrained rate of around 600 per year industry-wide. The US redirect to the Iran theatre during the war removed several batteries from the Ukraine pipeline; Hegseth’s “find a way” signal Saturday on US air-defence support to Ukraine becomes more operationally relevant if the Iran framework holds and Patriot replenishment to Ukraine can resume. Russian Geran-2 attack drones are produced at a rate of around 5,000 per month. Ukrainian air defences shot down a majority of incoming drones but the missile-strike portion penetrated.