Russia Hammers Ukraine’s Capital in Deadly Attacks

Russia Hammers Ukraine’s Capital in Deadly Attacks At least 21 people were killed in Kyiv, the local authorities said. Ukraine’s president had warned that Moscow was preparing a “massive strike” as his country’s forces have hit deeper into Russian territory. - Cassandra Vinograd/The New York Times - Roman Pilipey/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images - Cassandra Vinograd/The New York Times - Alina Smutko/Reuters - Paula Bronstein/Getty Images - Cassandra Vinograd/The New York Times - Genya Savilov/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images - Roman Pilipey/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images - Cassandra Vinograd/The New York Times - Danylo Antoniuk/Associated Press Latest The Russian military blasted Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, with waves of ballistic missiles and drones that lasted into Thursday morning, a deadly show of force after weeks of Ukrainian attacks in Russia that have heaped pressure on President Vladimir V. Putin. At least 21 people were killed and 85 injured in overnight attacks, Ukrainian officials said, as firefighters raced to extinguish blazes in districts across the city. Several apartment buildings were partially destroyed and an unknown number of people were trapped in the rubble, according to the local authorities. The barrage was the latest in the deadliest spring for civilians in Ukraine since the opening months of Moscow’s full-scale invasion in 2022, with the violence increasing as both sides have raced to develop new weapons. Russia has been bombarding Ukrainian towns and cities throughout the war, but Ukraine is increasingly able to bring the war further into Russia. It is using its growing arsenal of domestically produced long-range drones and cruise missiles to attack fuel facilities and military installations deep inside the country. And it is systematically hitting targets in every corner of occupied Ukraine, including Crimea, a peninsula controlled by Russia. Kyiv’s growing reach has caused logistical struggles for the Russian military and has led to widespread fuel shortages across the country, eroding Mr. Putin’s ability to insulate large parts of Russia, including Moscow, the capital, from the war. But it does not seem to have dented his resolve to continue fighting. After initially staying silent on Ukraine’s ratcheting up of attacks, Mr. Putin told Russian state television on Sunday that the assaults on critical infrastructure were “obviously creating problems” and “certain shortages,” though he said the situation was not “critical.” Russia’s defense ministry said in a statement on Thursday that the strikes on Kyiv were in response to Ukraine’s recent attacks. Ukraine’s foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, said that it was wrong to equate his country’s strikes in Russia with Moscow’s unrelenting bombardments. “It is immoral to justify Russian atrocities against Ukrainians by saying that Moscow acts in response to Ukraine’s long-range strikes against Russia,” he said on social media. “In this war, there is an aggressor and a country defending itself under Article 51 of the U.N. Charter. ” The Ukrainian military said it had targeted Russian energy infrastructure again on Thursday, claiming that it had struck an oil refinery in the town of Kstovo in Nizhny Novgorod region, one of the largest in Russia. The European Union responded to Russia’s attacks by proposing to impose new economic sanctions against entities that support Moscow’s military defense industry. “Words of condemnation alone will not stop attacks on Kyiv,” Kaja Kallas, the bloc’s top diplomat, said on social media. “Only sustained military support for Ukraine and increased pressure on Moscow can do that.” Ukraine has been trying to force the Russian military to pay a heavy price for every mile of land it seizes and increase the economic costs for the Kremlin. Moscow believes its military can outlast Kyiv’s outnumbered forces on the front while inflicting such a heavy human and economic toll that it breaks the will of civilians, according to Western military analysts. Many of Kyiv’s three million residents had been bracing for a large-scale Russian assault in part because about two weeks had passed since the last one, giving Moscow time to stockpile missiles and drones. President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine had warned in recent days that Russia was preparing a “massive strike,” and he urged people to be “especially careful.” Before dawn on Thursday, explosions boomed and thick smoke rose over the Ukrainian capital. More than 50,000 people sought shelter in the city’s subway stations, according to the local authorities, and tens of thousands took cover in basements, garages or in makeshift shelters at home. Firefighters and emergency workers raced to extinguish blazes across the city. Several apartment buildings were partially destroyed and an unknown number of people were trapped in the rubble, according to the local authorities. Mr. Zelensky said more than 30 locations across Kyiv were hit or damaged, including residential buildings, an ambulance