Russia Attacks Kyiv Again

In the early hours of Saturday 1 August 2026, while most of Kyiv was sleeping, Russian ballistic missiles tore into five districts of the Ukrainian capital. The attack came without warning, striking residential buildings, a children's playground, and a busy street where cars were parked for the night. Several people were killed and dozens were injured.

The attack on Kyiv was part of a broader pattern of Russian strikes against Ukrainian cities that has continued throughout the war. Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, and more than four years later, the conflict shows no signs of ending. What began as a full-scale invasion has evolved into a grinding war of attrition, with both sides suffering enormous casualties and neither able to achieve a decisive military victory.

For the people of Kyiv, the missile strikes have become a grim routine. Air raid sirens sound, residents rush to shelters — basements, metro stations, underground car parks — and wait for the explosions to stop. Then they emerge to assess the damage, help the injured, and rebuild what was destroyed. The resilience of Kyiv's residents has been extraordinary, but the psychological toll of living under constant threat is immense.

The war in Ukraine is the largest armed conflict in Europe since the Second World War. It has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced millions more, and reshaped international politics in ways that are still unfolding. Understanding what is happening in Ukraine — and why — matters for everyone, regardless of where they live.

The war in Ukraine began on 24 February 2022, when Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Russian forces attacked from multiple directions — from the north towards Kyiv, from the east through the Donbas region, and from the south through Crimea, which Russia had already annexed in 2014.

Putin justified the invasion by claiming that Ukraine was a threat to Russia and that NATO — the Western military alliance — was expanding dangerously close to Russian borders. He also claimed, falsely, that Ukraine needed to be "denazified" — a reference to the far-right groups that exist in Ukraine, as they do in most countries, but which do not control the Ukrainian government.

Most of the international community rejected these justifications. The United Nations General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to condemn the invasion. More than 140 countries voted in favour of the resolution, with only five voting against — Russia, Belarus, North Korea, Syria, and Eritrea.

The invasion was expected by many analysts to be over quickly. Russia has one of the largest and most powerful militaries in the world, and Ukraine was widely expected to fall within days. Instead, Ukrainian forces mounted a fierce and unexpected resistance, supported by billions of dollars in military aid from the United States, the European Union, and other Western countries. The battle for Kyiv, which Russia expected to win in 48 hours, ended with Russian forces withdrawing entirely.

Since then, the war has settled into a brutal pattern of trench warfare, missile strikes, drone attacks, and slow territorial changes that have cost both sides dearly.

The human cost of the war in Ukraine is staggering. The United Nations estimates that more than 10,000 Ukrainian civilians have been killed, though the real number is likely much higher because many deaths in occupied territories cannot be verified. Military casualties on both sides are estimated to be in the hundreds of thousands.

More than 6 million Ukrainians have fled the country as refugees — one of the largest displacement crises in modern history. Most have gone to neighbouring countries — Poland, Germany, the Czech Republic, and Moldova — where they have been welcomed but face the enormous challenges of rebuilding their lives in unfamiliar countries, often without speaking the local language.

Millions more have been displaced within Ukraine itself, moving from the eastern and southern regions where fighting is heaviest to the relative safety of the west. Entire cities have been destroyed — Mariupol, Bakhmut, and parts of Kherson have been reduced to rubble by months of bombardment.

Children have been particularly affected. Millions of Ukrainian children have had their education disrupted. Many have experienced trauma from bombings, loss of family members, and the stress of displacement. UNICEF has warned that the long-term psychological impact on an entire generation of Ukrainian children will be felt for decades.

The war has also affected people far beyond Ukraine. Rising energy and food prices caused by the conflict have contributed to cost-of-living crises in countries around the world. Ukraine and Russia are among the world's largest exporters of wheat and grain, and the disruption to exports has affected food security in Africa, the Middle East, and parts of Asia.

As the war enters its fifth year, the question of how it ends becomes increasingly urgent — and increasingly difficult to answer.

Ukraine's position is clear: Russia must withdraw from all occupied territory, including Crimea, and pay for the damage it has caused. Anything less, Ukraine argues, would reward aggression and encourage other countries to invade their neighbours.

Russia's position is equally firm: it considers the territories it has occupied to be permanently Russian, and it will not return them. Russia has also demanded that Ukraine abandon its goal of joining NATO and accept a neutral status.

Peace negotiations have been attempted several times but have failed. The gap between the two sides is enormous, and neither appears willing to make the compromises that would be necessary for a deal. Meanwhile, both sides continue to fight, both sides continue to lose soldiers, and both sides continue to believe they can achieve a better outcome on the battlefield than at the negotiating table.

The international community remains divided. Western countries continue to support Ukraine with weapons and money, while China and some other countries have maintained relationships with Russia. Several world leaders have proposed peace plans, but none have been accepted by both sides.

What is certain is that the war will end eventually — all wars do. The question is how many more people will die before that happens, and what kind of peace will follow. History teaches us that lasting peace requires not just an end to fighting but a settlement that both sides can live with. Whether that is achievable in Ukraine remains the most important unanswered question in international politics today.