UKRAINE PERSPECTIVE

Kyiv, July 12, 2026. In the night of July 10-11, Russia launched one of its most intense combined attacks in recent weeks: six Iskander-M/S-400 ballistic missiles, four Kh-59/69 guided missiles, two Kh-31 anti-radar missiles, and 121 drones, according to the Ukrainian air force. The air defense system intercepted or jammed two of the four Kh-59/69 missiles and 111 of the 121 drones; impacts were recorded in eleven locations.

In Kyiv, explosions were heard even before the air raid alert. President Volodymyr Zelensky specified that the ballistic strikes hit four districts of the capital, injuring eleven people, including a child, and damaging residential buildings, offices, and a theological seminary. "Last night, Russia launched over 120 drones and 12 missiles, half of which were ballistic," he said, calling on Western partners to honor the commitments made at the NATO summit regarding licenses for Patriot batteries and the European common missile defense project.

The regions are also paying a heavy toll. In Kharkiv, an Italmas drone struck a civilian enterprise in the Nemyshlianskyi district in broad daylight: the number of injured has risen from three to seven, and a warehouse was partially destroyed, according to Mayor Ihor Terekhov. In Odessa, a ballistic strike on infrastructure resulted in two fatalities and three injuries, including two hospitalized, reported Oleh Kiper, head of the regional administration. In the Kherson region, a drone strike on the Korabelnyi district injured four people, including a 53-year-old man suffering from shrapnel trauma. Additionally, two fires were sparked by drones in the Chernihiv region, resulting in one more injury.

The previous day, the Zaporizhzhia region had recorded over 1,000 attacks in twenty-four hours - aerial bombardments, FPV drones, and artillery - resulting in one fatality and twelve injuries in 49 locations. This accumulation of strikes, both on the capital and the border regions, supports Kyiv's argument that the Ukrainian air defense system remains structurally insufficient against the volume of Russian strikes, despite a high interception rate for drones.