Russian forces launched a second consecutive day of heavy aerial attacks on Ukraine’s Kyiv region on Friday, striking numerous residential buildings and storage depots. The continuous bombardment follows prolonged air raids on Thursday that effectively locked down the Ukrainian capital for 15 hours, severely disrupting daily civilian life and choking the local economy more than four years after Russia’s full-scale invasion began. According to Ukraine's Foreign Ministry, even longer alerts have become a daily reality for regions situated closer to the front line.
The latest strikes in the Kyiv region damaged 14 warehouses, 16 private houses, three apartment buildings, and 16 vehicles, according to Tymur Tkachenko, head of the Kyiv regional military administration. The State Emergency Service reported that a second drone struck one of the target locations after emergency crews had already deployed. This tactic, known as a "double tap," is designed to target first responders. Officials confirmed that the attacks killed one person and wounded two others. Due to the ongoing daylight strikes, Tkachenko urged residents to remain in safe locations and strictly heed air raid alerts.
Russia has been deploying small numbers of fast-moving, jet-powered drones in successive waves to paralyze the capital, according to Andrii Kovalenko, head of Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council. Kovalenko stated on social media that "the goal is to exhaust air defenses and the population." The attacks also caused a noticeable decline in air quality, prompting regional authorities to advise residents in affected areas to keep their windows closed and limit outdoor activities.
The Russian Defense Ministry claimed its overnight strikes hit a warehouse in the Kyiv region used to store Ukraine’s Flamingo cruise missiles and rocket booster fuel. While Ukrainian officials did not immediately confirm this claim, and the reports could not be independently verified, recent Russian strikes have damaged numerous warehouses across the region, including facilities containing books, food, and other consumer goods.
The aerial campaign is also targeting Ukraine's power grid in what officials describe as an annual Russian effort to "weaponize winter." In the southern Kherson region, which is about 70% under Russian control, a combined heat and power plant was forced to shut down a day earlier due to glide bomb strikes. Oleksandr Prokudin, head of the Kherson regional military administration, warned that residents could face a winter of extended outages. "Kherson may be without electricity and heat not for hours or days, but for a long time. And we need to prepare for this now," Prokudin wrote on social media, urging tens of thousands of residents to relocate to safer regions if possible.
Prokudin noted that Russia has dropped 170 glide bombs on the Kherson region since July 1, representing a sharp increase compared to the first six months of the year. Additionally, Russian forces have launched more than 1,700 attack drones over the past two months—increasingly utilizing jet-powered Shahed and Gerbera models against critical infrastructure—while smaller drone attacks surged to 6,500 in the past week alone.
The economic impact of these continuous infrastructure attacks has forced Ukraine’s Ministry of Economy to revise its 2026 GDP growth forecast downward. Economy Minister Oleksandr Kravchenko stated, according to local news agency Interfax-Ukraine, that initial growth expectations of around 1.3% for this year are now expected to drop to 0.8%. Kravchenko explained that while the economy registered 0.6% growth in the first quarter and recovered to post modest gains by the end of June, further progress is being constrained by damage to energy networks, logistics infrastructure, and blockades of Black Sea grain export ports.
Ukraine's air force reported that Russia launched a total of 164 drones overnight, with no mention of accompanying missiles. In the northern Sumy region, a Russian glide bomb attack killed a 61-year-old man and wounded seven other people, according to Oleh Hryhorov, head of the Sumy regional military administration.
Meanwhile, Ukraine continued its retaliatory campaign against the Russian oil sector. Ukraine’s General Staff announced that its forces struck the Slavneft-YANOS refinery in Russia’s Yaroslavl region overnight, igniting a fire at the facility located approximately 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) from the Ukrainian border. The refinery produces gasoline, diesel, aviation fuel, fuel oil, and lubricants.
Yaroslavl Governor Mikhail Yevrayev reported that a Ukrainian drone attack on Friday morning killed one person and wounded 27 others, including 10 individuals who were injured when drone debris fell on a bus. Yevrayev stated that the strikes hit residential areas, retail facilities, and unspecified industrial infrastructure. The Russian Defense Ministry reported that its air defenses shot down 512 Ukrainian drones overnight across 18 Russian regions, as well as over the Black Sea and Crimea.
In the Moscow region, Governor Andrei Vorobyov reported on Telegram that a drone hit a supermarket, causing damage and shattering windows at a nearby outpatient clinic. In the Crimean port city of Sevastopol, the Russian-installed governor, Mikhail Razvozhayev, reported that a drone caused significant damage to a five-story residential building, wounding four people. Razvozhayev shared images showing a charred building with blown-out windows and destroyed balconies.
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