Ukraine suffers most civilian casualties in 3 years as Russia ramps up aerial attacks
The onslaught of armed drones, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles raining down on Ukrainian towns and cities has underscored Russia's determination to press on with its war against Ukraine despite President Donald Trump's efforts to halt the bloodshed.
The Russian aerial attacks have been steadily increasing since July 2024, with the number of strikes exceeding 2,500 in each of the first six months of this year, according to the nonprofit Institute for the Study of War, which cited figures from Ukraine's defense ministry.
The difference over the same period last year is stark.
Between January and June, Russian drone and missile attacks numbered 23,245, a roughly 605 % increase compared to the same period last year when there were 3,300, according to the Washington-based institute.
The expansion was driven by a massive increase in drone assaults, which jumped from 2,264 in the first half of 2024 to 22,495 in the first half of 2025, according to the tally.
As a result of those aerial attacks, the toll of civilians killed and wounded increased to 6,719, up about 53% from the same period in 2024, according to U.N. monitors. The civilian toll included 1,091 deaths and 5,628 wounded.
'Civilians across Ukraine are facing levels of suffering we have not seen in over three years,' Danielle Bell, head of the U.N. Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, said in a statement. 'The surge in long-range missile and drone strikes across the country has brought even more death and destruction to civilians far away from the frontline.'
June marked the highest monthly civilian casualty toll in three years, with 232 killed and 1,343 wounded, according to the United Nations.
In the month of June, Russian forces fired 5,681 drones and missiles on Ukraine – the highest number since Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022. The aerial assault included 5,438 drones and 243 missiles, according to the Institute for the Study of War.
Russia has kept up the tempo of drone and missile attacks in July, forcing Ukrainians in cities to seek shelter underground in subway stations. Smoke rose over Kyiv on Wednesday and Thursday night from Russian drone and missile strikes that ignited fires and destroyed apartment buildings, NBC News and The Associated Press reported from the capital.
On Wednesday night, Russia fired more than 700 attack and decoy drones on Ukraine, along with missiles. On Thursday night, 397 Iranian-designed Shahed and decoy drones were launched against Kyiv and other regions, according to Ukrainian officials.
With Russian troops unable to score a breakthrough on the ground despite a significant manpower advantage, Moscow has stepped up its missile and drone attacks on the country's cities to try to overwhelm air defenses, undermine the resolve of the government in Kyiv before any peace talks, and break the will of the wider population, current and former Western diplomats say.
'These attacks are on civilian targets, so it's an attempt to demoralize Ukrainians, to convince Ukrainians that they can't win,' said William Taylor, a former career U.S. diplomat who served in Kyiv.
Christina Harward, a Russian analyst at the Institute for the Study of War, said previous attempts by Russia to damage morale have failed. The air attacks also indicated Russia's weapons production and stockpiles had increased, especially long-range drones, Harward said.
'Russia may also be trying to distract from the battlefield, where Russian gains on the front are still relatively slow and are coming at huge personnel costs,' she said.
Before he took office in January, Trump had pledged to end the war in 'a day.' He initially suggested that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his government were the main obstacle to bringing an end to the conflict, which began with Russia's invasion of the Crimean peninsula in 2014 and its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
But in recent days, Trump's tone has shifted, with the president expressing impatience and frustration with Russian President Vladimir Putin for offering what he called 'meaningless' moves toward peace.
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