Russia Hits Ukraine With Large Air Barrage Hours After Trump-Putin Call
Russia Hits Ukraine With Large Air Barrage Hours After Trump-Putin Call
It was the latest in a series of almost weekly large-scale missile and drone attacks. President Trump said he “didn’t make any progress” with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.
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Reporting from Kyiv, Ukraine
July 4, 2025Updated 1:52 p.m. ET
Russia attacked Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities on Friday with the largest number of drones and missiles launched in a single barrage so far in the war, according to the Ukrainian Air Force, just hours after a phone call between President Trump and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.
The assault left Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, wrapped in smoke from fires early Friday. The Russian drones and falling debris from air defense intercepts damaged the consular section of the Polish Embassy in Kyiv and China’s consulate in Odesa, in southern Ukraine. Ukrainian officials said residential buildings had been damaged in five neighborhoods in the capital.
Russia has been ramping up drone attacks in recent months with record numbers launched almost weekly. As they did on Friday, the attacks typically combine exploding drones, cruise and ballistic missiles, and decoys intended to confuse or overwhelm Ukraine’s air defenses.
Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin spoke by phone shortly before the air-raid alerts went off in Kyiv. After the call, Mr. Trump told reporters, “I didn’t make any progress with him at all.” There was no clear link between the timing of the air assault and the call, which was at least the sixth between Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin this year.
After the strikes on Friday, Mr. Trump spoke with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, according to the Ukrainian president’s office. The two discussed Friday’s aerial barrage and air defenses, the office said in a statement, without providing further details.
Friday’s attack was the first large-scale volley from Russia since the Trump administration said this week that it would withhold some of the air defense missiles and other weapons that the United States had promised to the Ukrainian military. Those supplies had been expected in the coming weeks or months.
Ukraine relies on U.S.-made Patriot missiles as its only defense against some types of Russian ballistic missiles, although it has an array of other European-provided and domestically produced defenses against cruise missiles and drones.
In its statement abo
