The aftermath of a Russian airstrike on Kyiv, 4 July 2025. Photo: State Emergency Service of Ukraine

At least 23 people were injured in Kyiv as Russia launched over 500 drones at Ukraine in one of the largest aerial attacks of the war so far, authorities in the Ukrainian capital said on Friday.

Ukraine’s Air Force said Russia had used a total of 539 drones and 11 missiles in the all-night assault, with Kyiv the main target as air raid warnings continued from Thursday evening until around 9am local time on Friday.

Air defences downed 268 of the drones and two of the missiles, it said — with a further 208 drones failing to reach their targets — but direct strikes were reported in eight locations and falling debris in 33 more.

Ukrainian Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said Russia had unleashed a “night of terror” on Kyiv, causing damage to residential buildings as well as educational, medicine and transport infrastructure.

According to the State Emergency Service of Ukraine, over 450 emergency workers were deployed to respond to the strikes, which caused fires to break out at several residential buildings across the city.

Fourteen of the 23 people injured in the strikes had been hospitalised as of Friday morning, Kyiv Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Russia began the “deliberately massive and cynical” attack around the same time that Vladimir Putin spoke with US President Donald Trump by phone on Thursday evening, causing a “brutal, sleepless night” in Kyiv.

“Yet again, Russia is showing it has no intention of ending the war and terror”, Zelensky said, adding that without “truly large-scale pressure”, particularly from the US, “Russia will not change its dumb, destructive behaviour”.

Following his call with Putin, Trump told reporters he was “very disappointed” as he did not get the impression that the Russian leader was “looking to stop” the war in Ukraine.

“I didn’t make any progress with him at all,” Trump said.

The Kremlin confirmed the two leaders had discussed the “Ukrainian issue” in what it described as a “frank, businesslike and concrete” conversation, with Trump stressing the importance of “a swift end to hostilities”.

Putin, however, told Trump that Russia would “not give up on its goals” of “eliminating the well-known root causes that led to the current state of affairs,” the Kremlin said.