Russian missile strikes in Kyiv, Ukraine
Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine with around 2,950,000 residents, has been frequently targeted by the Russian Armed Forces during the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine with around 2,950,000 residents, has been frequently targeted by the Russian Armed Forces during the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
An attempt to capture the city was made in February–April 2022, but the Russian forces were repelled. Since then attacks have been carried remotely through airstrikes. Since October 2022 Kyiv has been occasionally attacked by Iranian-made drones on Russian service. [1] From the start of the invasion on 24 February 2022 until 28 May 2023, the air raid siren has been on in Kyiv for a total 887 hours [2] (or around 36 days). Kyiv has 1,078 bomb shelters, but in June 2023 a government commission found that only half of them are usable. [3]
| Date | Details | Casualties within the city |
|---|---|---|
| 25 February 2022 | Missiles. One downed enemy aircraft crashed into a nine-storey residential building, setting it on fire. [4] | 3 injured. [4] |
| 1 March 2022 | 2 missiles hit Kyiv TV tower, partially knocking out access to news and broadcasts. [5] | 5 dead, 5 injured. [5] |
| 15 March 2022 | Artillery shelling. A 35-hour curfew was announced by Kyiv's mayor Vitali Klitschko. [6] | At least 4 dead. [6] |
| 28 April 2022 | Two long-range "air-based weapons" were launched during a visit by the UN Secretary General António Guterres. The attack killed RFE/RL journalist and producer Vira Hyrych. [7] | At least 1 dead. [7] |
| 5 June 2022 | Missiles hit the Darnytski and Dniprovski District of Kyiv. [8] | 1 injured. [8] |
| 26 June 2022 | Long-range missiles fired from Russian bombers around Astrakhan damaged an apartment building and a kindergarten. [9] | 1 died, 6 injured. [9] |
| 10 October 2022 | Missile strikes, at least one Kh-101 cruise missile was used. Caused power outage in Kyiv. [10] | 8 dead. [11] |
| 17 October 2022 | 28 Iranian-made drones were used, including HESA Shahed 136 (Geran-2). Most were reportedly shot down. [12] | At least 5 died. [12] |
| 23 November 2022 | Kh-101 missile was used. [13] | ? |
| 14 December 2022 | 13 Iranian-made drones were used. According to Ukrainian claims, all were shot down by air defense. [14] | None. [14] |
| 16 December 2022 | 38 air-launched cruise missiles and 22 Kalibr sea-launched missiles were used. [15] | ? |
| 19 December 2022 | 23 Iranian-made Shahed drones launched from the eastern coast of the Sea of Azov were spotted over Kyiv, 18 of them were reportedly intercepted. [16] | None. [16] |
| 29 December 2022 | Missile strikes caused power outage, affecting 40% of Kyiv residents. Ukrainian officials claimed 16 missiles were destroyed over Kyiv. [17] | 3 injured. [17] |
| 2 January 2023 | At least 60 drones targeted Kyiv, some evaded air defense. [18] | 1 dead, 1 injured. [18] |
| 14 January 2023 | S-400 missiles were fired from Russia's Bryansk Oblast. [19] | ? |
| 28 April 2023 | Kyiv came under attack after a pause of about two months. [20] Other locations were also attacked. | None. |
| 3 May 2023 | Shahed-type drones and missiles. According to Ukrainian claims, all missiles and drones were destroyed in Kyiv airspace by Ukrainian air defense forces. [21] | None. [21] |
| 9 May 2023 | 25 Kalibr and Kh-101/Kh-555 cruise missiles were launched from the Caspian Sea region, 23 of them were reportedly downed. [22] | None. [22] |
| 16 May 2023 | 18 different missiles were launched – 9 Kalibr cruise missiles from ships in the Black Sea, 6 Kinzhal hypersonic ballistic missiles, 3 Iskander short-range ballistic missiles from land [23] and 3 drones. According to Ukrainian officials' claims, all were shot down. Ukrainian defense minister Oleksii Reznikov particularly praised the shootdowns of all Kinzhal hypersonic missiles. [24] According to Ukrainian Air Force spokesperson Yurii Ihnat, 6 Kinzhal missiles were used from an estimated Russian reserve of about 50, which was regarded as "a relatively big number" [24] (that is 12%). One of the three MIM-104 Patriot air defense systems provided by the United States to Ukraine was damaged during the attack according to U.S. officials. | 3 injured. [24] |
| 25 May 2023 | Unspecified number of cruise missiles were launched by Tu-95MS bombers at night from the Caspian Sea region. All were reportedly intercepted in Kyiv's airspace. [25] | ? |
| 28 May 2023 | In a wave of 59 Shahed drones, 36 were shot down within Kyiv and the region. [2] | ? |
| 29 May 2023 | Iskander ballistic missiles, possibly also S-300 and S-400 missiles were used. According to Ukrainian officials' claims, all missiles were shot down by air defense. [26] | 1 injured. [26] |
| 30 May 2023 | 31 Iranian-made loitering drones attacked from the north and south. Ukrainian officials claimed that the air defense destroyed 29 of them. [27] | 1 dead, 5 injured. [27] |
| 1 June 2023 | 7 Iskander-M ballistic missiles and 3 Iskander-K missiles were used. All were reportedly shot down. [28] | 3 dead due to falling missile debris, 11 injured. [28] |
