Russia’s all-night drone attack on Kyiv injures 23, Ukraine says
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Diverging Reports Breakdown
More than 20 injured in blast at Rome petrol station
More than 20 people, including nine police officers and a firefighter, were injured in a huge explosion at a petrol station in Rome. The large blast at the distributor of petrol, diesel and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) in the Prenestino neighbourhood was heard across the Italian capital just after 8 am (0600 GMT) Pope Leo XIV wrote on X: “I pray for the people involved in the explosion of a gas station (…) in the heart of my Diocese” The fire spread to a nearby depot, and the shockwave from the explosion damaged nearby buildings.
Item 1 of 4 A huge cloud of smoke rises after a gas station exploded on the outskirts of Rome, Italy, July 4, 2025. REUTERS/Matteo Minnella TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY
Summary Nine police officers and one firefighter injured
Large blast heard across the capital just after 0600 GMT
Pope Leo prays for victims of ‘tragic incident’
Children in nearby youth centre all safe
ROME, July 4 (Reuters) – More than 20 people, including nine police officers and a firefighter, were injured on Friday in a huge explosion at a petrol station in an eastern district of Rome, Italian authorities said.
Website Roma Today published a photograph of a huge ball of flame and smoke rising high into the sky. Separate images released by the fire department showed the petrol station almost completely gutted.
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Apart from the first responders, 16 civilians including the manager of the station were injured, the head of Rome’s police, Roberto Massucci, was quoted by Italian news agencies as saying. He added that no one was in a life-threatening condition.
Health authorities said five people were hospitalised with minor burns and injuries from shattered glass.
The large blast at the distributor of petrol, diesel and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) in the Prenestino neighbourhood was heard across the Italian capital just after 8 am (0600 GMT).
“I pray for the people involved in the explosion of a gas station (…) in the heart of my Diocese. I continue to follow the developments of this tragic incident with concern,” Pope Leo XIV wrote on X.
Firefighters and ambulance workers were caught up in the blast as they had been called to the scene earlier, after a truck hit a pipeline at the fuel distributor, local reports said.
“We are working on a tank explosion … the fire is still ongoing,” the fire department said in a statement, adding that one of its officers had been hospitalised.
A sports centre, which hosts a youth summer camp and sits opposite the station, was evacuated before the blast, a representative of the centre said in a Facebook video.
The fire spread to a nearby depot, and the shockwave from the explosion damaged nearby buildings.
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni was following the situation, her office said in a statement.
Additional reporting by Paolo Chiriatti in Rome; Editing by Giulia Segreti, Kate Mayberry anda Kim Coghill
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UK construction downturn eases as house-building improves, commercial work tanks
The S&P Global UK Construction Purchasing Managers’ Index rose to 48.8 from 47.9 in May. The all-sector PMI rose to 51.7 in June from 50.0 in May, its highest level since October. Housing activity expanded for the first time since September but the commercial sector contracted at the fastest rate since mid-2020.
MANCHESTER, England, July 4 (Reuters) – The downturn in Britain’s construction industry abated slightly in June as homebuilding returned to growth, but commercial building activity tumbled thanks to mounting worries about the economy, a survey showed on Friday.
The S&P Global UK Construction Purchasing Managers’ Index rose to 48.8 from 47.9 in May, a six-month high but still below the 50 threshold denoting growth. A Reuters poll of economists had pointed to a reading of 48.4.
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The survey showed a split picture of Britain’s construction market. Housing activity expanded for the first time since September but the commercial sector contracted at the fastest rate since mid-2020, during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Total new orders fell at a faster pace as many construction companies signalled reduced overall workloads due to unfavourable domestic economic conditions and fragile confidence among clients,” said S&P Global economics director Tim Moore said.
The survey showed business activity expectations sank in June to the lowest level since December 2022.
PMI data earlier in the week showed a faster-than-expected upturn in the dominant services sector, while manufacturing continued to contract.
The all-sector PMI rose to 51.7 in June from 50.0 in May, its highest level since October.
Reporting by Andy Bruce; Editing by Hugh Lawson
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Ukraine-Russia war live: Moscow launches biggest air attack of war after Trump-Putin call made ‘no progress’
Moscow’s attack forces launched 539 drones and 11 missiles at Ukraine overnight. At least 23 people have been injured in Kyiv, the focus of the attack. Fourteen of the casualties were hospitalised. Dutch and German intelligence agencies both say Russia has made “widespread” use of chemical weapons in Ukraine.
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Russia has launched the biggest overnight attack of the war so far on Ukraine, injuring dozens and causing blazes to erupt in the capital of Kyiv.
