Russia strikes Kyiv and Mykolaiv with drone salvos, Ukraine says

Russia's long-range strike campaign against Ukrainian cities escalated after the full-scale invasion of 24 February 2022 and broadened into systematic attacks on energy, transport and civilian infrastructure. The Council of the EU says it first imposed Russia-related economic sanctions after Crimea's illegal annexation in 2014, then significantly expanded them after the 2022 invasion. CSIS analysis states that Russia sharply increased Shahed drone launches from September 2024, turning repeated drone salvos into an attrition strategy against air defences and civilian morale. AP reporting this week described continuing reciprocal long-range strikes and a largely static front line.

The strike sits inside a wider contest over whether Russia can use mass, low-cost aerial attacks to exhaust Ukraine and fragment Western support. CSIS analysis states that drone saturation changes the cost balance of air defence, forcing Ukraine and its partners to find cheaper interception methods. The Council of the EU says sanctions aim to weaken Russia's war economy, making each new strike politically relevant to the durability of European pressure.

The story is timely because Ukrainian authorities reported the Kyiv and Mykolaiv strikes on 12 June, alongside a week of intensified long-range attack reporting and renewed European diplomatic activity around Ukraine. The specific open-source record remains thin, so the safest framing is a reported strike within an established drone campaign.