In what officials are calling the most powerful drone attack since the start of the war, Russia launched a devastating overnight assault on Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city.
The strike, which occurred on June 7, 2025, involved 48 Iranian-made Shahed drones, two missiles, and four gliding bombs, targeting residential neighborhoods and civilian infrastructure.
Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov described the attack as “open terror,” noting that three people were killed and at least 21 others injured, including two children—one of them a 1-month-old baby.
The city’s Osnovyanskyi and Kyiv districts bore the brunt of the damage, with three high-rise residential buildings hit and dozens of explosions reported within a two-hour window.
This assault came just days after Ukraine’s bold Operation Spiderweb, a coordinated drone offensive that reportedly damaged over 40 Russian warplanes at strategic air bases deep inside Russia. Moscow claimed its retaliatory strikes were in response to “terrorist acts by the Kyiv regime.”
Emergency crews worked through the night to rescue survivors from the rubble, while images of burning buildings and shattered homes flooded social media. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned the attack, stating that Russia had targeted “almost all of Ukraine” with more than 400 drones and missiles in the preceding 24 hours, resulting in six deaths and 80 injuries nationwide.
As Kharkiv residents seek shelter and aid, the international community is once again grappling with the scale and intensity of Russia’s military campaign.
The attack underscores the vulnerability of urban centers and the growing humanitarian toll of the conflict.