Russia Pounds Kyiv With Missiles Overnight: 13 Dead, a Collapsed Building, a Downtown Hotel Hit

The night between July 1 and 2, Kyiv lived through one of the heaviest air attacks yet. Russia sent waves of cruise and ballistic missiles - hypersonic ones among them - and kamikaze drones against the Ukrainian capital and other cities. According to Ukrainian services, 13 people were killed, at least 56 wounded, and 32 hospitalized. Among the victims are both civilians and rescuers.

The strikes weren't picky about targets. Residential buildings were hit in several parts of the city, a hotel in the center caught fire, and in one district a nine-story block collapsed with people trapped under the rubble. A medical facility was also damaged, where five health workers were injured, one seriously. In total, at least 28 locations sustained damage. The attacks began around 9:40 p.m. with drones and continued with ballistic missiles until about two after midnight.

President Zelensky warned that same day: "We have very worrying information about preparations for a new major Russian air attack." So he knew what was coming - and yet little can be done against a night full of missiles. This isn't the first strike of its kind and it won't be the last, but each new one measures the limits of how much a city can take.

The context matters to understand why now. The attack is seen as retaliation for the Ukrainian drones that hit Moscow and Russian refineries in June, worsening Russia's fuel shortage. The war has long stopped being fought only at the front - it has spread to the cities, to civilians, to everyone asleep in their apartment hoping that tonight the missile will fall somewhere farther off.

For the Balkans, which remembers its own sieges and its own nights under the sirens, this is not distant news. We know what it means when the "target" of some war becomes the building you live in. And we know how quickly the world grows used to someone else's suffering when it lasts long enough. The question hanging over all of it is simple and uncomfortable: who still believes this has a bottom, and what exactly has to happen for someone to say enough?