Ukraine’s capital under attack

Rescuers at rest after a ballistic missile hit an apartment building in central Kyiv on June 22, 2024. Photo: Justin Yau

Kyiv — For much of the past three years, Ukraine’s capital has stood as a symbol of resistance, a city alive even under threat, a European capital that continued to function despite the grinding war at its edges. That reality is now beginning to shift — violently, and with little notice from the world.

In recent weeks, Kyiv has come under an escalating barrage of Russian airstrikes more intense than at any point since the full-scale invasion began in February 2022. In the early hours of June 22, a Russian ballistic missile tore into a residential building in the Shevchenkivskyi district, killing nine civilians, including an 11-year-old girl. The strike came during a larger offensive in which more than 300 Shahed drones and several cruise and ballistic missiles rained down on the capital and other Ukrainian cities.

The aftermath of Russia’s June 17 attack on Kyiv. Photo: Joshua Kroeker

The attack mirrored another just days earlier. On June 17, another ballistic missile struck a nine-story apartment complex in Kyiv’s Solomyanskyi district, killing 18 civilians and injuring over 100. The building partially collapsed. For hours afterward, the city was shrouded in smoke, its residents reeling from what has now become a grim routine.

That same night, Ukraine’s air force recorded the launch of 175 drones, over 14 cruise missiles, and at least two ballistic missiles targeting the capital — a level of aggression that would have triggered international outcry a year ago. Now, such figures are reported with grim regularity and met with muted responses abroad.

Russia’s campaign is not only intensifying — it is evolving. The once-feared Shahed drones, already known for their terrorizing noise and unpredictability, are now being deployed in numbers that would have seemed unthinkable months ago. Recent attacks have seen between 200 and 500 drones launched in a single night, each reportedly carrying nearly twice the explosive payload of earlier models. The aim is not only destruction — it is exhaustion.

These attacks are not coincidental. Since the return of Donald Trump to the US presidency, Russia has dramatically stepped up its aerial campaign against Ukraine. With the US now seeking a negotiated settlement to the war and withholding further lethal support to Ukraine – particularly in the form of air defence systems – Moscow is seizing the opportunity to press its advantage both militarily and psychologically.

The absence of robust western deterrence has coincided with a renewed Russian push along the frontlines that stretch over 1,000 kilometres. The logic is simple: escalate on every front while the international community is distracted and Kyiv remains under-defended.

Rescuers at work in Kyiv on June 17th. Photo: Joshua Kroeker

That distraction has a name — the Middle East. The eruption of conflict between Iran and Israel, as well as the growing strategic importance of the region for the United States, has pushed Ukraine down the list of global priorities. In Washington, efforts like Senator Lindsey Graham’s proposed sanctions on Russia have stalled. In Europe, policy attention is splintered between domestic politics, regional energy security, and fears of broader Middle Eastern instability.

The result: while world leaders voice concern, Russia continues to devastate Ukrainian cities with near impunity.

Kyiv is bearing the brunt of this new phase. What was once considered a relatively secure urban hub is now subjected to weekly — even nightly — terror. The streets are no longer simply gritty with defiance; they are covered in ash and debris. Air raid sirens have become a near-permanent background to city life. Civilians shelter underground not for hours, but for entire nights. Night after night.

For Ukrainians, the international community, for its part, appears fatigued — if not indifferent. Kyiv’s destruction is happening not in the shadows but in broad daylight, broadcast in photos, numbers, and statements from Ukrainian officials. Yet the world is increasingly tuning out.

What is happening in Kyiv is not only a humanitarian tragedy — it is a strategic one. Russia is demonstrating that it can shift the war’s tempo, scale, and targets with minimal pushback. The longer Ukraine is left without adequate support, particularly in air defence, the more emboldened Moscow will become.

If the destruction of Kyiv becomes normalized, it sets a dangerous precedent — that full-scale aerial terror against a European capital can proceed with little cost. And it signals to other autocratic regimes that time and brutality, not diplomacy or restraint, may be the winning formula.

As global attention pivots elsewhere, Russia’s war in Ukraine is not ending — it is escalating. And while Kyiv burns, the silence of the world speaks volumes.

Joshua R. Kroeker is an independent researcher, founder of the boutique analytic firm Reaktion Group, an analyst at the political analysis project R.Politik, and an editor at RANE. He holds degrees from the University of British Columbia in Canada, Heidelberg University in Germany and St Petersburg State University, Russia.

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Kyiv, Russian invasion of Ukraine, Ukraine at war