Russian ballistic missiles hit Kyiv hours after EU drone production pact

Ukrainian authorities report that Kyiv came under a heavy Russian barrage early Thursday, with ballistic missiles striking several parts of the capital and setting off blasts across the city.

In a Telegram post that morning, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said firefighters and other emergency crews were tackling blazes in multiple locations. He said a warehouse in the Sviatoshynskyi district and a non-residential building in the Darnytskyi district had been struck. Debris from missiles also landed on a non-residential construction site in Darnytsia, he said, starting further fires.

Ukraine’s Air Force Command later said the immediate danger had ended after roughly an hour.

The strikes followed a visit to Kyiv by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who hours earlier unveiled a new “drone deal” linking Ukraine and the European Union. The pact is designed to pair Ukraine’s combat experience with Europe’s manufacturing strength so the two sides can launch joint ventures and expand output quickly.

At an event marking Ukraine’s Statehood Day, von der Leyen urged both sides to “combine our strengths” and said the arrangement would “bring together Ukrainian ingenuity and Europe’s industrial scale.” She said the EU could contribute “huge technological and industrial capacity” and “safe and secure production sites” to back the programme. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and von der Leyen signed bilateral documents on July 15.

More than four years after Russia’s full-scale invasion began, intensified attacks by both sides in recent months have driven up civilian deaths and injuries.

On Wednesday, regional Ukrainian officials said Russian strikes in several areas killed 13 people and wounded about 50. Daytime assaults hit industrial sites and medical facilities in the Black Sea port of Odesa and in Sumy, in the country’s northeast near the Russian frontier.