As Moscow Unleashes One of Its Deadliest Strikes on Kyiv, Trump Remains Silent While Ukrainian Forces Advance and New Weapons Enter Production
Summary of the Day – June 17, 2025
The early hours of June 17 brought a nightmare that will haunt Kyiv for years to come. In what President Volodymyr Zelensky called “one of the most horrifying attacks on Kyiv” since the war began, Russian forces unleashed 472 aerial weapons in a relentless nine-hour assault that left 22 dead and 134 wounded, including an American citizen. The attack came with calculated cruelty: as G7 leaders gathered in Canada to discuss Ukraine’s future, Moscow sent cluster munitions raining down on residential buildings, kindergartens, and university dormitories. While Zelensky rushed from the summit to console his grieving nation, U.S. President Donald Trump departed early, unaware of the carnage and offering no condemnation. Yet beneath the horror of the capital’s suffering, Ukraine’s war machine continued its evolution—with the Sapsan ballistic missile entering mass production and Ukrainian forces advancing on multiple fronts.
The Nine-Hour Nightmare: When Death Came in Waves
The attack began in darkness and stretched through dawn, representing the third-largest combined drone and missile strike since the full-scale invasion began. Russian forces launched 472 aerial weapons—including nearly 280 Shahed kamikaze drones, two Kinzhal ballistic missiles, 16 Kh-101 cruise missiles, four Kalibr cruise missiles, nine Kh-59/69 cruise missiles, and one Kh-31P anti-radar missile—primarily targeting the capital.
Ukrainian Air Force Colonel Yuriy Ihnat described how the Shahed drones approached from multiple directions—along the Dnipro River, from the east and west—creating a maze of death. Of the 472 aerial weapons launched, Ukrainian forces destroyed 428, including 239 Shahed drones, one Kinzhal missile, and 15 Kh-101 cruise missiles.
The most devastating blow fell on a nine-story residential building in the Solomianskyi district, where a Russian ballistic missile struck with surgical precision. The impact completely destroyed one section of the building, reducing 30 apartments to rubble and creating a tomb for 17 residents. Among the victims was a 62-year-old American citizen, found dead from shrapnel wounds in a building across from where medics were treating the injured.
Lilia epitomized the random cruelty of the attack. Her father-in-law had been cleaning up broken glass from earlier drone strikes when she left his third-floor apartment. “He told her, ‘I’ll be home, there’s so much to do. I’ll stay in the corridor. I’m not going anywhere,'” recalled Victoria Smirnova, Lilia’s mother-in-law. Minutes after Lilia departed, the cruise missile struck.
In a chilling escalation, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko confirmed that Russian forces had used cluster munitions—weapons banned by over 100 countries. Emergency workers discovered fragments of these internationally prohibited weapons in the Nyvky neighborhood, providing what Klitschko called “another clear sign of the genocide Russia is committing against Ukrainians.”
Children Sweeping Glass: A Generation Raised in War
In the Darnytskyi district, where a Russian drone slammed into another high-rise building, dozens of children as young as 10 appeared with brooms and scoops to help clear debris. When asked why they were cleaning up, one boy responded simply: “Because it must be done.”
Ivan Serebrianskyi, a 42-year-old entrepreneur whose family survived the drone strike, described the moment: “My children were already in the bathroom. We heard the Shahed’s descent, then the hit.” The attack left him determined to send his daughters abroad “within a few days.”
The systematic targeting also damaged Fahrenheit, a Ukrainian clothing manufacturer that was forced to cancel all orders and suspend operations indefinitely. Ukrainian Railways reported that a freight train carrying grain was hit, while Ukrposhta lost two branches. A kindergarten and a dormitory at the Kyiv Aviation Institute also suffered damage.
Terror Beyond the Capital: Death Spreads Across Ukraine
While Kyiv bore the brunt of Russian fury, other cities endured their own ordeals. In Odesa, Russian drone strikes killed two people and injured 17 others, including a pregnant woman and a child. The strikes damaged multiple residential buildings in the historic city center, as well as a kindergarten and an inclusive support center.
In Kherson’s Dniprovskyi district, Russian forces changed tactics to launch massive drone attacks throughout the day, injuring at least 20 civilians. Governor Oleksandr Prokudin described how “the Russians have changed their tactics for using drones—since early morning, they have been launching massive attacks.” The injured ranged from 41 to 84 years old, with wounds from head trauma to shrapnel injuries.
Trump’s Unaware Departure: The President Who Didn’t Know
As Kyiv burned and families searched for survivors, U.S. President Donald Trump boarded Air Force One, unaware that his negotiating partner had just committed one of the war’s most devastating attacks on civilians. When reporters asked about the strike during his flight from Canada, Trump responded: “When was that? When?”