Moscow’s attack forces launched 539 drones and 11 missiles at Ukraine overnight, the Ukraine air force said.
At least 23 people have been injured in Kyiv, the focus of the attack which suffered significant damage to railway infrastructure, buildings and cars, according to city authorities. Fourteen of the casualties were hospitalised.
“For every such strike against people and human life, they must feel appropriate sanctions and other blows to their economy, their revenues, and their infrastructure,” president Volodymyr Zelensky said in response to the attack, which he described as “deliberately massive and cynical”.
The strikes came just hours after Donald Trump and Russian president Vladimir Putin held a phone call, which the US president said resulted in “no progress at all” towards peace in Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Dutch and German intelligence agencies both say Russia has made “widespread” use of chemical weapons in Ukraine, including chloropicrin, a banned “lung warfare” substance which can be “lethal in high concentrations in enclosed spaces”.
Russia pounds Kyiv with largest drone attack, hours after Trump-Putin call
Ukraine’s Air Force said that it destroyed 478 of the air weapons Russia launched overnight. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who is due to speak to Trump later on Friday about the war, called the attack “deliberately massive and cynical” The attack damaged about 40 apartment blocks, passenger railway infrastructure, five schools and kindergartens, cafes and many cars in six of Kyiv’s 10 districts. Poland said the consular section of its embassy was damaged in central Kyiv, adding that staff were unharmed. Trump said that the call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday resulted in no progress at all on efforts to end the war. The Kremlin reiterated that Moscow would keep pushing to solve the conflict’s “root causes” Both sides deny targeting civilians with a full invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 with the vast majority of them believed to have died on the frontlines, although neither side has released casualty figures for the attack on the city of Pokrovsk, in the east of the country.
Six of Kyiv’s 10 districts, Polish embassy among damaged buildings in hours-long attacks
Ukraine’s state railway says passenger railway damaged in Kyiv
KYIV, July 4 (Reuters) – Russia pummelled Kyiv with the largest drone attack of the war, injuring at least 23 people and damaging buildings across the capital only hours after U.S. President Donald Trump spoke with Russia’s Vladimir Putin, officials said on Friday.
Air raid sirens, the whine of kamikaze drones and booming detonations reverberated from early evening until dawn as Russia launched what Ukraine’s Air Force said was a total of 539 drones and 11 missiles.
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Residents huddled with families in underground metro stations for shelter. Acrid smoke hung over the city centre.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who is due to speak to Trump later on Friday about the war and a U.S. pause in some deliveries of air defence missiles, called the attack “deliberately massive and cynical.”
“Notably, the first air raid alerts in our cities and regions yesterday began to blare almost simultaneously with media reports discussing a phone call between President Trump and Putin,” Zelenskiy said on X.
“Yet again, Russia is showing it has no intention of ending the war and terror,” he added, calling for increased pressure on Russia and more air defence equipment.
Kyiv officials said the attack damaged about 40 apartment blocks, passenger railway infrastructure, five schools and kindergartens, cafes and many cars in six of Kyiv’s 10 districts. Poland said the consular section of its embassy was damaged in central Kyiv, adding that staff were unharmed.
Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Telegram that fourteen of the injured were hospitalised.
Ukraine’s state-owned railway Ukrzaliznytsia, the country’s largest carrier, said on Telegram that the attack on Kyiv forced them to divert a number of passenger trains, causing delays.
Damage was recorded on both sides of the wide Dnipro River bisecting the city and falling drone debris set a medical facility on fire in the leafy Holosiivskyi district, Klitschko said.
Item 1 of 5 An explosion of a drone lights up the sky over the city during a Russian drone and missile strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine July 4, 2025. REUTERS/Gleb Garanich [1/5] An explosion of a drone lights up the sky over the city during a Russian drone and missile strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine July 4, 2025. REUTERS/Gleb Garanich Purchase Licensing Rights , opens new tab
Russian air strikes on Kyiv have intensified in recent weeks and included some of the deadliest assaults of the war on the city of three million people.
CALL FOR SANCTIONS
Trump said that the call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday resulted in no progress at all on efforts to end the war, while the Kremlin reiterated that Moscow would keep pushing to solve the conflict’s “root causes”.
A decision by Washington earlier this week to halt some shipments of critical weapons to Ukraine prompted warnings by Kyiv that the move would weaken its ability to defend against intensifying airstrikes and battlefield advances.
On Friday, Zelenskiy called for increased pressure on Moscow to change its “dumb, destructive behavior”.
“For every such strike against people and human life, they must feel appropriate sanctions and other blows to their economy, their revenues, and their infrastructure,” he said.
