First responders search the site of a Russian missile strike on Kyiv, Ukraine, July 24, 2026
Friday’s Coverage: Kyiv Hits 5th Logistics Hub of “Russia’s Amazon” Within Week
UPDATE 0643 GMT:
Ukraine may have struck Russia’s Engels-2 military airfield for the second time within days.
Eyewitnesses reported a large fire at the airbase in the Saratov region, around 700 km (435 miles) from the border. Videos and photos showed flames and smoke at the site, home to Russia’s strategic aircraft including the Tu-95 long-range bomber.
However, monitoring channels said the fire may not be related to a long-range attack.
Satellite images indicated a Tu-95 was destroyed in last week’s Ukrainian strikes on the airbase.
UPDATE 0637 GMT:
President Volodymyr Zelensky says Kyiv and the US are cooperating over an American factory to produce drones using Ukraine’s advanced technology.
Zelensky emphasized that Ukraine wanted to build quickly on an initial agreement.
Important technology. This is what we have. And America has great technology. Our drone deal is win-win.
We will build a great factory in the United States. We want to [have] lines of production.
A US official said details of the agreement are still being worked out ahead of a meeting between Zelensky and Donald Trump, scheduled for Tuesday in Washington.
ORIGINAL ENTRY: Ten people were murdered and more than 100 wounded by Russia daytime ballistic missile attack on an arms exhibition in Ukraine’s Kyiv region on Friday.
The Russians struck just before 11:30 a.m. “at a location where representatives of the Ukrainian defense industry were present”. Authorities have launched an investigation.
One of the victims, Valentyna Savitska, was a communications official for Ukraine’s State Security Administration.
No details about the event or its location” were publicly available before the attack. The invitation was shared closed industry channels and appeared online only after the event, said a spokesperson for the Ukrainian Council of Defense Industry.
However, images of flyers advertising the event circulated online. Invitations contained registration links that attendees could use to obtain the location.
Presidential advisor Serhii Beskrestnov later said the exhibition was at a training ground near Kyiv along the Zhytomyr Highway. Yuriy Ignat, the spokesperson for the Ukrainian Air Force, said the strike was on a private sports complex.
President Volodymyr Zelensky posted, “These were brutal attacks on civilians, and the Russians must be held accountable for them. Russia has long abandoned any regard for international norms and for human values.” He added:
Of course, the cause of this attack is Russian missiles, nothing but Russian terror. However, we have said a thousand times that under these wartime conditions, with such an enemy, it is absolutely unacceptable to hold any weapons exhibitions with large crowds of people, especially near residential buildings.
The Russian Defense Ministry claimed Ukrainian drone developers, representatives of Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Command, and staff of the special services were at the facility in Kyiv.
