Russian missiles and drones ripped through Kyiv overnight on 31 July, collapsing apartment buildings and setting fires in several districts of the city. The attack killed at least six civilians and injured 52. The strikes caused destruction in Sviatoshynskyi, Solomianskyi, Holosiivskyi and Shevchenkivskyi districts and were described by city officials as one of the heaviest attacks on the capital in weeks. Ukraine shot down most of 300 explosive drones, but five of eight ballistic missiles reached the city, hitting apartment buildings.

Russians hit high-rises and kill civilians

Kyiv mayor Vitalii Klitschko reported that the strikes destroyed homes and killed six civilians. Russians killed four people in Kyiv’s Sviatoshynskyi district when a Russian missile struck an apartment building, collapsing its entire section. Klitschko called the damage in Sviatoshynskyi horrific. Two more people died in Solomianskyi district where a missile hit another residential building.

In the morning, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy shared a video showing the ruined section of a high-rise in Sviatoshynskyi district, captioned:

“Kyiv. Rocket strike. Direct hit on a residential building. People under the rubble. All services are on site. Russians are terrorists.”

Head of the Kyiv Military Administration Tymur Tkachenko said 52 civilians needed medical help after the strikes, and medics hospitalized 30 of them. Two civilians were rescued alive from under the rubble.

Interior minister Ihor Klymenko reported that one of the rescued was a man, blocked under the rubble of a collapsed apartment section. He fell from the second floor to the first and got trapped by debris, so emergency workers broke a hole through a neighboring wall and used a tunnel to reach him safely. The emergency workers kept voice contact with him for three hours during the entire operation.

Among the injured are three police officers who were driving to a call. Nine children were among the injured. 

“This is the largest number of injured children in one night in Kyiv since the start of the full-scale war,” Klitchko says

Klymenko told Suspilne that doctors tried to save the six-year-old boy but could not. 

“The boy was rescued, doctors fought for his life, but sadly they could not save him.”

In Holosiivskyi district a missile damaged a school and a kindergarten and caused fires. In Shevchenkivskyi district the blast wave blew out windows in a children’s medical ward and burned parked cars. 

More civilian casualties expected

Tkachenko and Klymenko warned that rescuers continue to search the rubble and that the number of victims will grow. The city opened assistance points for those who lost their homes and promised payments to cover temporary rent and support.

Air raid sirens began around 23:00 on 30 July and Suspilne reported explosions soon after. Another siren sounded at 04:29 on 31 July warning of missiles, followed by more explosions across the city. The Kyiv Military Administration said that missiles and drones were used in the attack.

The Prosecutor’s Office opened a pre-trial investigation under article 438 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, treating the strike as a war crime because of the civilian deaths.

Air Force report on the scale of the assault

Ukraine’s Air Force said that from 18:00 on 30 July until the morning of 31 July Russians launched 317 aerial weapons: 309 Shahed one-way attack drones and decoy drones from Russian territory, and 8 Iskander-K cruise missiles. Air defenses destroyed or suppressed 291 targets: 288 drones and 3 missiles.

Despite this, five missiles, including one that hit an apartment building in Kyiv, and 21 drones struck 12 locations, while debris from intercepted targets fell in 19 places, almost all in the Ukrainian capital. The main target of the assault was Kyiv.