Kyiv, Ukraine – June 11, 2025 — Russia has carried out one of the most intense air assaults on Kyiv since the start of its full-scale invasion more than three years ago, striking key civilian infrastructure and cultural heritage sites, including a UNESCO World Heritage cathedral. Simultaneously, drone attacks in the southern city of Odesa hit a maternity ward and emergency medical facilities, leaving at least three people dead across both cities.
The assault began in the early hours of Tuesday and followed what Ukrainian officials described as Russia’s largest drone strike of the war just a day earlier. Moscow claims the increased bombardments are retaliation for recent Ukrainian strikes on Russian territory.
Explosions thundered across Kyiv, with seven of the city’s ten districts targeted. Fires broke out as drones and missiles rained down, lighting the skyline in orange and sending thick plumes of smoke into the air. Authorities deployed firefighting helicopters to contain the blazes. At least one person was killed, and four others were hospitalized.
President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned the strikes, saying, “Today was one of the largest attacks on Kyiv. Russian missile and Shahed drone strikes drown out the efforts of the United States and others around the world to force Russia into peace.”
The attack also damaged the iconic Saint Sophia Cathedral, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Culture Minister Mykola Tochytskyi described the strike as hitting “the very heart of our identity,” calling the historic site “the soul of all Ukraine.”
In a harrowing scene from Kyiv, Kateryna Zaitseva and her 14-year-old son survived a direct drone hit on their apartment. “We started moving blindly to the entrance door… I shouted that there were two of us, that we were unhurt, and [a rescuer] helped us,” she recounted.
In Odesa, Governor Oleh Kiper confirmed that a drone strike killed two men and hit a maternity hospital, an emergency medical building, and nearby residences. Staff managed to evacuate patients in time, including mothers who had just given birth.
“I had just given birth on June 6,” said Iryna Britkaru, 23. “The third impact was already very loud, and shrapnel flew… it rained down in the corridor.”
Another new mother, Natalia Kovalenko, 34, expressed a simple hope: “I just want the war to end.”
The latest escalation underscores the deepening humanitarian crisis in Ukraine as the war enters its fourth year with no ceasefire in sight.