Under the Rubble in Kyiv, a Rising Death Toll From a Russian Strike

Rescuers found more bodies Friday, taking total to 31 dead from Thursday’s bombardment 

Key Points

• -- A Russian aerial bombardment of Kyiv killed 31, including children, marking one of the war’s worst attacks.

• -- The strikes prompted Zelensky to urge more pressure on Moscow, while Trump called Russia’s actions ‘disgusting’.

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• --Nato Germany will deliver Patriot air-defense systems to Ukraine after a deal with the U.S. to replace them.

By Jane Lytvynenko, The Wall Street Journal, Aug. 1, 2025  

The Thursday strike on Kyiv involved explosive drones and cruise missiles. PHOTO: JUSTYNA MIELNIKIEWICZ FOR WSJ 

Kyiv -- The first official death toll from Russia’s aerial bombardment of Ukraine’s capital early Thursday stood at six, including Matviy Marchenko, a 6-year-old boy who died in an ambulance.

By Friday morning, more than a day after the missile-and-drone assaults, rescuers sifting through the rubble of collapsed buildings had raised the total killed to 31, making the strikes one of the worst bombardments of Russia’s 3½ year war. The dead included four more children, one of them two years old.

Russia’s relentless bombing campaign is taking a savage toll on civilians across Ukraine, particularly in Kyiv, which has suffered strikes for months. The West is sending Ukraine additional air-defense equipment, but has declined to send longer-range missiles that could help Ukraine target the launch sites and production facilities, which Kyiv is instead seeking to hit with its own drones.

“Once again, this vile strike by Russia demonstrates the need for increased pressure on Moscow and additional sanctions,” said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in a statement on social media. “They must target everything that enables such attacks to continue.”

The bombardments have gone on even as President Trump issued ultimatums to Russian leader Vladimir Putin, saying the fighting must end while vowing to impose steep tariffs and sanctions against Russia.

“I think it’s disgusting what they’re doing,” Trump said of Russia’s recent attacks on Ukraine 

Germany on Friday announced that it would deliver two Patriot air-defense systems to Ukraine after reaching a deal with the U.S. to purchase replacement units. Ukrainians have been pushing partners to provide the much-needed Patriots, which are the only weapon capable of intercepting ballistic missiles Russia lobs at Ukrainian cities and infrastructure.

The Thursday strike used tactics Russians have deployed before. First, waves of Shahed explosive drones were launched from across the border, arriving in the capital in waves. The moped-like buzz of dozens of drones filled the night sky, speeding up as the drones dived toward their targets. Russia used 309 attack drones in all, most of them against Kyiv.

As the drones subsided, Kyiv residents emerged from shelters and metro stations bleary-eyed, many making their way home, believing the attack was over.

Among them were residents of a nine-story apartment building in Borshchahivka, a working-class district in Kyiv, who returned from the shelter at a nearby school.

“Some got home quicker and went back to sleep. And then there was an air-raid alert again,” said Tetyana Ivanchenko, the school’s deputy director.

Russia left about an hour’s gap after the drones before firing eight cruise missiles at the capital. Five were intercepted, but three made a whistling sound and they flew low over rooftops before hitting and turning the night sky a bright orange.

One of the cruise missiles hit the apartment building, landing between the fifth and sixth floors, collapsing a part of the building, said Ihor Klymenko, Ukraine’s interior minister, from the site of the bombing on Friday.

“The explosion was so powerful that it lifted up the top floor and depressed the bottom floor,” he said. “And then it all folded.” 

Ivanchenko, who lives not far from the neighborhood, immediately drove over. Glass was covering the ground—the shock wave knocked out every single window in the school. What she remembers most are constant cries for help.

“People couldn’t understand what happened,” she said. “Screams, cries, it’s horrible, to hear it.”

Moscow’s bombing campaign is taking a toll on civilians across 

Ukraine, particularly in Kyiv. Photo: Justyna Mielnikiewicz  ...

The 6-year-old boy who died there and his two older brothers, one of whom is in hospital and the other safely in summer camp, all attended the school. Ivanchenko said she is now unsure whether the school, badly damaged as well, can reopen at all.

Over 300 rescuers pulled the wounded and the dead from rubble, said the head of Kyiv’s military administration, Tymur Tkachenko, in an update on the rescue works posted online.

"These are losses that we will not be able to compensate,” he said. 

After the rubble was cleared, residents were allowed to return to some of their apartments to gather their belongings. For Lora Uvarkina, whose warm, sunny home is now a mess of glass and rubble, the priorities were medication, documents and her cat, Zefira, who remains missing.

Uvarkina was home when the attack happened. She survived because the missile hit a different part of the apartment block. Laying in her bed through the attack, she was kept awake by the sound of buzzing in the sky. Until the missile came, she said, “I was counting the Shaheds.”