SHELTERED
Ukraine’s Air Force said that it destroyed 478 of the air weapons Russia launched overnight. However air strikes were recorded in eight locations across the country with nine missiles and 63 drones, it added.
Social media videos showed people running to seek shelter, firefighters fighting blazes in the dark and ruined buildings with windows and facades blown out.
Both sides deny targeting civilians in the war that Russia launched with a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Thousands of civilians have died in the conflict, the vast majority of them Ukrainian. Many more soldiers are believed to have died on the frontlines, although neither side releases military casualty figures.
Late on Thursday, Russian shelling killed five people in and near the eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk, a key target under Russian attack for months, Ukraine said.
Reporting by Olena Harmash, Pavel Polityuk, Valentyn Ogirenko, Sergiy Karazy and Frank Jack Daniel; Writing by Ronald Popeski, Lidia Kelly and Frank Jack Daniel; Editing by Stephen Coates, Raju Gopalakrishnan, Alexandra Hudson
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Russia hammers Kyiv in largest missile and drone barrage since war began
Russia launched 539 drones, 11 ballistic and cruise missiles at Ukraine. Ukrainian air defences shot down 270 targets, including two cruise missiles. Another 208 targets were lost from radar and presumed jammed. At least 23 people injured and 14 hospitalised, according to Mayor Vitali Klitschko. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the attack was one of the largest yet, and that Russia would not stop without large-scale pressure. The attack came hours after President Donald Trump held a call with Russian President Vladimir Putin and made his first public comments on his administration’s decision to pause some shipments of weapons to Ukraine. The decision affects munitions, including Patriot missiles, the AIM-7 Sparrow air-to-air missile and shorter-range Stinger missiles.
Russia launched 539 drones, 11 ballistic and cruise missiles at Ukraine on Thursday night, local time into Friday, the Ukrainian air force said.
Throughout the night, Associated Press journalists in Kyiv heard the constant buzzing of drones overhead and the sound of explosions and intense machine gun fire as Ukrainian forces tried to intercept the aerial assault.
Kyiv was the primary target of the attack, with at least 23 people injured and 14 hospitalised, according to Mayor Vitali Klitschko.
Smoke rises from a Kyiv building after Russia’s overnight attack. (Reuters: Alina Smutko)
Ukrainian air defences shot down 270 targets, including two cruise missiles. Another 208 targets were lost from radar and presumed jammed.
Russia successfully hit eight locations with nine missiles and 63 drones.
Debris from intercepted drones fell across at least 33 sites.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the attack was one of the largest yet, and that Russia would not stop without large-scale pressure.
“For every such strike against people and human life, they must feel appropriate sanctions and other blows to their economy, their revenues, and their infrastructure,” Zelenskyy said on social media, calling the attack “deliberately massive and cynical”.
” Yet again, Russia is showing it has no intention of ending the war and terror. ”
Burnt out cars among the debris in Kyiv. (AP: Efrem Lukatsky)
The attack came hours after President Donald Trump held a call with Russian President Vladimir Putin and made his first public comments on his administration’s decision to pause some shipments of weapons to Ukraine.
That decision affects munitions, including Patriot missiles, the AIM-7 Sparrow air-to-air missile and shorter-range Stinger missiles.
They are needed to counter incoming missiles and drones, and to bring down Russian aircraft.
Top Russian commander killed near Ukrainian front line Photo shows Gudkov Major General Mikhail Gudkov, a deputy commander of the Russian navy praised and promoted by Russia’s president, has been killed “during combat work in one of the border districts of Kursk region”, according to Moscow.
It has been less than a week since Russia’s previous largest aerial assault of the war.
Ukraine’s air force reported that Russia fired 537 drones, decoys and 60 missiles in that attack.
Emergency services reported damage in at least five of the capital’s 10 districts.
In the Solomianskyi district, a five-storey residential building was partially destroyed and the roof of a seven-storey building caught fire.
Fires also broke out at a warehouse, a garage complex and an auto repair facility.
In the Sviatoshynskyi district, a strike hit a 14-storey residential building, sparking a fire.
Several vehicles also caught fire nearby. Blazes were also reported at non-residential facilities.
Firefighters work at a destroyed apartment building in Kyiv. (AP: Efrem Lukatsky)
In the Shevchenkivskyi district, an eight-storey building came under attack, with the first floor sustaining damage.
Falling debris was recorded in Darnytskyi and Holosiivskyi districts.
Ukraine’s national railway operator, Ukrzaliznytsia, said drone strikes damaged rail infrastructure in Kyiv.
AP