Russian attack on Ukraine kills at least 16 and traps others in damaged
buildings
[June 02, 2026]
By SAMYA KULLAB and VASILISA STEPANENKO
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia launched hundreds of drones and dozens of
missiles against Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities overnight, killing at
least 16 civilians and wounding more than 100 others, authorities said
Tuesday.
The damage trapped some people under the rubble of apartment buildings.
Emergency crews digging through the wreckage pulled out the body of a
3-year-old child and the bodies of a mother and her 8-year-old son in
the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro, officials said.
The attack stretched from night into day and the boom of explosions
reverberated across cities.
Kyiv residents had been on edge for days after Russia warned that a
massive aerial attack was coming and warned foreign diplomats to leave
the Ukrainian capital. None appeared to heed the call.
“A large-scale attack and an explicit statement by Russia: If Ukraine is
not protected from ballistic missiles and other missile strikes, those
strikes will continue,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in response
to the attack, urging more support from the U.S. and European countries.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has stepped up Moscow’s aerial campaign
against Ukraine, with Russian forces recently launching a powerful
hypersonic Oreshnik ballistic missile for only the third time in the
four-year war.
The Russian strategy seeks to take advantage of Ukraine’s shortage of
U.S.-made Patriot air defense missiles, with international stocks
depleted by the Iran war. That has left civilians especially vulnerable
to the Russian ballistic missile barrages, even as air defenses stop
most of the attack drones.
Kyiv mother and daughter shelter in a bath tub
At least 64 people were wounded in the capital, emergency services said.
Kyiv resident Iryna Salikova, 37, spent the night lying in a bath tub
for protection with her 3-year-old daughter, as blasts reverberated
across the city.
“Our window was broken, a cobblestone flew into the children’s room,”
Salikova said, though they weren't hurt. “Thank God we’re alive. Today
we’re alive, today we’re lucky.”
Russia unleashed 73 missiles and 656 drones across Ukraine, according to
the country’s air force, with the main targets including Kyiv, the
central city of Dnipro, and the eastern cities of Poltava, Kharkiv and
Zaporizhzhia. Ukrainian air defense forces destroyed or suppressed 40
missiles and 602 drones.
Putin seeks to change the narrative of the war
Putin is keen to generate some positive news from the conflict that
began with Russia’s February 2022 invasion of its neighbor and hasn’t
gone according to plan.
Western officials and analysts say Ukrainian drones are pinning down
Russian troops on the front line, choking Russian supply lines in
occupied regions of Ukraine and disrupting oil facilities deep inside
Russia that provide vital revenue for Moscow. That has made the war,
which Moscow refers to as a “special military operation,” more visible
to Russians and increased pressure on Putin.
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A woman carries a baby near a residential house damaged after a
Russian strike in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Tuesday, June 2, 2026. (AP
Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
U.S.-led peace efforts have fizzled out as the sides made no
progress on key differences and after the Gulf and Middle East
grabbed Washington’s attention. Zelenskyy accepted an unconditional
ceasefire demanded by U.S. President Donald Trump but Putin refused.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said in a statement that the military
launched a “massive” strike with long-range precision weapons on
military-industrial facilities in the Kyiv, Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv,
Dnipropetrovsk, Poltava, Khmelnytsk and Sumy regions.
Putin signaled that Russia won’t let up its attacks. He said Tuesday
that Ukraine’s May 22 drone attack on a college dormitory in
Starobilsk in the Russia-controlled Luhansk region of Ukraine that
killed 21 had given the war “a whole new dimension.”
Ukraine said it hit a Russian drone pilot training center in
Starobilsk.
Man thrown out of Kyiv apartment by blast
Hits of 30 ballistic missiles, three cruise missiles and 33 drones
were recorded at at least 38 locations across Ukraine, according to
regional authorities. Debris from destroyed drones fell on 15
locations, the air force said.
At least four people were killed in Kyiv and 63 people were injured,
including three children, Ukraine's state emergency service said.
Residential buildings and other civilian infrastructure were damaged
in eight Kyiv districts.
Olena Dniprovska, 65, and her husband Yevhen, 64, were wounded in
their apartment in Kyiv’s Podilskyi district during the attack.
“I went out into the corridor with the phone, and before I
understood what happened, everything fell on my head, the glass, and
the door blew off,” said Dniprovska, dried blood streaked across her
face and a bandage wrapped around her chin. “I ran out into the
front door and started calling my husband from the room, but he was
also blown out by the blast wave.”
“Now I have nowhere to live, the apartment is completely destroyed,
no doors, no windows, no balcony. You can step straight from the
room out onto the street,” she said.
In Kharkiv, at least 14 people were wounded and residential homes,
garages and cars were damaged. People were also trapped beneath the
rubble of a four-story apartment block.
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