On the night of July 7, 2026, Russia continued its aerial terror over Ukraine with the launch of new waves of attack drones (UAVs) “Shahed“, after the previous day was marked by one of the bloodiest ballistic attacks against Kiev this year.
Due to the current situation and the dynamics of military operations, official agencies and the media summarize data from the previous night at large intervals. Here is what has been confirmed as of 4:00 AM on July 7, 2026 for strikes on civilian targets in both countries.
New wave of drones over Ukraine (11:00 PM - 4:00 AM)
In the time period between 11:00 PM on July 6 and 4:00 AM on July 7, the Ukrainian Air Force declared an alert in a number of areas. Russian forces launched new groups of “Shahed” drones, with the main directions of movement being the central, southern and eastern regions. As of 04:00 in the morning, Ukraine's air defense continued active work to intercept targets in the sky, and local authorities urged citizens to stay in shelters until the alert was lifted.
The Tragedy in Kiev and the Kiev Region: Clearing Under the Rubble
In parallel with the new threats, emergency services and volunteers in Kiev worked non-stop throughout the night to clear the tons of concrete debris. The current balance after the unprecedented combined attack with 68 missiles and 351 drones (including ballistic systems) shows enormous civilian damage:
- Crimes and injuries: In the capital Kiev, the number of civilian deaths reached 15 people, and in the Kiev region their number increased to 8. The total number of injured in the region exceeds 100 people, including five children.
- Destroyed infrastructure: More than 30 residential buildings in the Podil and Darnitsa districts suffered serious damage. In the town of Vishneve (Buchansky district), over 600 residents were urgently evacuated due to a large-scale fire in warehouses and an immediate risk of secondary detonations.
- Energy collapse: The company “Ukrenergo“ confirmed that the strikes disrupted power facilities, leaving vast areas in Kyiv, Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhia regions without electricity.
The mayor of the capital, Vitali Klitschko, officially declared July 7, 2026, a Day of Mourning in Kyiv. All entertainment events in the city are completely banned, and national flags are flown at half-mast.
Retaliatory and midnight strikes on Russian territory
The Russian Defense Ministry said the massive shelling of Ukraine was carried out as a "retaliatory strike" in response to Ukrainian long-range attacks on Russian oil infrastructure, which have caused a serious fuel shortage in the country.
According to official data from the Russian defense ministry, in the early hours of the morning, air defense systems on duty had intercepted and destroyed 116 Ukrainian drones over 13 Russian regions. The areas attacked included Belgorod, Bryansk, Kursk, Leningrad, and Tver regions, the Krasnodar Territory, and the annexed Crimean peninsula. Local Russian governors said most of the debris fell in uninhabited areas, but there was damage to civilian objects and local power outages, the most serious being in Sevastopol, where the city was briefly without power before backup power was brought in.
International reaction ahead of summit
The night terror comes just hours before the much-anticipated NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and NATO's new Secretary-General Mark Rutte have strongly condemned Moscow's actions, calling them "indiscriminate attacks aimed directly at civilians." Zelensky called on the United States and its European partners to immediately accelerate deliveries of Patriot missile defense systems, stressing that a critical shortage of interceptor missiles is costing lives.