station, and a research institute. In an underground parking garage in the Darnytsia district of the city, dozens of residents waited out the night’s bombardment. Some slept in their cars, others on the concrete floor. “We could hear the explosions clearly — it wasn’t far away,” said Olena Rudenkova, a resident of the district. What has changed, she added, was not the fear but the response to it. “I don’t think anyone cries anymore, not even the children,” she said. “Everyone becomes as focused and angry as possible.” The Ukrainian Air Force said Russia launched 74 missiles and 476 drones in the attack, primarily targeting Kyiv. The barrage included 28 ballistic missiles, which can only be intercepted by Patriot systems, it added. Ukraine’s stockpile of Patriot interceptors was running low even before the latest attacks. NATO countries have been regularly shipping modest numbers of the interceptor missiles to Kyiv, but the Ukrainian military has been unable to keep up with Russia’s frequent strikes or Moscow’s capacity to produce new missiles. Oleksandr Chubko, Liubov Sholudko, Oleksandra Mykolyshyn and Lara Jakes contributed reporting. Smoke poured from the roof of a six-story hotel in central Kyiv on Thursday morning. Two ladder trucks sprayed jets of water that sent debris tumbling to the sidewalk below, where dozens of firefighters were gathered. They trudged in and out of the stately building in central Kyiv’s Shevchenko district, their faces sooty and red. Some sat down along a fence, chugging water in the summer heat and staring up at the burning building in front of them. It was one of many blazes in Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital, on Thursday as Russia launched one of its deadliest barrages in recent weeks. At least 18 people were killed, dozens were injured, and tens of thousands sought shelter in subway stations while air-raid sirens blared and explosions filled the skies. “It was terrifying,” said Kateryna, 77, who had been at the entrance of her building when explosions hit that morning. “There was a huge blast, people screamed, and the whole room shook.” The latest deadly night in Ukraine, more than four years into the war with Russia, showed how the toll for civilians continues to mount amid slow, grinding fighting on the battlefield. As Ukrainian forces have struck deeper inside Russia in recent weeks, causing casualties and supply challenges for President Vladimir V. Putin’s forces, Moscow has struck back with waves of assaults on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities. In May, the United Nations reported that at least 274 civilians had been killed and more than 1,700 injured, the highest combined total in a month since April 2022, soon after the Russian invasion began. By noon on Thursday, hours after the Russian assault started. not all the fires had been put out. And rescue teams worked into the afternoon searching the rubble for survivors and victims, including in the Darntysia district, where a nine-story apartment building had partially collapsed from a strike. Affixed to harnesses, the rescue workers gingerly explored what remained of the building’s upper levels while excavators moved buckets of concrete and debris on the ground below. The workers didn’t pause even when new air-raid sirens sounded, warning of incoming Russian drones. Nearby, residents swept up glass around other damaged buildings and boarded up blown-out windows and doors with planks of wood. Some people were still shaken from the overnight assault. Kateryna, the 77-year-old, shuffled down a sidewalk, glass crunching underfoot. She had moved to Kyiv from Cherkasy, in central Ukraine, just weeks ago to be closer to her children and grandchildren, she said, declining to give her full name because she did not want people in her hometown to know she had been affected. After these strikes, she said, it was clear that moving had been a mistake. “It’s heartbreaking to think about it now,” she said, starting to cry. In other parts of the city, some fires were still burning well into the afternoon. Black smoke climbed above northern Kyiv, where a helicopter drew water from a lake to help extinguish a blaze. A short distance away, a grating symphony of shovels scraped at the pavement, as teachers helped clean up a damaged kindergarten. The white building, painted with cheery forest animals, had its windows and doors blown out. One volunteer, Oleksandra Perekhodko, 36, wiped her eyes as she explained that normally schoolchildren would have filled the building on a Thursday morning. Around the corner, a giant crater had appeared in front of a five-story apartment building, whose mangled staircases were visible through bombed-out windows. People stopped to stare and take photographs while residents tried to salvage what they could. Investigators at the scene had collected pieces of shrapnel and laid them out on a table set up in another playground strewed with debris. They wiped down the hunks of metal, examining them for clues to what weapons had been used in the strike. Olena Rudenkova, a Kyiv resident who had heard the explosions clearly from her home, said that Ukrainians have learned to live with fear after