Russia launches deadly attacks with drones and missiles days after the Ukrainian attack that destroyed or damaged dozens of aircraft
Russia has launched a series of ballistic drones and missiles against various targets in a vast area of Ukraine in the early hours of Friday, killing at least four people in the capital and injuring about 40 across the country.
A CNN producer in the Kiev region reported hearing at least two explosions at dawn and the capital’s images showed flames to climb on apartments buildings and firefighters to work.
At the break from daylight, the residents searched the wreckage of the damaged apartments, with images that showed torn whole walls and shattered windows. Several cars parked on the streets below were covered with pieces of glass and cement.
Ukraine has been hit by nighttime nights and Russian missiles. But the country has been preparing for a major retaliation attack promised by President Vladimir Putin following his bold attacks on aerodromes in the interior of Russia.
Four people died in Kiev, mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Telegram on Friday morning local time, adding that search and rescue operations were taking place.
Ukrainian emergency services also said three firefighters were killed in Kiev. It was not clear whether the number of dead indicated by the mayor included the three firefighters.
The attacks also hit Chernihiv, near the Belarus border, which was shaken by 14 explosions of drone and ballistic missiles, including Cruzeiro missiles and Iskander-M missiles, according to Vyacheslav Chaus, head of the Chernihiv Regional Military Administration.
A residential multi -story residential building after a Russian drone attack on Kiev, Ukraine, June 6, 2025. Evgeniy Maloletka/Ap
In the city of Lutsk, in the northwest of the country – about 96 km from the border with Poland – Russian attacks injured five people, the mayor, Ihor Polishchuk, wrote on Friday dawn. CNN geolocalized images showed at least four missiles to pack in the city, causing explosions of fire when the impact.
About 40 people were injured throughout Ukraine during the attacks, the Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko revealed on Telegram.
In a first indication of the attack scale, Russia launched at least 38 cruise missiles, six ballistic missiles and 407 drones at night, according to a preliminary count given by Air Force spokesman Yurii Ihnat.
Separately, an attack of Ukrainian drones has reached an industrial installation in the city of Engels in southern Russia, the region’s governor said on Friday.
The images that CNN has geographically located at Engels – about 460 kilometers (285 miles) from the border with Ukraine – show flames to burn and clouds of smoke flying in the air.
In January, an attack by a Ukrainian drone hit the Kombinat Kristall oil deposit that serves a military aerodrome in the city.
The Russian Ministry of Defense said it intercepted and destroyed 174 Ukrainian drones between Thursday night and Friday dawn and that it destroyed three Ukrainian Neptune-MD guided missiles on the Black Sea.
Fire and smoke in the city after an attack from a Russian drone under the Ukraine’s Russian attack on Kiev, Ukraine, on June 6, 2025. Gleb Garanich/Reuters
Putin phone with Trump
The latest Russian attack with drones and missiles against Ukraine occurs days after Ukrainian security services launched a series of bold and large -scale attacks in the interior of Russia, reaching aerodromes and several military aircraft, including some of their precious nuclear -capable bombers.
On Tuesday, Ukraine also launched an attack on the Kerch bridge, the only direct point between Russia and the annexed Crimea peninsula, with 1100 kilograms of explosives that had been placed under water.
The attack caught Moscow by surprise and triggered a place of appeals to massive retaliation by nationalists and pro-kremlin incendays in the interior of Russia.
Russia’s heavy bombing fleet has been fundamental in routine bombing from Ukrainian cities since the total invasion of Moscow, capable of firing cruise missiles that are difficult to interceive at a safe distance from Kiev’s anti -aircraft batteries.
Putin told his US counterpart Donald Trump that Russia would respond to these attacks on the last telephone conversation between the two leaders on Wednesday.
Trump’s account of the so -called telephone call gave no indication that he had appealed to President Russian to moderate his response or pressed Putin to end the Ukraine invasion. This position caused a widespread anger and disappointment in Ukraine.
“When Putin mentions that one will take revenge or make a new attack on Ukraine, we know what it means. These are civilians,” Ukrainian legislator Oleksandr Merezhko told CNN earlier this week. “And President Trump didn’t say, ‘Vladimir, stop.’
And on Thursday, Trump compared the war on a feud among children, saying in the oval room: “Sometimes it is better to let them fight for a while and then separate them.”
Analysts – and Ukraine’s air defense forces – are watching carefully whether Russia can use any of its latest weaponry as a retaliation against Kiev for its latest attacks.
An apartment from a multi-story residential building is seen damaged after an attack by a Russian drone in Kiev, Ukraine, on Friday, June 6, 2025. Evgeniy Maloletka/Ap
For example, Russia launched a new medium -range non -nuclear ballistic missile against the Ukipro Ukiprian city last November, in an attack that Putin said was an answer to the use of US and British long -range weapons by the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
This particular missile contained multiple warheads and its fury use was seen by analysts of the time as a moment of crossing Rubicão.
Russia has expanded its production of drones and missiles in the last year, allowing mass attacks with several hundred projectiles simultaneously. The Russian strategy aims to overload the Ukrainian air defenses with dozens of low -cost drones so that simultaneous missile attacks can be successful.
Ukraine has US technology to defend itself against Night Drone and Missile attacks.
But the Trump administration has already given signs that it expects European allies to do much more than heavy work when it comes to protecting Ukraine.
Last week, the Pentagon notified Congress that it would divert critical antiDroni technology that had been attributed to Ukraine to US Air Force units in the Middle East, according to correspondence obtained by CNN and people familiar with the issue.
