Russian attacks kill 4 across Ukraine, striking Kyiv for second straight day

Russian missile and drone strikes killed four people across Ukraine on July 8, including two in Kyiv, where the capital was hit twice in one day.

Ukrainian officials said the first attack came shortly after midnight and killed one woman in Kyiv, while a second drone strike later hit the Desnianskyi district and killed another person. Two people were also killed in Kharkiv, and one person was injured in Zaporizhzhia.

Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 169 long-range strike drones and seven missiles, including five ballistic missiles. It said air defenses shot down or jammed 139 drones, but the missiles and 20 drones still hit targets at 15 locations.

The strikes came as Ukraine continued trying to blunt repeated Russian attacks on cities and infrastructure while also stepping up its own long-range strikes on Russian energy facilities.

Kyiv hit twice in one day

Kyiv city administration head Tymur Tkachenko said the first strike in the capital damaged administrative buildings, warehouses, a garage complex and several trams. He said a woman was killed and two other people were injured.

Hours later, another Russian drone struck Kyiv’s Desnianskyi district, killing a second person, according to Tkachenko. The timing of the attacks made the capital one of the clearest examples of Russia’s sustained pressure on Ukrainian cities.

Kyiv’s State Emergency Service said the early attack also damaged administrative buildings, warehouses, a garage complex and tram vehicles. The separate official accounts pointed to damage across both public and transport infrastructure in the city.

The repeated strikes also underscored the limits of Ukraine’s air defenses under sustained pressure. Officials said most of the incoming drones were intercepted or jammed, but several missiles and drones still got through.

Casualties beyond the capital

In Kharkiv, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said two people were killed and 20 others were injured in overnight strikes. The losses there accounted for most of the day’s death toll outside Kyiv.

In Zaporizhzhia, regional head Ivan Fedorov said a Russian guided bomb injured two people on Tuesday night. The separate incidents showed the breadth of the attacks across several regions in the same period.

Taken together, the strikes highlighted how Russian attacks continued to hit both the capital and major regional centers in a single wave of violence.

Military claims and retaliation

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine struck oil refineries in Russia’s Saratov and Tatarstan regions. The attacks fit Ukraine’s broader campaign against Russian energy infrastructure.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said it struck military-industrial facilities in Kyiv, including a plant making components for Flamingo cruise missiles and a facility assembling mid- and long-range drones. Those claims could not be independently verified in the AP report.

The back-and-forth attacks have become a central feature of the war, with each side trying to pressure the other’s logistics, industry and fuel supply. Ukrainian officials have said repeated strikes on Russian refineries have helped deepen fuel shortages there.

At the same time, President Donald Trump said the U.S. would give Ukraine a license to manufacture Patriot air defense systems. If carried out, that could affect Ukraine’s future air-defense pipeline, although no concrete agreement was detailed in the reported comments.

What officials were watching next

Officials were expected to update casualty counts and damage assessments later in the day. That is especially true for Kyiv, where separate attacks struck the capital hours apart.

Further reporting could also clarify the extent of damage in Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia, and whether the toll rises as rescue and recovery work continues.

Another open question is how much damage Ukraine’s strikes caused at the Russian refineries and industrial sites Kyiv said it hit. The confirmed effect of those retaliatory attacks remained unclear in the initial reports.

The latest strikes came amid a broader escalation of Russian attacks on Kyiv in early July 2026, and they showed the continuing strain on Ukraine’s air defenses even as the country tries to keep pressure on Russian energy assets.