years of war. Some may shed tears, she said, but everyone has grown hardened, even children. “Everyone becomes as focused and angry as possible,” she said. Liubov Sholudko and Oleksandra Mykolyshyn contributed reporting. Advertisement SKIP ADVERTISEMENTThe Russian strikes on Ukraine are a reminder of its ability to launch major attacks and cause severe damage, but Moscow’s wider military campaign has largely stalled in recent months, analysts say. Russia took control of roughly 32 square miles of territory in June, DeepState, a Ukrainian organization with ties to the country’s military that uses open-source intelligence to track battlefield movements, said in a statement. Where Russia has made gains in the eastern region of Donetsk, it is doing so at one of the slowest rates in any war over the last century, according to a report published on Wednesday by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based research group. Russian forces are advancing at an average of 164 feet per day around the city of Kostiantynivka, 230 feet per day near Pokrovsk and 295 feet per day around Sloviansk, the report found. The Russian military is also suffering far higher casualties than the Ukrainian forces, rising to a rate of nearly eight to one in the first six months of 2026, compared with between two to one and three to one for much of the war, C.S.I.S. said. Still, even small advances allow Russian forces to extend the reach of their drones, artillery and glide bombs, and they are steadily laying waste to the cities that remain under Ukrainian control in the Donbas. Some of the most brutal fighting is taking place in Kostiantynivka, where Russian forces are steadily pushing deeper into the city. Strikes deep in Russian territory and a systemic campaign of targeting a garrison supporting Russian forces in the Crimean peninsula is causing fuel shortages, complicating troop rotations and reducing Russian military activity there. For Europe, the blitz of Russian strikes against Ukraine overnight was not just another reminder of the war next door. It was also a warning of how vulnerable the continent would be if the conflict were ever to cross into NATO territory. As President Trump withdraws some U.S. military assets from Europe and considers pulling back even more, NATO allies are scrambling to fill the gap. Officials and experts say they are nowhere near doing so. “If anyone thinks here again that the European Union, or Europe as a whole, can defend itself without the U.S., keep on dreaming,” Mark Rutte, the NATO secretary general, said in January. “You can’t. We can’t. We need each other.” Russian fighter jets frequently enter NATO airspace to test whether the military alliance will stop them. Drones push into European territory that borders western Ukraine. And Russia has used ballistic missiles in Ukraine that can carry nuclear warheads and strike European capitals within minutes of being launched. On Thursday, Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz, the Polish defense minister, asserted that his country’s borders were well protected during the Russian attacks. “Poland remained safe!” he said on social media, adding that French and Dutch forces helped to protect the country’s airspace. “That’s precisely why we invest in a modern army and strong alliances — so that Poles can feel safe,” Mr. Kosiniak-Kamysz said. Next week, NATO leaders are to meet in Ankara, Turkey, where they will assess whether European members of the 32-nation alliance are shouldering enough security costs after decades of reliance on the United States. Many of the European allies have increased military spending, and they collectively invested $90 billion more in their armed forces last year than in 2024. But many are also still struggling to balance devoting more resources to the military with other priorities, like health care, pensions and affordable housing. At the same time, Europe has been spending far more to help defend and stabilize Ukraine since Mr. Trump severely curbed American support over the past year. The European Union this week began transferring six billion euros, about $6.8 billion, to Ukraine as part of a loan of 90 billion euros to help strengthen the country’s defenses, Kaja Kallas, the bloc’s top diplomat, said on social media on Thursday. So long as Ukraine serves as Europe’s first line of defense against Russia, the money is likely to continue flowing. “We keep raising the cost until Russia understands it cannot win,” Ms. Kallas said. Advertisement SKIP ADVERTISEMENTRussia’s overnight attacks damaged the Palladin Institute of Biochemistry, a leading scientific research center, in Kyiv. Scientists surveyed damaged equipment while emergency crews worked to contain fires at the building. News Analysis President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia is under pressure. In recent weeks, Ukraine has brought the war home for Russians in new ways with attacks on refineries and in Moscow, drawing on its advances in drone and missile production. Will the increased Ukrainian attacks on the Russian home front ultimately convince Mr. Putin to end the war? So far, the answer seems to be no. On Thursday, Russia launched waves