Ukraine hit by deadly Russian attack ahead of NATO summit

Skip to content

Russia launched a massive attack on the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv late Sunday, shortly before Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will head to Turkey for the annual NATO summit.

Russia launched 68 missiles and 351 attack drones at Kyiv, Zelensky wrote on social platform X early Monday. As of then, the attack had killed 11 people and injured roughly 60 more, the Ukrainian president said.

“All necessary services are on the ground, doing everything possible to rescue people and provide assistance to everyone who needs it,” Zelensky added. “So far, 64 people have been rescued, including two children.”

The NATO summit is set for Tuesday and Wednesday in Ankara, Turkey, with the agenda including how the alliance can continue to support Ukraine amid Russia’s prolonged invasion of its eastern neighbor. Ukraine is not a member of NATO, while Russia has long opposed the former Soviet republic joining the group.

President Trump last met with Zelensky in mid-June at a Group of Seven (G7) meeting in France. After their meeting, the U.S. presidency said Russia “should make a deal” to end its war in Ukraine, citing mounting casualties.

Trump will meet with his Ukrainian counterpart at 2:30 p.m. local time on Wednesday, according to the official White House schedule.

A senior U.S. official said Sunday the meeting between Trump and Zelensky is intended for the two “to talk about how we can end the war.”

The official added during a press call: “The president feels a real sense of urgency to try to bring this to a stop. Both sides have articulated as recently, as you mentioned … that President Trump plays a unique role in his ability to try to mediate this.”

Hours before Russia launched its latest attack on Kyiv, Zelensky said intelligence indicated the occupying nation was “preparing a new massive strike.”

Before and after the strikes, the Ukrainian leader urged European nations and the U.S. to provide Ukraine with more Patriot missile systems to intercept Russian ballistic missiles.

“Our warriors performed well today in intercepting drones and cruise missiles, but unfortunately not Russian ballistic missiles,” Zelensky noted Monday after the attack. “And the reason lies in the insufficient supply of interceptor missiles.”

Zelensky said it was “critically important” for the U.S. and European countries to come out of the NATO summit in favor of bolstering Ukraine’s air defense capabilities.

In recent weeks, Zelensky has also asked for American permission to domestically produce Patriot missiles, which are manufactured by Raytheon.

“As long as Patriot missiles remain in our allies’ stockpiles, Russia is only encouraged to keep ‘vanquishing’ residential buildings,” the Ukrainian president said Monday. “The United States and Europe have enough strength to stop this terror.”

Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, fighting has resulted in nearly 56,000 civilian casualties, 3.7 million people internally displaced and 5.9 million registering as refugees, according to an analysis updated June 17 by the Global Conflict Tracker at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Tags

Donald Trump

Volodymyr Zelensky

Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.