Russia launches large-scale airstrikes on Ukraine; at least 22 civilians killed, Ukrainian authorities say
According to Ukrainian officials, Russian forces carried out a major wave of missile and drone strikes against multiple Ukrainian cities overnight on June 1–2, 2026, resulting in at least 22 civilian deaths and more than 130 injuries.
The Ukrainian Air Force reported that Russian troops deployed a total of 73 missiles and 656 attack drones in the operation. The munitions included 33 Iskander-M ballistic missiles, 27 Kh-101 cruise missiles, five Kalibr cruise missiles, and eight Tsirkon hypersonic missiles. Ukrainian air defense units intercepted a significant number of the incoming weapons, though dozens still reached their intended targets.
The strikes hit several cities, including Kyiv, Dnipro, Kharkiv, and Zaporizhzhia. In the capital Kyiv, at least six people were killed and 63 injured, among them three children. A nine-story residential building in the Podilskyi district partially collapsed. Ukrainian authorities described the incident as a “double-tap strike,” stating that a second attack hit the same location after emergency responders had arrived.
The highest number of casualties was reported in the central city of Dnipro, where 16 people were killed and 42 injured. Local emergency services said that a subsequent strike hit the city while rescue workers were still searching through the rubble; no specific time interval between the two attacks was provided.
The Russian Ministry of Defence issued a statement on the strikes, asserting that the targets were Ukrainian military infrastructure, defence industrial facilities, and energy grids, and that all designated objectives had been successfully hit.
In response, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for additional air defence support from Western allies, stating that Ukraine’s current systems remain insufficient to counter the scale of Russian strikes.
The attacks took place while efforts to negotiate a ceasefire were still ongoing.