Told about the “Russian drone attack on Kyiv” that had occurred “very recently,” Trump replied: “Just now? You mean as I’m walking back to see you, that’s when it took place? Sounds like it. I’ll have to look at it.”
The exchange, captured more than two hours after the attack ended, exposed the gap between Trump’s peace negotiations and ground reality. The State Department later confirmed the American citizen’s death and condemned the strikes, but Trump’s early departure from the G7 summit to address the Israel-Iran crisis prevented his planned meeting with Zelensky.
The Working Group That Wasn’t: America’s Disbanded Peace Effort
Even as Russian missiles fell on Kyiv, Reuters revealed that the Trump administration had quietly disbanded a U.S. government working group designed to pressure Russia into peace talks. The inter-agency team, staffed by officials from the National Security Council, State Department, Treasury, Pentagon, and intelligence community, had been “decimated in a purge of personnel around three weeks ago.”
“It lost steam toward the end because the president wasn’t there,” an anonymous official explained. “Instead of doing more, maybe he wanted to do less.” The dissolution occurred as Russia maintained maximalist demands and rejected all ceasefire proposals while escalating attacks on Ukrainian civilians.
A G7 dinner discussion on June 16 failed to shift Trump’s position on tougher sanctions against Russia. Trump reportedly repeated concerns that sanctions were too costly for the United States, even as European allies pushed for stronger measures, highlighting growing uncertainty about American reliability among European officials.
France Leads the Sanctions Push: Europe Steps Forward
French President Emmanuel Macron emerged as a vocal advocate for tougher sanctions, declaring that “the European Union and its allies are ready to toughen sanctions on Russia.” Speaking after the devastating Kyiv attack, Macron emphasized that Europe was proposing “much tougher sanctions than the U.S. has imposed on Russia.”
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced a sweeping support package totaling over $4 billion Canadian dollars, including $1.5 billion USD in military funding and a $1.6 billion USD reconstruction loan. “To be absolutely clear, this support will be unwavering until we get a just peace for Ukraine and the Ukrainian people,” Carney declared. The package included new sanctions targeting 77 individuals and 39 entities involved in Russia’s war effort.
Britain followed with its own sanctions package targeting Russia’s financial, military, and energy sectors, including 20 vessels from Putin’s shadow fleet. The coordinated European response highlighted the growing divide between allied determination and American hesitation.
Ukraine’s Ballistic Breakthrough: The Sapsan Enters Production
Amid the destruction, Ukraine announced a milestone that could reshape the conflict’s trajectory. The short-range Sapsan ballistic missile has successfully completed combat testing and entered mass production, marking Ukraine as “the first European country since the Cold War that is producing a conventional ballistic missile again,” according to University of Oslo defense expert Fabian Hoffmann.
The missile successfully struck a Russian military target at nearly 300 kilometers during May testing. With a warhead weight exceeding 480 kilograms, the Sapsan prioritizes strike power over range—a design choice that Federico Borsari of the Center for European Policy Analysis called “very significant.”
Defense expert Ivan Kyrychevsky framed the achievement as both practical and symbolic: “The very emergence of domestic ballistic missiles is a bold political statement—a big, fat middle finger to the Kremlin’s claims that Ukraine must be demilitarized.”
The Chemical Plant Falls Silent: Ukraine’s Strategic Strike
Ukrainian forces delivered their own blow when the Nevinnomyssk Azot chemical plant—one of Russia’s largest producers of nitrogen fertilizer and ammonia—suspended production following Ukrainian drone strikes confirmed on June 14. The facility produces up to one million tons of ammonia annually, serving as “a critical element of Russia’s military-industrial complex,” according to Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation.
Ammonium nitrate from the plant serves as a key component for explosives and artillery shells, while the facility synthesizes dual-use chemicals used in grenade launchers, mines, and rocket charges. The plant, owned by sanctioned Russian billionaire Andrey Melnichenko, also operates Russia’s only production lines for methyl acetate and high-purity acetic acid.
North Korea’s Construction Army: Kim’s Expanding Partnership
Russian Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu met with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un for the second time in less than two weeks, emerging with promises of 6,000 North Korean sappers and military engineers to help rebuild Russia’s war-torn Kursk Oblast. The deployment includes 1,000 deminers and 5,000 military construction workers, expanding a partnership that has already seen over 15,000 North Korean soldiers deployed to support Russia’s war effort.
According to British intelligence, more than 6,000 North Korean troops have been killed or wounded in Kursk Oblast operations alone—accounting for more than half of the contingent deployed in fall 2024. “This is a kind of fraternal assistance from the Korean people and leader Kim Jong Un to our country,” Shoigu declared.