| 2 June 2023 | 15 cruise missiles and 21 Shahed drones were reportedly destroyed over Kyiv. [29] | 2 injured by falling debris. [29] |
| 13 June 2023 | In a preliminary report Kh-101/Kh-555 missiles were fired at night by bombers Tu-95MS from the Caspian Sea, all missiles were reportedly destroyed by air defense. [30] | ? |
| 16 June 2023 | 6 Kalibr cruise missiles, 6 Kinzhal ballistic missiles and two drones were used, according to the Ukrainian Air Force, shortly before the arrival of an African delegation led by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa to Kyiv. [31] No buildings were damaged. [31] | ? |
| 20 June 2023 | 30 Shahed drones were launched, 28 of them were reportedly shot down. The drones were launched from Russian territory to the north and from the coast of the Sea of Azov in the south-east. [32] | None. [32] |
| 1 July 2023 | Several Shahed drones were launched, all were reportedly shot down. [33] | 1 injured, 3 homes damaged. [33] |
| 21 September 2023 | 43 Kalibr cruise missiles, of type Kh-55 and it's variants Kh-101 and Kh-555, were air-launched by 10 Russian Tu-95MS bombers, at infrastructure across Ukraine, with an unknown number directed to Kyiv. 36 were shot down by air defense. [34] [35] | 3 hospitalized, 21 homes damaged. [36] |
| 25 November 2023 | Nearly 75 Shahed drones were launched from Primorsko-Akhtarsk and the Kursk region, Russia. 71 of them were intercepted, mainly in the Kyiv region. [37] | At least 2 injured in Solomianskyi District. [37] Some buildings damaged. [37] |
| 21 March 2024 | Two ballistic missiles and 29 cruise missiles, possibly of North Korean origin, were shot down over the Kyiv region. [38] | 17 injured by falling debris. [39] |
The Ropucha class, Soviet designation Project 775, is a class of landing ship built in Poland for the Soviet Navy. The ships were built in the Stocznia Północna shipyards in Gdańsk, Poland. They were designed for beach landings, and can carry 450 tons of cargo. The ships have both bow and stern doors for loading and unloading vehicles, and the 630 square metres (6,800 sq ft) of vehicle deck stretch the length of the hull. Up to 25 armored personnel carriers can be embarked.
The Kh-47M2 Kinzhal is a Russian hypersonic air-launched ballistic missile. It has an estimated range of 460–480 km (290–300 mi) and a reported top speed of Mach 10. It can carry either conventional or nuclear warheads and can be launched by Tu-22M3 bombers, MiG-31K interceptors, or modified Su-34 fighter-bombers. It is the first hypersonic weapon used.
On 24 February 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine in an escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War that started in 2014. The invasion became the largest attack on a European country since World War II. It is estimated to have caused tens of thousands of Ukrainian civilian casualties and hundreds of thousands of military casualties. By June 2022, Russian troops occupied about 20% of Ukrainian territory. From a population of 41 million in January 2022, about 8 million Ukrainians had been internally displaced and more than 8.2 million had fled the country by April 2023, creating Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. Extensive environmental damage caused by the war, widely described as an ecocide, contributed to food crises worldwide.
The Snake Island campaign was a period of Russian occupation and military conflict for Snake Island, a small, strategically located Ukrainian island in the Black Sea. On 24 February 2022, the first day of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Russian Navy attacked Snake Island and captured it along with its entire garrison, beginning a military occupation of the island. The attack was widely publicized when an audio clip of the Russian cruiser Moskva hailing the island's garrison over the radio demanding their surrender and being told "Russian warship, go fuck yourself" in response went viral, along with initial inaccurate reports of the garrison's deaths. Later on, it emerged that a civilian search and rescue ship trying to evacuate the soldiers was also captured along with the garrison. The ship, its crew, and at least one soldier were subsequently freed in prisoner exchanges.
There have been attacks in mainland Russia as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which began on 24 February 2022. The main targets have been the military, the arms industry and the oil industry. Many of the attacks have been drone strikes, firebombing, and rail sabotage. The Ukrainian intelligence services have acknowledged carrying out some of these attacks. Others have been carried out by anti-war activists in Russia. There has also been cross-border shelling, missile strikes and ground raids from Ukraine, mainly in the Belgorod, Kursk and Bryansk oblasts. Several times, Russian anti-Kremlin paramilitaries have launched incursions from Ukraine into Russia, captured border villages and battled the Russian military. While Ukraine has supported these ground incursions, it has denied direct involvement.