of ballistic missiles and drones into Kyiv, killing at least 18, in what appeared to be the Kremlin’s immediate retort to the pressure and the latest signal from Moscow that Mr. Putin is digging in. That’s not to say Ukraine’s campaign is having no impact. Airstrikes against Russian oil refineries have caused nationwide fuel shortages. The largest drone attack on Moscow of the war sent huge clouds of black smoke billowing over the Russian capital last month. And Kyiv has steadily begun cutting off Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula that the Kremlin illegally annexed from Ukraine in 2014, leading to power outages, severe fuel deficits and water supply issues there. Russians seem to be growing more frustrated with the war as they face worsening economic prospects, higher taxes, internet restrictions, strikes on Russian soil and broad exhaustion from a conflict that has now stretched longer than World War I. After days of silence, Mr. Putin addressed the mounting difficulties in a state news interview on Sunday. He vowed to sort out the fuel issues and produce more air defenses, but also pledged to continue the fight on the battlefield. It is far from clear that growing public dissatisfaction with the war in Russia will translate to any formidable political challenge for Mr. Putin, given that he has erected an authoritarian system and drastically increased wartime censorship and repression. Alexander Gabuev, director of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center in Berlin, said, “The chances that the tide will turn against Putin are there but single-digit percentage wise.” “Ukrainian pressure makes it more likely, but I don’t think this is the most likely scenario,” he added. “The most likely scenario is the whole thing will just continue with more destruction and more death on both sides.” Mr. Putin’s future calculations will depend in part on how far Ukraine can go with its strikes. If the air campaign further limits Russia’s ability to wage war by taking out defense factories and supply lines, that could force Mr. Putin to change his ambitions. In his comments on Sunday, Mr. Putin said Ukraine was facing an acute troop crisis, suggesting he still believes that he must merely hold out long enough and keep pushing for Ukrainian defenses to collapse. “Given the catastrophic shortage of personnel, the Ukrainian Armed Forces apparently believe this could be their salvation,” Mr. Putin said. “But saving the Kyiv regime is not part of our plans.” Mr. Putin then offered a long description of battlefield positions that analysts said employed some magical math, with the Russian leader regularly halving the distances between his forces and Ukrainian cities. “He is either misinformed or lying or both,” Mr. Gabuev said. “But it doesn’t matter, because he seems to be stubborn on this. I don’t think at this point there is anything indicating change.” If Ukrainian strikes pose a graver threat to the lives of people in Russia and Crimea, it could also prompt more defiance in Russian society and lift the voices of hawkish pro-war Russians. For years, they have been arguing that the Kremlin needs to take the gloves off; get rid of Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky; and turn to nuclear weapons if necessary. One of the enduring surprises of the conflict is how much pain Mr. Putin has been willing to suffer at home to pursue his war aims. Already, the conflict has cut off Russia from the global economy, boomeranged into the Belgorod region to create a war zone inside Russia’s borders and led to a monthslong period during which Ukraine occupied a piece of the Kursk region. It caused a short-lived mercenary mutiny threatening Mr. Putin and has resulted in about 350,000 to 450,000 Russian deaths on the front, in addition to an embarrassing retreat from Kyiv early in the war. Mr. Putin has remained undeterred. If Kyiv can sustain pressure on Russia for months and affect Moscow’s ability to fight the war, that will matter, said Stefan Meister, a Russia analyst at the German Council on Foreign Relations. The Ukrainian campaign is already forcing Mr. Putin to react, Mr. Meister noted, eroding Russians’ belief that they can win the war and that their leadership is capable of the task. The strikes also prolong Mr. Putin’s battlefield burden at a time when his financial technocrats are struggling to pay for spiraling war costs without causing even more negative consequences for Russian society. “The question is, ‘What will change Putin’s opinion? When will the cost-benefit calculation really start fundamentally changing?’” Mr. Meister said. “This is a question we have been asking ourselves for years.” He added, “With Putin, I have my doubts, whatever it is, if he will stop.” NATO members in eastern Europe excoriated Russia’s attacks and demanded a strong response. Russia “must be forced into peace through maximum pressure, including sanctions, and continuous support to Ukraine,” said Latvia’s foreign minister, Baiba Braze. The foreign ministry of Romania urged allies to send Ukraine more air defenses and to “redouble efforts to uphold international law, accountability and a just and lasting peace.” Advertisement