Russia kills 22 in Kyiv strike

Russia launched hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles at Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities overnight into June 2, killing at least 22 civilians and wounding 138, according to Ukrainian authorities. Officials said 16 people were killed in Dnipro and six in Kyiv in one of the largest recent aerial assaults of the war. Ukraine’s air force said Russia fired 73 missiles and 656 drones, with Kyiv, Dnipro, Poltava, Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia among the targets. The attack came as Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said peace efforts were on hold, even as contacts with the United States continued. ### How large was this strike? Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 73 missiles and 656 drones in the overnight barrage, and said Ukrainian defenses destroyed or suppressed 40 missiles and 602 drones. The figures made it one of the biggest recent long-range attacks of the war by volume, according to the Ukrainian account. (pbs.org) Dnipro took the heaviest reported death toll. Ukrainian officials cited by PBS said rescue crews pulled bodies from apartment-building wreckage there, including a 3-year-old child, a woman and her 8-year-old son. In Kyiv, Tymur Tkachenko, head of the Kyiv City Military Administration, said at least 81 people were wounded. (pbs.org) ### Where did the casualties fall? Dnipro accounted for 16 of the reported deaths and Kyiv for six, according to officials cited by PBS. The strikes stretched past dawn and sent explosions across multiple cities. Kyiv residents had been on edge for days after Russia warned last week that a major aerial attack was coming and told foreign diplomats to leave, PBS reported. (pbs.org) No embassies immediately reported damage on June 2. ### What have Ukrainian officials said? (pbs.org) President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for more U.S. and European support after the strike. He described the attack as “an explicit statement by Russia” that missile strikes would continue if Ukraine was not better protected from ballistic missiles and other weapons, according to PBS. (pbs.org) Iryna Salikova, a 37-year-old Kyiv resident cited by PBS, said she spent the night in a bathtub with her 3-year-old daughter as blasts shook the city. “Thank God we’re alive,” she said after a broken window and flying cobblestone damaged the children’s room. (pbs.org) ### What does Moscow say about diplomacy? Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, said the peace process was on hold while maintaining that contacts with the United States were continuing, according to reporting cited in the briefing. Moscow has also repeated demands that Ukrainian forces withdraw from regions Russia claims as its own. (pbs.org) The diplomatic backdrop has deteriorated since direct talks between Kyiv and Moscow collapsed in Turkey in July 2025 without a ceasefire, according to Kyiv Post. The outlet reported that later trilateral talks involving the United States also stalled after meetings in Abu Dhabi, February discussions and further talks in Geneva. ### Where does Trump and Xi fit into this? (pbs.org) Kyiv Post reported on June 2 that President Donald Trump asked Chinese leader Xi Jinping to press Russian President Vladimir Putin to return to negotiations. The report, citing sources familiar with discussions during last month’s summit in Beijing, said Trump told Xi that negotiations had effectively stalled and urged China to push Moscow back to the table. (kyivpost.com) Marco Rubio, the U.S. secretary of state, said on May 22 that Washington was still prepared to mediate efforts to end the war, but acknowledged that the talks had produced no results, according to Kyiv Post. The next public markers are likely to come from any new statements by the Kremlin, the White House or Ukraine’s presidency on whether another round of talks will be scheduled. (kyivpost.com)