The battle of Huliaipole is an ongoing military conflict between the Armed Forces of Russia and the Armed Forces of Ukraine over the city of Huliaipole, in central Zaporizhzhia Oblast.
During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Russian Armed Forces have launched several missile attacks over the city of Dnipro in Ukraine. These have led to dozens of fatalities and over a hundred injuries among the civilian population.
During the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Russian military have carried out deliberate attacks against civilian targets and indiscriminate attacks in densely-populated areas. The United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine says the Russian military exposed the civilian population to unnecessary and disproportionate harm by using cluster bombs and by firing other weapons with wide-area effects into civilian areas, such as missiles, heavy artillery shells and multiple launch rockets. As of 2024, the attacks had resulted in the documented deaths of between 10,000 and 16,500 civilians. On 22 April 2022, the UN reported that of the 2,343 civilian casualties it had been able to document, it could confirm 92.3% of these deaths were as a result of the actions of the Russian armed forces.
This timeline of the Russian invasion of Ukraine covers the period from 24 February 2022, when Russia launched a military invasion of Ukraine, to 7 April 2022 when fighting focused away from the north and towards the south and east of Ukraine.
Beginning in July 2022, a series of explosions and fires occurred on the Russian-occupied Crimean Peninsula from where the Russian Army had launched its offensive on Southern Ukraine during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Occupied since 2014, Crimea was a base for the subsequent Russian occupation of Kherson Oblast and Russian occupation of Zaporizhzhia Oblast. The Ukrainian government has not accepted responsibility for all of the attacks.
During the autumn and winter of 2022–2023, Russia launched waves of missile and drone strikes against energy in Ukraine as part of its invasion. The strikes targeted civilian areas beyond the battlefield, particularly critical power infrastructure, which is considered a war crime. By the end of 2023, Russian forces launched about 7,400 missiles and 3,900 Shahed drone strikes against Ukraine according to Ukrainian military officials.
On 15 November 2022, a missile struck Polish territory, in the village of Przewodów near the border with Ukraine, killing two people. The incident occurred during attacks on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure by Russia. It was the first incident of a foreign missile hitting NATO territory during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Initially Ukraine accused Russia of striking Poland, while United States claimed that the missile was likely to have been an air defence missile fired by Ukrainian forces at an incoming Russian missile. This was later confirmed in September 2023 by the Polish Prosecutor's Office, which stated that the explosion was caused by an out of control air-defence missile S-300.
Aerial warfare in the Russian invasion of Ukraine began at dawn of 24 February 2022, with infantry divisions and armored and air support in Eastern Ukraine, and dozens of missile attacks across Ukraine. The first fighting took place in Luhansk Oblast near the village of Milove on the border with Russia at 3:40 am Kyiv time. The main infantry and tank attacks were launched in four spearhead incursions, creating a northern front launched towards Kyiv, a southern front originating in Crimea, a south-eastern front launched at the cities of Luhansk and Donbas, and an eastern front. Dozens of missile strikes across Ukraine also reached as far west as Lviv. Drones have also been a critical part of the invasion, particularly in regards to combined arms warfare. Drones have additionally been employed by Russia in striking Ukrainian critical infrastructure, and have been used by Ukraine to strike military infrastructure in Russian territory.
This timeline of the Russian invasion of Ukraine covers the period from 12 November 2022, following the conclusion of Ukraine's Kherson and Kharkiv counteroffensives, to 7 June 2023, the day before the 2023 Ukrainian counteroffensive began. Russia continued its strikes against Ukrainian infrastructure while the Battle of Bakhmut escalated.
The Russian Armed Forces have launched several rocket attacks on Mykolaiv, Ukraine, during the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The Russian Armed Forces have launched several rocket attacks on Kharkiv, Ukraine, during the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
On 22 September 2023, several Ukrainian Storm Shadow/SCALP cruise missiles penetrated Russian air defenses and struck the headquarters of the Black Sea Fleet in occupied Sevastopol, Crimea. The strike was part of the war resulting from the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, and was referred to as Operation Crab Trap by Lieutenant General Kyrylo Budanov, the head of the Main Directorate of Intelligence (HUR).
In the early morning hours of 29 December 2023, Russia launched what was seen to be the largest wave of missiles and drones yet seen in the Russo-Ukrainian War, with hundreds of missiles and drones hitting the Ukrainian capital Kyiv and other cities across the country. At least 58 people were reported to have been killed in the attacks, while 160 others were injured.
On 30 December 2023, during the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, explosions occurred in the city of Belgorod, Russia, killing at least 25 people and wounding over 100. Russian sources alleged the explosions were shelling by the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Ukraine attributed the explosions to the work of Russian air defence.
On the morning of 2 January 2024, Russia attacked Ukraine with the Kh-47M2 Kinzhal hypersonic missiles and Kh-101/Х-555/Kh-55 air-launched cruise missiles.
