You Can’t Wish Away the Russians

Despite President Donald Trump’s unequivocal but empty assurances of an impending end to Russia’s bombings and slaughter of Ukrainians, you really can’t just wish away Russians from Ukraine.

Ukraine’s capital Kyiv and the surrounding towns came under another deadly Russian attack early Monday morning, July 6, killed some 30 people on the eve of a critical NATO summit in Turkey that President Donald Trump plans to attend.

This calculated cruelty comes just days after a Thursday, July 3, strike that killed 31 civilians in Kyiv.

In the capital of Kyiv alone, at least 15 people were killed and 56 others injured (including seven children). The death toll is expected to rise as rescue workers continue digging through the rubble.

In the surrounding Kyiv oblast, another seven people were killed and 29 injured.

The barrage involved a brutal mix of ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, hypersonic Zircon anti-ship missiles, and over 350 attack and decoy drones. At least 15 multi-story residential buildings in Kyiv were hit directly. In the historic Podilskyi district, a nine-story apartment block was completely shattered from the fifth floor up, leaving residents trapped under the ruins.

Horrifyingly, Ukrainian military officials noted that due to severe shortages of critical interceptors, none of the 23 ballistic missiles targeting the capital could be shot down.

My colleague and contributing writer to The Ukrainian Quarterly, Tetyana Parkhomchuk of Kyiv observed afterward: “Thank God everything is okay, except for the psychological state. The nerves just can’t take it anymore. Shattered buildings again, a mangled Kyiv. The small town of Vyshneve near Kyiv was also hit very badly. No one is saying it directly, but it’s obvious they bombed our ammunition. It exploded for several hours, and in addition to that, the warheads of the missiles were exploding too. There is nothing to shoot down ballistics and Zircons with.”

She added that 13 hectares of residential buildings were damaged in Vyshneve, according to Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko. “This is the greatest destruction of the housing sector in the entire time of the full-scale invasion.” Parkhomchuk noted.

To give the reader a visual sense of that scale: 13 hectares (or 32 acres) is roughly equivalent to the size of 24 American football fields completely leveled or severely damaged. It is a massive footprint for a residential area.

Russia unleashed waves of missiles and drones at Ukraine in attacks that exposed widening gaps in the country’s air defenses more than four years into Moscow’s full-scale invasion, authorities said.

All of the ballistic missiles launched by Russia struck their targets, underscoring Kyiv’s need for more US-made Patriot interceptor missiles — a point Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will likely emphasize at the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, this week.

Russia’s Defense Ministry warned that any increase in the supply of drones, missiles and ammunition produced in the West “will not go unnoticed and will be countered by a corresponding increase in the number and power of retaliatory strikes by the Russian armed forces on Ukrainian territory.”

Ukraine’s Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said Russia is deliberately ramping up ballistic missile attacks on a scale unseen before, exploiting the acute shortage of Patriot interceptors. “Fewer such missiles are produced worldwide each month than the enemy fires at Ukraine in that same period,” he said.

The Ukrainian air force said in posts to Telegram that Russia launched 68 missiles – among them 23 ballistic missiles – and 351 drones into the country overnight. The air force said that 37 missiles and 326 drones were shot down or otherwise suppressed, with impacts of 29 missiles and 18 drones reported across 34 locations.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said in an online update that Tuesday had been declared another day of mourning for those killed, saying flags on municipal buildings across the city would be lowered and all entertainment events canceled.

The Ukrainian Air Force said that while air defenses downed 363 drones and cruise missiles, “a serious shortage” of interceptor missiles for Ukraine’s US-made Patriot surface-to-air batteries meant that none of the 29 ballistic missiles fired at Kyiv was stopped.

“The success rate is low, to put it mildly. To shoot down ballistic missiles, you need the assets to do so. We have enough systems, but what we need is a steady supply of missiles. Russia is exploiting the fact that Ukraine – and indeed the world – is facing a serious shortage of PAC-2 and PAC-3 interceptor missiles. That is why it is increasingly focusing on ballistic missile strikes,” said Air Force spokesman Col. Yurii Ihnat.

