Russia launched more than 70 missiles and about 280 drones in overnight attacks on Thursday, July 30, killing nine people. Ukraine’s air force said the capital Kyiv and the western region of Lviv on Ukraine’s border with Poland were the main focus of the attack.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said delays in supplies of air defence missiles from allies were costing lives. He stated that only the extraordinary expertise of Ukrainian air defence units prevented more deaths.
The US-made Patriot air defence system is the only weapon in Ukraine’s arsenal capable of downing Russia’s ballistic missiles, but Patriots are in chronically short supply globally. Ukraine’s air forces said air defence units shot down 55 missiles and 265 drones but stopped only one of nine ballistic missiles.
Eleven missiles and 17 drones hit targets at 20 locations. One person was killed in Kyiv, one in Lviv, and one in Poltava. In Kyiv, air alerts lasted more than five hours overnight, and thousands of people sheltered in metro stations.
Civilian casualties and cross-border debris
In Lviv, a Russian missile hit a residential apartment building but did not explode, according to the city’s mayor. About 30 people, including three children, were injured in Lviv; two residential buildings, a school, and two kindergartens were damaged.
A day of mourning was announced for Friday in a village in the Dnipropetrovsk region, where six people, including three children, were killed by a missile. Zelenskyy said that five children were missing at the house, which was almost completely eradicated by the force of the blast.
Two sources said the strike was likely a powerful North Korean ballistic missile, noting that according to sources, this marks the first time in nearly a year that Russia has used such a weapon from its ally. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said a Russian cruise missile appeared to have left a large crater and debris in a field in eastern Poland, and Poland scrambled fighter jets to secure its airspace.
Russia’s defence ministry said its forces struck military facilities across Ukraine, from Kyiv to Lviv and Dnipropetrovsk, as well as three cargo ships. It also said it downed a total of 258 drones overnight, covering Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine.
In response, a warehouse of Russian online retailer Wildberries caught fire in the city of Penza after a Ukrainian drone attack; regional governor Oleg Melnichenko said one person was injured and about 200 were evacuated. Another Wildberries facility, in Sarapul in Russia’s Udmurtia region, also caught fire after a drone attack.