At least 16 people were killed -- including a six-year-old boy -- and nearly a hundred injured in Kyiv following an overnight Russian attack with missiles and drones, according to the head of the city’s military administration.
"There are more than a hundred affected sites," Tymur Tkachenko said, adding that damage or casualties were reported at more than 27 locations, with the Solomyanskiy district, one of Kyiv's busiest, being heavily targeted.
"Residential buildings, schools, kindergartens, medical facilities, and a university. These are the places the Russians are attacking," he added.
"Unfortunately, the number of victims of Russia's attack on residential buildings continues to grow," the Ukrainian interior ministry said in a statement.
The ministry added that more than a thousand police officers and rescue workers were deployed in response to the aftermath of the attack on July 31.
Ten children, including a five-month-old girl, are reported to be among the casualties, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that people were trapped under the rubble.
"Kyiv. Missile strike. Direct hit on a residential building. People are under the rubble. All emergency services are on site. Russian terrorists," he said on Telegram.
"I saw it with my own eyes -- people being pulled from under the rubble at the rescue site. It’s heartbreaking to see parents searching for their children and relatives looking for loved ones," said Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko after visiting the scene of the attack in Kyiv.
"Today, the world once again saw Russia’s response to our desire for peace, shared with America and Europe. New, showcase killings," Zelenskyy wrote in his post on X.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha called it “a horrible morning in Kyiv,” saying Russian strikes destroyed residential buildings, damaged schools and hospitals, and left civilians dead, wounded, and trapped under rubble. He urged that it is “time to make [Russian President Vladimir Putin] feel the consequences” and to apply maximum pressure on Moscow.
Later on July 31, Russian forces struck another residential building in the Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk in the Donetsk region. The attack killed at least one person and injured 11 others, the region's military head, Vadym Filashkin, said.
“My eyes went dark,” the local resident told RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service at the scene, recalling the moments after the attack.
Her elderly neighbor, Nina, had suffered a severe leg injury. “I bent it as hard as I could to stop the bleeding,” she said moments after other residents helped carry Nina out of the building to take her to the hospital.
Ukraine's Donetsk region remains one of the fiercest frontline areas.
Following overnight strikes on Ukrainian cities, Russia claimed on July 31 to have captured one of Ukraine's key strongholds in the region, the town of Chasiv Yar, calling it "liberated."
However, Ukraine denied the claim, with a military spokesperson accusing the Russian Defense Ministry of routinely spreading false information.
"I always advise not to consider the Russian Ministry of Defense as a source of information. They simply lie systematically, and the very approach of having us comment on their latest lies every time is wrong," Viktor Trehubov, a spokesperson for Khortytsia, a Ukrainian unit which is fighting in the area, said to the AFP news agency on July 31.
The Russian strike came amid a statement by US President Donald Trump, who said he was "very disappointed" with Putin for refusing to end the war and that he would shorten his previously announced 50-day deadline for the Russian leader to reach a cease-fire deal.
Trump said the new deadline for Russia begins on July 29 and will now be just 10 days or he will impose tariffs and other measures on Moscow.
A day earlier, Trump said he was shortening the deadline for Russia to agree to a cease-fire in Ukraine from 50 days to “10-12 days.”
Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, gave a terse response to the 10-12 day deadline on July 29, saying the Kremlin had "taken note" of Trump's comments without elaborating.
Trump has shown signs of growing frustration with Putin's refusal to agree to a cease-fire while at the same time Russia is pummeling Ukraine on an almost nightly basis with drone and missile strikes.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s outgunned and outmanned army is also facing pressure on the ground as Russian forces are making new efforts to drive back Ukrainian defenders along a 1,000-kilometer front line in the east of the embattled country.
