Russia Hits Kyiv With Biggest Ballistic Missile Barrage of the War, Killing One, Wounding Up to 16

Russia launched one of its largest ballistic missile attacks of the war on Kyiv overnight into Sunday, July 19. One person was killed and between 14 and 16 people were wounded, according to Ukrainian officials cited by CBS News, the BBC and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL).

The barrage lasted roughly five hours, according to the Guardian, beginning with an air raid siren at 1:30 a.m. local time and continuing with a second wave after 6:30 a.m. Ukraine's air force said Russia fired 41 missiles, including 25 Iskander-M and S-400 ballistic missiles, 10 Zircon hypersonic missiles, three Onyx anti-ship missiles and three Kh-59/69 guided missiles, along with 125 Shahed-type attack drones.

Ukrainian air defenses shot down 18 missiles and 108 drones, the air force said. Twenty-three missiles and 10 drones struck 20 locations, with debris from intercepted weapons falling at 18 more sites, RFE/RL reported.

President Volodymyr Zelensky called it "one of the most massive ballistic attacks on Kyiv" since Russia's full-scale invasion began in February 2022. Ukraine's acting Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha went further, describing it as the largest use of ballistic missiles against the country since the war started, and calling for what he termed "devastating pressure" on Moscow.

Strikes hit six districts of Kyiv, according to RFE/RL, damaging apartment buildings, a supermarket, a dormitory, office buildings and a shopping and entertainment center. A three-story building caught fire in the central Shevchenkivsky district; rescuers pulled several people out and recovered one body, the Guardian reported. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said seven people were wounded, a lower figure than the 14 to 16 cited by other officials, reflecting the fact that casualty counts were still being finalized as emergency crews worked multiple sites. Zelensky said nearly 600 first responders were deployed and crews were still working at three locations.

At Lukyanivska metro station, used as a bomb shelter, the ceiling of the ground-floor vestibule collapsed from a blast wave, according to the Guardian. The station was closed afterward. CBS News spoke with Viktoria Shejko, 32, who sheltered with her seven children and husband in a hallway. "When the alarm started, we checked that there were ballistics, then went into the corridor. Then it started exploding one missile after another," she said, adding that ballistic strikes have gone from roughly weekly to nearly daily.

Russia's Defense Ministry claimed the strikes targeted Ukrainian military infrastructure, including plants it said produce Flamingo drones and Neptune missile components, plus a postal terminal it described as storing dual-use goods and drone assembly equipment. None of these claims have been independently verified by any of the outlets reporting on the attack.

Ukraine's counterstrikes and the Patriot shortage

Ukraine has continued its own long-range campaign against Russian energy and logistics targets. Its military said drones struck two Russian oil tankers in the Black Sea and a floating crane in the Sea of Azov overnight, all allegedly supporting Russian military operations. The Caspian Pipeline Consortium confirmed its Novorossiysk terminal was hit but reported no injuries or spills, according to the BBC.

A day earlier, Ukrainian drones hit two warehouses belonging to Wildberries, Russia's largest online retailer, killing eight people, according to the BBC. Seven died at a facility in Tambov and one died near Elektrostal outside Moscow. Zelensky said the operation was retaliation for "Russian strikes on our civilian infrastructure and on our cities and communities." Kyiv has said its strikes on Russian oil and gas infrastructure are legitimate because Moscow's war is financed by fossil fuel exports; Kyiv claims, without independent verification, that nearly 43% of Russian refining capacity has been knocked offline this month.

The scale of Sunday's attack underscores a real vulnerability. Ukraine's stock of Patriot interceptor missiles, its most effective defense against ballistic threats, has been dwindling, according to CBS News. During an earlier large-scale Russian attack this month, Ukraine intercepted zero ballistic missiles, exposing a gap in coverage. That Ukraine shot down 18 of 41 missiles Sunday suggests some replenishment occ