SKIP ADVERTISEMENTRussian forces continued to struggle on the battlefield in June, according to military analysts, inching forward through the ruins of the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine but remaining stalled or losing ground in the south. Where Russia is advancing, it is doing so at a grinding pace that is producing about eight times the casualties for its forces than what the Ukrainians are suffering, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Still, even small advances allow Russian forces to extend the reach of their drones, artillery and glide bombs deeper into Ukrainian territory. In southern Ukraine, Ukrainian drones with newly extended range and deadlier payloads have wreaked havoc on Russian supply lines and hit the Crimean peninsula, a key garrison supporting Russian forces, causing fuel shortages and complicating troop rotations. Reporting from Kyiv, Ukraine Teachers from other schools showed up to help clean up a damaged kindergarten in the Darnytsia district of Kyiv on Thursday morning. The windows and doors of the building painted with cheery forest animals were blown out in the overnight Russian attacks. Oleksandra Perekhodko, 36, was among the people working at the scene. She started to cry when describing the state of the school. The kids were supposed to be here today, she said, as men with shovels collected debris from the colorful playground. Reporting from Kyiv, Ukraine In an underground parking garage in the Darnytsia district of Kyiv, dozens of residents waited out the night’s bombardment. Some slept in their cars, others on the concrete floor. “We could hear the explosions clearly — it wasn’t far away,” said Olena Rudenkova, a resident of the district. What has changed, she said, is not the fear but the response to it. “I don’t think anyone cries anymore, not even the children,” she said. “Everyone becomes as focused and angry as possible.” Advertisement SKIP ADVERTISEMENTA total of 52,500 people sought shelter in metro stations in Kyiv, Ukraine overnight, according to city officials. They said that was the highest rate of people doing so “in recent years.” Many residents had planned to sleep underground even before the attack began, given the warnings that a large-scale strike was imminent. Germany condemned Russia’s latest attacks on Ukraine and vowed to renew pressure on Moscow and aid for Kyiv. “The harrowing images of destruction from last night show once again that Russia is continuing its war of aggression against Ukraine — in violation of international law — with undiminished brutality,” a spokesman for Germany’s foreign ministry said in a statement. Advertisement SKIP ADVERTISEMENTDmitri S. Peskov, the Kremlin’s spokesman, said Russia would not back down from its fight with Ukraine after the European Union suggested it could impose new sanctions on Russia in response to the overnight attacks. Moscow will continue to increase pressure on the Ukainian government, he said, “in order to achieve its set goals.” Ukraine pushed back against efforts to equate the country’s intensifying military campaign against Russia in recent weeks with Moscow’s unrelenting bombardments of Ukrainian towns and cities. “It is immoral to justify Russian atrocities against Ukrainians by saying that Moscow acts in response to Ukraine’s long-range strikes against Russia,” Ukraine’s foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, said on social media. “In this war, there is an aggressor and a country defending itself under Article 51 of the UN Charter. Russia has no right to make any strikes against Ukraine, while Ukraine has every right to respond, defend from aggressor, and strike any legitimate military targets in Russia.” The Ukrainian military said it had targeted more Russian energy infrastructure on Thursday, claiming on social media on Thursday that it had struck an oil refinery in the town of Kstovo in Nizhny Novgorod region of Russia. The facility is one of the largest in Russia, with a processing capacity of around 17 million tons of crude oil per year. In recent weeks, Ukraine has intensified its attacks on Russia. Advertisement SKIP ADVERTISEMENTReporting from Kyiv, Ukraine At noon in Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, some fires caused by the Russian attacks are still burning. In the northern part of the city, firefighters have been trying to extinguish a large blaze for several hours, but the fire is not under control and black smoke is still rising and spreading across the neighborhood. Ukraine’s stockpile of air defenses was largely drained before the overnight Russian attacks. NATO countries have been regularly shipping modest numbers of Patriot interceptors to Ukraine, which can shoot down ballistic missiles. But the Ukrainian military has been unable to keep up with Russia’s frequent strikes. The foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, pleaded with allies to send more interceptors.