A Russian terror attack on 17 June was the largest of the full-scale war, says military expert Ivan Kyrychevskyi. Russia deliberately targeted residential buildings with missiles with cluster munitions to kill as many civilians as possible, Espreso reports.
The strike came just days after Russian President Vladimir Putin personally called US President Donald Trump to congratulate him on his birthday, and also following Trump’s statements that the war would not have started if Russia hadn’t been excluded from the G8. Ukraine says Putin ordered the attack to portray the leaders of the G7 as weak. He is demonstrating contempt for international peace efforts, above all, those led by the US.
“Before 17 June, the maximum was 200–300 aerial weapons launched at once. This time, the Russians used nearly 500, most of them kamikaze drones,” Kyrychevskyi explains.
The UN has also noted that this attack on Kyiv may be the deadliest in nearly a year. The main impact hit densely populated neighborhoods, not military targets.
“X-101 missiles with cluster warheads can’t break through fortifications, but they kill people. That’s why they were used deliberately against civilians,” Kyrychevskyi says.
No one believes anymore that the strikes on Ukrainian hospitals and children’s centers are a “mistake.” After the attack on Kyiv’s Ohmatdyt children’s hospital in 2024, Western governments have stopped buying into the narrative of “accidental strikes,” adds the expert.
Russia began its full-scale terror campaign against the Ukrainian civilian population in 2022, burning 90% of Mariupol and Bakhmut and committing atrocities during the attacks on Bucha in Kyiv Oblast.