Ukraine’s capital under attack
As the world looks away, Russia’s war creeps back to Kyiv.
July 1, 2025 -
Joshua Kroeker
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Articles and CommentaryHot Topics
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.
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Kyiv, Russian invasion of Ukraine, Ukraine at war
