"One of the Most Terrifying Strikes"

 

"[The assault was] one of the most horrifying attacks on Kyiv [with over 440 drones and 32 missiles launched across Ukraine overnight]."

"Such attacks are pure terrorism. And the whole world, the United States and Europe must finally respond as civilized societies respond to terrorists."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy 

 

"[This was a] massive and brutal strike [timed deliberately to coincide with the G7 summit]."

"Putin does this on purpose... He sends a signal of total disrespect to the United States and other partners who have called for an end to the killing."

"Only strong steps and real pressure on Moscow can prove him wrong."

Ukraine's  Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha

A partially destroyed residential building after a mass Russian missile and drone attack overnight in Kyiv, Ukraine on June 17, 2025. (Katya Denisova/The Kyiv Independent)

 

On Tuesday, an overnight Russian missile and drone bombardment of Ukraine killed 15 people, and injured another 156 residents of the capital city, Kyiv. A nine-story Kyiv apartment building was demolished in the deadliest attack on Ukraine's capital this year. As explosions sounded across the Ukrainian capital for close to nine hours, dozens of apartments were destroyed, according to Kyiv City Military Administration head Tymur Tkachenko.

 

More than 440 drones and 32 missiles were fired overnight June 17, making the Kyiv attack "one of the most terrifying strikes" on the  capital, quoting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The Interior Ministry reported that 139 people were injured, while Mayor Vitali Klitschko announced an official day or mourning for Wednesday.

 

Two rounds of direct peace talks have failed to produce any measure of progress in ending the war, entering its fourth year. Civilian areas of Ukraine have repeatedly been hit by Russia with missiles and drones, killing more than 12,000 Ukrainian civilians, according tot he United Nations, even as Russia claims that it targets only military sites.

 

Recent months have seen Russia step up its aerial attacks, launching close to 500 drones at Ukraine on June 10 in the largest overnight drone bombardment of the war. April 24 saw Russia pounding Kyiv as well, on that occasion killing at least 12 people. Long range intensified strikes coincided with a Russian summer offensive on eastern and northeastern sections of the 1,000 kilometre front line where Ukraine, short-handed, needs additional military support from Western partners. 

 

Firefighters extinguish burning parked cars next to a heavily damaged residential building following the Russian missile strike on Ukraine's capital of Kyiv on June 17, 2025. (Genya Savilov/AFP via Getty Images)

 

Doubts have been fueled over uncertainty lingering on U.S. policy on the war, on how much assistance Kyiv can count on. New sanctions were announced by the United Kingdom Tuesday, on Russia's defence industry and its oil-carrying 'shadow fleet' of some 500 ships of uncertain ownership, allowing Moscow to evade  sanctions.

 

President Zelenskyy, appearing by invitation at the G7 conference in Alberta this last few days, is concerned that Ukraine's plight not be put on the back burner in the face of more recent conflict involving Israel's pounding of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the past week in a concerted drive to destroy the reign of the Islamic Republic and its focus on acquiring nuclear weapons, which have been seen as a red line, given Iran's frequent threats to annihilate Israel.

 

North Korea is set to send thousands of military construction workers and deminers in support of Russian reconstruction work in the Kursk region of Russia. Seven thousand troops have already been forwarded by North Korea to aid Russia's war against Ukraine, as well as a vast amount of conventional weapons. Pyongyang and Moscow announced their soldiers fought together to repel an incursion by Ukraine into Russia's Kursk border region.

 

Russian Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu stated that North Korea is to set to dispatch 1,000 deminers along with 5,000 military construction workers in "a kind of brotherly aid", to the Kursk region, according to Russian state news agency RIA Novosti.

 

South Korean, U.S. and Ukraine assessments have revealed that roughly 15,000 North Korean soldiers have been deployed to Russia. And according to South Korea's spy agency, about 600 North Korean soldiers have died on the Russia-Ukraine battlefronts.  

 

The aftermath of the Russian missile attack on a residential building in Kyiv, Ukraine on June 17, 2025. (Anna Donets / The Kyiv Independent)