The Eastern Grind: Tactical Gains Across Multiple Fronts
While Kyiv endured its nightmare, the war’s eastern front continued its relentless evolution. Russian forces recently advanced near Siversk, with geolocated footage showing gains in northeastern Serebryanka, while attacking positions northeast, east, and southeast of the city.
In the Toretsk direction, geolocated footage confirmed Russian advances north, east, and southeast of Dyliivka. Elements of the Russian 103rd Motorized Rifle Regiment and 68th Tank Regiment supported operations, where Ukrainian forces reported that Russian tactics had evolved to use smaller infantry groups rather than large, mechanized assaults.
Near Pokrovsk, Russian forces advanced northeast of Shevchenko Pershe. Ukrainian defenders described new Russian tactics designed to distract forces with small assaults while larger groups approached their flanks. An artillery reconnaissance commander noted that Russian soldiers arrive at the front after only three to four weeks of training.
In the Novopavlivka direction, Russian forces advanced in northeastern Komar. The Russian Ministry of Defense claimed that elements of the 80th Tank Regiment seized Horikhove after a motorcycle group distracted Ukrainian drone operators, allowing main assault groups to traverse open areas.
Russian forces continued offensive operations in Kursk Oblast and northern Sumy Oblast, though without confirmed territorial gains. Ukrainian military observer Kostyantyn Mashovets reported that Russian elements in northern Sumy Oblast were sustaining heavy losses.
In western Zaporizhia Oblast and the Kherson direction, Russian forces maintained pressure through continued assaults, though Ukrainian forces held their positions across the Dnipro River.
The Systematic Horror: Russia’s Campaign Against Ukrainian Children
Intelligence reports revealed the continued scope of Russia’s campaign against Ukrainian children in occupied territories. Russian officials used Russia Day festivities on June 12 to conduct forced passportization ceremonies for schoolchildren in occupied areas, focusing on children who had just turned 14 per Russian domestic law requirements.
The Republic of Kalmykia facilitated the deportation of 50 children from occupied Antratsyt Raion to summer camps through patronage ties, while 30 teenagers from occupied Volnovakha Raion arrived at Russia’s “Avangard” military sports center for military-patriotic training.
Most disturbingly, Zelensky revealed that Russian officials had proposed exchanging deported Ukrainian children for Russian prisoners of war—a proposal that acknowledges systematic child deportation while treating children as combatants in violation of international law.
The Prisoner’s Scar: “Glory to Russia” Carved in Flesh
A photograph emerged showing “Glory to Russia” and the letter “Z” branded into the abdomen of a released Ukrainian soldier named Andrii, apparently performed by a surgeon under general anesthesia. Maksym Turkevych of the “Neopalymі” rehabilitation program called the act “beyond cynical,” noting the precision suggested it was “done with the intent to leave a mark” rather than to inflict pain.
The revelation provided another example of systematic abuse Ukrainian POWs face in Russian captivity, where the United Nations reports that more than 95% of freed prisoners have been tortured.
Middle East Escalation and Diplomatic Maneuvers
Trump’s early G7 departure stemmed from escalating Middle East tensions, where he was reportedly weighing direct military action against Iran, including potential strikes on nuclear facilities. Trump demanded Iran’s “unconditional surrender” and threatened Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, declaring: “We now have complete and total control of the skies over Iran.”
Meanwhile, U.S. Special Envoy Keith Kellogg prepared to meet with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, exploring ways to weaken Russia’s influence on Minsk. The outreach to Putin’s closest ally represented a significant diplomatic gamble, with four sources telling Reuters that Kellogg believed the meeting could help reinitiate largely unsuccessful peace talks.
The Price of Inaction: When Silence Speaks Volumes
As emergency crews continued searching through rubble and families mourned their dead, the international response revealed growing American isolation. While European allies imposed new sanctions and pledged billions in aid, the White House remained largely silent about an attack that killed civilians, including an American citizen.
Zelensky’s words from the G7 summit resonated with prophetic urgency: “Such attacks are pure terrorism. And the whole world, the U.S., and Europe must finally respond as civilized societies respond to terrorists.” Yet as the day ended, the most powerful response came from the children of Kyiv who picked up brooms to sweep away the glass from their shattered city.
The June 17 attack laid bare the central paradox of the current moment: while diplomats spoke of peace and ceasefires, Russian missiles continued to fall on sleeping families. As Ukraine’s domestic missile production accelerated and its forces advanced on multiple fronts, the fundamental question remained whether international pressure could match the determination of a nation fighting for its survival.