Death Toll in Russian Strike on Kyiv Rises to 31, Including 5 Children

The death toll from a Russian missile and drone attack on Kyiv has risen to 31, including five children, Ukrainian officials said Friday. At least 159 people were wounded, 16 of them children.

The strike hit the capital in the early hours of Thursday, July 31, damaging homes, schools, medical centers, and other civilian buildings across multiple districts.

Rescue crews worked through the night and into the morning, pulling bodies from the rubble of a collapsed residential building in the city’s Sviatoshynskyi district.

“All search and rescue operations have been completed. Unfortunately, as of now, 31 people are confirmed dead, including five children. The youngest was just two years old,” Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky reported on Friday, citing Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko.

The hardest-hit areas included the Sviatoshynskyi and Solomyanskyi districts, though damage was also reported in the Holosiivskyi and Shevchenkivskyi neighborhoods.

In Sviatoshynskyi, an apartment building entrance was destroyed, and several non-residential structures caught fire. In Solomyanskyi, multiple homes and vehicles were damaged, with fires breaking out at several locations. The Holosiivskyi district saw damage to a school and kindergarten, while in Shevchenkivskyi, the blast shattered windows in a children’s medical center.

Several major streets and intersections in Kyiv were closed off after the attack, which officials described as a coordinated effort to overwhelm the city’s air defenses. More than 27 sites were hit across the capital.

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Andriy Yermak, head of the Presidential Office, called the strike a deliberate assault on civilians.

“Putin is showing the world that he is unafraid and intends to keep killing our people – our children,” Yermak wrote on Telegram. “Sanctions and weapons are what’s needed. I’m confident that the US and President Trump will pursue a policy of peace through strength.”

Air raid sirens sounded repeatedly throughout the night as residents reported hearing the buzzing of Iranian-made Shahed drones and loud explosions from incoming missiles and defensive intercepts.

Ukraine’s Interior Ministry is continuing to coordinate rescue operations and assess damage.