Russia launches more air strikes on Kyiv and elsewhere in Ukraine as NATO meets

Russia launched a wave of kamikaze drone attacks on Kyiv and other cities for a second night in a row, Ukraine's military said on Wednesday (12 July), hours before President Volodymyr Zelenskiy was due to meet NATO leaders at a summit in Lithuania.

Russia launched a total of 15 of the Iranian Shahed drones on Ukraine overnight, with Ukraine's defence forces shooting down 11 of them, the country's Air Force said on the Telegram messaging app.

Ihor Taburets, the military head of the Cherkasy region southeast of Kyiv, said on the Telegram messaging app that as a result of the drone strikes, two people were injured after a fire broke out in a non-residential infrastructure facility.

"A difficult night ... The enemy attacked our area with 'Shaheds'," Taburets said on the Telegram messaging app.

It was not immediately known how many drones were launched in Cherkasy and how many in Kyiv.

"The 504th day of the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation into Ukraine. The enemy launched another air attack on the capital," Serhiy Popko, head of Kyiv's military administration said on the Telegram messaging app.

Air raid sirens blasted over Kyiv and across Ukraine for several hours and fighting continued as NATO leaders gathered for a summit which the Kremlin criticised, warning that Moscow would respond to protect its own security.

Zelenskiy will attend the inaugural session of the NATO-Ukraine Council on Wednesday in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius. The council was established to bring Kyiv and the 31-member transatlantic military alliance closer.

"Our defence is the first priority," Zelenskiy said on the Telegram channel late on Tuesday ahead of the meeting. "More protection for our warriors - more protection of life for all Ukraine."

Ukraine's Armed Forces said in its daily morning update that Russian forces carried out 65 air strikes and fired at least 71 times from heavy weapon rocket systems at Ukrainian troop positions and populated areas along the frontline over the past day.

Reuters could not independently verify the battlefield report. Russia's TASS news agency cited military groupings saying that they had repelled several Ukrainian attacks in the Luhansk region over the past day.

A night earlier, Russia launched 28 drones on Kyiv and the southern port of Odesa, with Ukraine's air defence shooting down 26 of the Shahed drones.