“Do not delay decisions on air defense for Ukraine!” he said on social media. “This is our main request to our partners after Kyiv suffered a night of horror.” President Vladimir V. Putin initially seemed to be trying to ignore Ukraine’s increased attacks by not commenting publicly. But he broke his silence late Sunday in an interview with state television, admitting that the assaults on key infrastructure were “obviously creating problems” and “certain shortages,” though he said the situation was not “critical.” Putin said Russia would step up production of air defenses, repair damaged facilities faster, get more supplies to Crimea and continue focusing on the front line in east Ukraine. Advertisement SKIP ADVERTISEMENTThe Russian attacks on Ukraine demonstrated the vast disparity between the countries’ long-range military capabilities. While Moscow can pound Ukrainian cities with dozens of ballistic and cruise missiles simultaneously, Kyiv can respond with long-range drones and only a few missiles. Russia launched its strikes on Kyiv as President Vladimir V. Putin has come under growing pressure from recent Ukrainian millitary attacks on Russia. In the past month, Ukrainian strikes on oil refineries have caused gasoline shortages across Russia and it has mounted its biggest attack on Moscow of the war. Ukraine has also squeezed Crimea, causing power outages, fuel shortages and water issues on the peninsula that Moscow annexed from Ukraine in 2014. The European Union has proposed new economic sanctions against entities that support Russia’s military defense industry, in response to Moscow’s overnight strikes against Ukraine. “Words of condemnation alone will not stop attacks on Kyiv,” Kaja Kallas, the bloc’s top diplomat said on social media. “Only sustained military support for Ukraine and increased pressure on Moscow can do that.” Advertisement SKIP ADVERTISEMENTExplosions boomed and thick gray smoke rose over the Ukrainian capital early on Thursday as Russia hammered the city with deadly waves of ballistic missiles and drones. Firefighters raced to extinguish blazes in several districts of the capital, Kyiv. Several apartment buildings were partially destroyed and an unknown number of people were trapped in the rubble, according to the local authorities. Emergency workers rushed to respond even as more explosions were heard. Emergency services said that at least 13 people had been killed and more than 30 others wounded in the assault, which began Wednesday night and was still loudly underway as dawn broke on Thursday morning. Birds could be heard chirping in between booms. Many in Kyiv had already been bracing for a large-scale combined assault, in part because about two weeks had passed since the last one, giving Russia time to stockpile missiles and drones for heavy bombardment. Also, Ukraine has been heaping pressure on President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. Ukrainian forces have been launching long-range drone attacks on Moscow, disrupting Russian fuel supplies and pounding Crimea, the peninsula Russia illegally annexed in 2014, with drones and missiles. When the assault on Kyiv began on Wednesday night, Russian attack drones came first. The rat-tat-tat of air defenses firing was followed by one large explosion, then more. A large fire was soon seen burning in the city center, with a smaller blaze just beyond it. Mayor Vitali Klitschko of Kyiv implored people to stay in shelters as the night wore on and ballistic missiles entered Ukraine’s airspace. Additional powerful explosions started to rock the city just before 2 a.m. Thursday, setting off car alarms that soon mingled with sirens. Images of burning apartment buildings and cars ablaze started to emerge on Ukrainian social media channels. A market, a hotel and an ambulance station also sustained damage, according to local officials, who warned that more missiles, and then drones, were on their way. The city remained under air-raid warnings for over 11 hours, until just after 7 a.m. Tymur Tkachenko, the head of Kyiv’s military administration, said that damage and destruction had been recorded at more than 30 locations, touching every district of the city. “There are very significant direct hits on residential buildings,” he wrote on Telegram, saying that bodies were being pulled from the rubble. The authorities warned that the death toll could still rise. Many residents of the capital had spent the night sheltering in subway stations with sleeping bags and pets, hunkering down after President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine warned that Russia was preparing another “massive strike” and urged people to be “especially careful.” In a statement on Thursday, Russia’s defense ministry called the assault on Kyiv a response to Ukraine’s recent attacks inside Russia. Ukraine says the goal of its long-range drone campaign is to take the war to Russia and to get Mr. Putin to agree to end the conflict. But Mr. Putin, even as his ability to isolate Russian society from the war’s effect has diminished, has expressed defiance and dug in. “Putin wants to keep fighting,” Mr. Zelensky said Wednesday in Ireland, where he was attending a European Council event, before rushing home. “That is why he must face conditions that make it impossible for him to keep this war going.” The air-raid sirens wailed in Kyiv just a few hours later, the start of a long and loud night for the city’s residents.