Russia launched its largest yet aerial bombardment of Ukraine on the night of 3-4 July 2025, primarily targeting Kyiv, just hours after US President Donald Trump had called Russian President Vladimir Putin and reported that he had made “no progress” towards a ceasefire in the Ukraine war.
According to a statement released by the Ukrainian Air Force on the Telegram media channel, Russia attacked with 550 missiles and bomb-laden unmanned vehicles (UAVs), including:
- 539 Shahed strike UAVs and decoy drones of various types from Kursk, Shatalovo, Orel, Bryansk, Millerovo and Primorsko-Akhtarsk, over 330 of which were Shaheds;
- one Kh-47 M2 Kinzhal air-launched ballistic missile from the airspace of the Lipetsk region;
- six Iskander-M/KN-23 ballistic missiles from the Bryansk region;
- and four Iskander-K cruise missiles from the Kursk and Voronezh regions.
“According to preliminary data, as of 08:00 [on 4 July], air defences neutralised 478 enemy air attack vehicles,” the air force reported, noting that 268 Shahed-type UAVs were shot down, 208 UAVs were lost or neutralised through electronic warfare, and two Iskander-K cruise missiles were intercepted.
According to local reports the attacks, which damaged residential buildings, businesses, a school, a medical facility, railway lines and other civilian infrastructure, killed one person and injured at least 24 others.
Russia’s previous largest aerial attack came on the weekend of 28-29 June 2025, when 537 aerial weapons at Ukraine, including 477 drones and decoys and 60 missiles were launched, according to the Ukrainian Air Force.
These latest, large-scale Russian aerial attacks come at a difficult time for Ukraine, given that it emerged on 1 July that the US Department of Defence (DoD) had suspended shipments of certain precision munitions to Ukraine, including Patriot air defence missiles, following a review of US munitions stockpiles by Pentagon policy chief Elbridge Colby that determined those stockpiles had fallen too low.
Indeed, Russia might now be actively looking to exploit that situation.
US news website Politico reported Representative Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), the US Congressional Ukrainian Caucus co-chair, as stating of the suspension, “US-made air defence systems, including the Patriot platform, are the centrepiece of Ukraine’s defences. … They work. They save lives every day.
“If this reporting is true, then Mr Colby … is taking action that will surely result in the imminent death of many Ukrainian military and civilians,” Kaptur warned.
