Rescuers scour rubble as Kyiv mourns deadliest Russian attack in 2026

KYIV – Rescuers sifted through rubble in a search for survivors in Kyiv on July 3 as the Ukrainian capital observed a day of mourning, a day after a Russian missile and drone attack killed at least 30 people in the deadliest strike on the city in 2026.

The attack also wounded 92 people, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said. The parents of a 10-year-old boy who was hospitalised after the strike, along with a 15-year-old girl, remained unaccounted for.

Separately, a Russian drone attack on a house in the northern Sumy region killed four people, including a woman and her toddler daughter, the Prosecutor General’s Office said.

Flags flew at half-mast across Kyiv as rescue teams worked for a second day in the city. Forensic experts were also working to identify recovered remains.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said 10 people were still missing, with rescue operations continuing at three locations.

As excavators cleared debris, residents searched for belongings among the wreckage and laid flowers.

“We were praying to God that we would remain unharmed,” said Zoia, a 65-year-old pensioner whose apartment was damaged in the strike.

Tetiana Pryvalova, 27, another Kyiv resident, said a blast had blown out the windows and doors of her apartment.

“Part of the wall was broken through during the rescue of a woman,” she said. “The apartment is no longer liveable, and neither is the building, as you can see.”

The scale of destruction across the capital had little precedent even in a war now in its fifth year. Zelensky said more than 100 residential buildings had been damaged.

In recent months, Ukraine has slowed Russian advances on the 1,200km front line, and has retaken territory in some areas.

“Russia has no argument left for its war other than its ballistic missiles,” Zelensky said in his evening address on July 2.

“(Russian President Vladimir) Putin still intends to ‘vanquish’ residential buildings rather than end this war.”

On July 3, Russia’s Defence Ministry said its troops had captured the village of Oleksandrivka in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region.

Moscow said the attack on Kyiv was in retaliation for Ukrainian drone strikes on Russia.

Ukraine has stepped up long-range attacks inside Russia, focusing largely on energy infrastructure and military-related targets but also damaging civilian sites.

Strikes on oil refineries have triggered a fuel crisis in Russia, forcing the world’s third-biggest oil producer to import petrol.

Russia has responded with a stepped-up air campaign against Ukrainian cities, in June hitting a 1,000-year-old Kyiv cathedral foundational to the Orthodox faith in both countries.

Both sides deny deliberately targeting civilians. REUTERS