Russia Launches ‘Massive’ Strikes Days After Ukrainian Drone Attack

Date: 06 June 2025 - 22:43

News ID: ۱۴۰۲۹۹

KYIV (Dispatches) - Russia launched large-scale drone and missile strikes on Ukraine’s capital and other parts of the country early on Friday, officials have said.
At least five people were killed and 49 injured in the strikes, according to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Russia’s defense ministry said the strikes were in response to “terrorist acts by the Kyiv regime”, adding that it had targeted military sites.
It said its armed forces “overnight launched a massive strike with high-precision long-range air, sea and ground-based weapons, as well as attack drones”.
The attack came after Russian President Vladimir Putin warned U.S. President Donald Trump he would respond to Ukraine’s recent strikes on Russian airbases.
Russia’s latest attack on Ukraine comes days after Kyiv launched its largest long-range drone strike on at least 40 Russian warplanes at four military bases.
Zelensky said 117 drones were used in the so-called Spider’s Web operation by the SBU security service, striking “34% of Russia’s strategic cruise missile carriers”.
Authorities say Friday’s attacks included 38 cruise missiles, which is the kind Ukraine targeted in Sunday’s operation.
Zelensky said that five deaths had been confirmed in the strikes - all employees of Ukraine’s state emergency services.
He said the attack used more than 400 drones and more than 40 missiles, and the number of people injured “may increase” in a post on X.
The Ukrainian leader added that “now is exactly the moment when America, Europe, and everyone around the world can stop this war together by pressuring Russia”
He also made a thinly veiled reference to Trump’s apparent unwillingness to put pressure on Russia.
The city’s metro transport system was disrupted by a Russian strike that hit and damaged tracks between stations, Kyiv’s military administration said. Ukraine’s state rail company Ukrzaliznytsia said it was also detouring some trains due to railway damage in the region.
In the Solomianskyi district, a Russian drone slammed into the side of apartment building, leaving a gaping hole and burn marks, a Reuters photographer at the scene said.
Falling concrete blocks from the building crushed cars parked below. Two police investigators were examining what appeared to be the drone’s engine.
Earlier in the night, Reuters reporters heard the sound of Russian kamikaze drones buzzing in the sky, accompanied by the sounds of outgoing fire from Ukrainian anti-aircraft fire.
Reuters witnesses reported a series of booming explosions powerful enough to rattle windows far from the impact sites.
Some Kyiv residents sought shelter in metro stations, or in underground car parks.
Ukraine’s air force said the country had been targeted with drones and missiles overnight.
Russian forces struck industrial facilities and infrastructure in the western city of Ternopil, leaving parts of it without power, mayor Serhii Nadal said.
The regional administration said the attack injured five people and recommended residents stay inside due to a high concentration of toxic substances in the air after a fire.
Five people were injured in the northwestern city of Lutsk where the attack also damaged private homes, educational institutions and government buildings, according to mayor Ihor Polishchuk.
Russia has accused Ukraine of being behind a deadly bomb attack on a bridge over a railway line in western Russia at the weekend that was blown up just as a train carrying 388 passengers to Moscow was passing underneath.
The Kremlin confirmed on Friday that the big overnight strikes had been a response to what it called Kyiv’s “acts of terrorism”.
Earlier this month, direct peace talks between Russia and Ukraine took place in Istanbul, but ended without a major breakthrough.
Ukrainian negotiators said Russia rejected an “unconditional ceasefire” - a key demand of Kyiv and its Western allies, including the U.S.