The United Nations recorded the highest monthly civilian death toll in Ukraine since April 2022 last month, as Russia intensified long-range missile strikes, according to a report published Tuesday.
"After May recorded the highest number of civilian casualties in over four years, June surpassed it, with at least 293 civilians killed," the U.N.'s human rights monitoring mission in Ukraine said.
Earlier Tuesday, Russia launched a barrage of drones and ballistic missiles at Kyiv, the fifth such attack on the Ukrainian capital so far this month.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the attacks damaged 16 sites in the capital, including a school and a business, while city officials reported several fires across the city.
Russia also targeted critical infrastructure in central and southern Ukraine, Zelenskyy said, adding that the attacks injured seven people in Ukraine's eastern Kharkiv region and three in the northern Chernihiv region.
"Last night, the Russians launched 135 drones and 10 missiles of various types, most of them ballistic, against our cities and communities," Zelenskyy said in a post on X.
"There must be greater pressure on Russia," he said, calling on European allies to pass their latest sanctions package this week.
This summer, Russia has intensified its airstrikes on Ukraine, pounding its cities and energy infrastructure almost every night, as Kyiv runs low on air defense munitions to repel ballistic missiles.
Ukraine's air force said air defense units shot down five out of the eight ballistic missiles that Russia fired overnight – a higher interception rate than in attacks earlier this month – and 108 out of 135 drones.
Kyiv has meanwhile stepped up its drone attacks inside Russia, targeting weapons production sites and oil facilities in an attempt to reduce Russia's economic ability to press on with the war, now in its fifth year.
Russian authorities reported a fire at the Afipsky oil refinery in Russia's southern Krasnodar region and drone debris falling at an industrial area in Salavat in the Urals region of Bashkortostan.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said this week that Moscow would respond to Ukrainian attacks on its territory with retaliatory strikes that would be "several times more powerful" and would increase in scale.
