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LAST UPDATE | 8 hrs ago
THE UNITED STATES said it condemned a Russian drone and missile attack on Ukraine’s capital Kyiv that killed at least 14 people, including an American.
“We condemn those strikes and extend our deepest condolences to the victims and to the families of all those affected,” State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said, confirming a US citizen was killed in the assault in the early hours of Tuesday.
Dozens were wounded in Kyiv in what Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called “one of the most horrific attacks” on the capital.
Zelenskyy said “an entire section of an apartment block” was destroyed and rescuers were searching under the rubble for possible survivors.
Dozens of Kyiv residents were taking shelter in a metro station in central Kyiv, sleeping on mats, exchanging information on the drone and missile threat or reassuring pets, AFP journalists reported.
Some 27 locations in Kyiv were hit, Interior Minister Igor Klymenko said.
One person was also killed and 10 wounded in a strike on Odesa, with Zelensky saying that a total of 440 drones and 32 missiles were used in the strikes nationwide.
I receive regular reports from Minister of Internal Affairs Klymenko and our military commanders on the aftermath of Russia’s massive strike. More than 440 drones and 32 missiles were used. Kyiv has faced one of the most horrific attacks. Also, overnight, Odesa, Zaporizhzhia,… pic.twitter.com/4ZMFBj8eJ2
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) June 17, 2025
“Kyiv has faced one of the most horrific attacks,” Zelenskyy wrote on social media.
“Right now in Kyiv, efforts are underway to rescue people from under the rubble of an ordinary residential building – it’s still unclear how many remain trapped,” he said.
He urged the international community not to “turn a blind eye”, calling it “wrong”.
Russian President Vladimir Putin “does this solely because he can afford to continue the war. He wants the war to go on,” he said.
“We are in contact with all partners at every possible level to ensure an appropriate response.”
Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, said in a social media post: “This is how Russia fights – it kills civilians in ordinary homes, deliberately.”
Interior Minister Igor Klymenko wrote on Telegram: “27 locations in different districts of the capital came under enemy fire tonight”.
He added that “residential buildings, educational institutions and critical infrastructure facilities” had all been hit.
“The death toll has risen to 14 people. As of now, 44 people have been injured in Kyiv,” Klymenko said.
He added that six others had been injured in Odesa and another in Chernigiv.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko had earlier reported the death of a US citizen in a Russian attack on the capital’s Solomyansky district.
View of a damaged residential building during a Russian strike on Ukraine. Alamy Stock Photo
Alamy Stock Photo
“During the attack on Kyiv… a 62-year-old US citizen died in a house opposite to the place where medics were providing assistance to the injured,” Klitschko said on Telegram.
Yermak slammed the new Russian strikes on “residential buildings in Kyiv”, saying on Telegram that Moscow was “continuing its war against civilians”.
More than three years into its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Moscow has kept up its attacks despite efforts by the United States to broker a ceasefire.
Talks have stalled. Moscow has rejected the “unconditional” truce demanded by Kyiv and its European allies, while Ukraine has dismissed Russia’s demands as “ultimatums”.
On Monday, Zelenskyy had said he hoped to speak with his US counterpart Donald Trump on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Canada.
But the Ukrainian leader was expected to arrive at the G7 after the departure of the American president, who cut short his stay in the Canadian Rockies as Israel pounded Iran.
Meanwhile, Russia has returned 1,245 bodies to Ukraine in the final stage of a deal to repatriate more than 6,000 dead Ukrainian soldiers agreed at peace talks this month.
Russia and Ukraine reached an agreement on a large-scale exchange of prisoners and the bodies of killed soldiers – the only visible result from two rounds of direct talks in the Turkish city of Istanbul.
“Another 1,245 bodies returned to Ukraine – repatriation part of Istanbul agreements has been completed,” the government agency coordinating the repatriation said.
Ukrainian Defence Minister Rustem Umerov said on Facebook that Kyiv had received more than 6,000 bodies in total over the past week.
The Russian defence ministry gave a slightly different figure of 1,248 for the number of bodies returned in the final stage of the accord – three more than Kyiv said it had received.
Ukrainian Interior Minister Igor Klymenko on Monday accused Russia of “deliberately complicating the identification process”.
“Bodies are returned in an extremely mutilated state, parts of (the same) bodies are in different bags,” Klymenko said on Telegram.
Ukraine also “received bodies of Russian soldiers mixed with those of Ukrainians” during the previous stages of the repatriation last week, he added.
Zelenskyy said on Monday that Moscow had offered Kyiv to swap captured Russian soldiers for Ukrainian children under its jurisdiction.
Kyiv says that hundreds of Ukrainian children were forcibly taken by Russia during its invasion and handed a list with the names of some of them to Moscow’s delegation at the talks in Istanbul.
“Russians proposed this: we give them their soldiers, and they give us children,” Zelenskyy told reporters in Vienna, without elaborating on the proposal.
“It is simply beyond comprehension and beyond international law, but it is in their spirit,” he added, calling the idea “madness”.
Moscow’s defence ministry confirmed the latest handover of bodies on Monday, saying it had “fulfilled the agreement” and it was ready to “hand over another 2,239 bodies of fallen servicemen”.
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