In a post on X on Monday, Zelenskyy, who will meet Trump in Ankara on the sidelines of the summit Wednesday, called for “strong decisions to support our air defense,” saying that Patriots remaining “in the warehouses of allies” gave a green light for Russia to attack apartment buildings housing ordinary people.

A senior US official said Trump, who spoke separately with Zelenskyy and Putin on the phone on Saturday, was renewing efforts to resolve the Russia-Ukraine conflict as “a pressing priority.”

“The president feels a real sense of urgency to try to bring this to a stop. Both sides have articulated as recently as yesterday, that President Trump plays a unique role in his ability to try to mediate this,” the official told The Hill.

The Ankara summit is being described behind the scenes as a meeting of “delivery and implementation” rather than new innovations, but the political undercurrents are incredibly tense. Given the horrific overnight strikes on Kyiv, Zelenskyy is pushing hard to ensure this meeting does not become a "hollow exercise."   

Here are the key hints and developments regarding what member-states are prepared to say and do:

1. Air Defenses and a "Stalemate" Focus

While Zelenskyy is publicly demanding massive, decisive upgrades to Ukraine’s air defense capabilities—even advocating for U.S. licenses to manufacture Patriot systems directly in Ukraine—the immediate focus of the alliance’s largest player is shifting.

Trump is scheduled to meet face-to-face with Zelenskyy on Wednesday. White House officials have explicitly stated that Trump is entering this meeting with a sense of urgency to find a path to end the war, viewing the current frontline situation as a "stalemate." Trump is expected to use this meeting to pivot toward diplomacy, with plans to follow up directly with Putin afterward. 

If recent meetings are harbingers of things to come, then this one will also turn out to be a waste of time and money.

2. A €70 Billion Commitment (With a Transatlantic Catch)

According to draft summit declarations, European allies and Canada are preparing to reaffirm long-term military support by pledging €70 billion ($80 million) for 2026, with a commitment to maintain similar levels in 2027. However, this package exposes a deepening transatlantic rift:

The funding is expected to come almost entirely from existing bilateral European commitments and a €60 billion European Union loan facility.

The United States is not expected to contribute to this specific financial package, reflecting Trump's intense pressure on European states to assume the primary burden of their own continent's security.

3. The 5% Defense Spending Push

The primary friction point among member-states will be defense budgets. At last year’s summit in The Hague, allies agreed to a staggering target of spending 5% of their GDP on defense by 2035. European allies will arrive in Ankara eager to prove they are pulling their weight, highlighting that they increased core defense investments by over $139 billion in 2025 alone. Trump, however, is expected to heavily critique members he believes are still "free-riding" on American military might.   

4. Turkey’s Balancing Act

As the host, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has a complex agenda. While Turkey will vocally support Ukraine’s territorial integrity and showcase its own defense industry, Erdoğan is also using the summit for his own strategic leverage. He is expected to press Trump to lift US sanctions on Turkey and restore Ankara's access to the F-35 fighter jet program.   

Ultimately, while the alliance will officially project a message of continued, multi-billion-dollar support for Ukraine’s defense industry, the real story in Ankara will be the intense, behind-the-scenes pressure from Washington to transition from an open-ended conflict into concrete diplomatic negotiations – also a wasteful plot which will only delay an end to the war and prolong Ukrainians’ death and suffering. Any sanctions or political pressure must be painful enough for Russia to return to its homeland without hesitation.

Many seasoned analysts, diplomats, and, most of all, the people who have to live through the reality of Russian aggression every day realize that an end to the fighting is still far off in the distant future. Putin knows he can delay an end until the USA and West raise their arms in frustration. To anyone who has watched Moscow’s pattern of behavior over the decades, the idea that a breakthrough could be achieved simply by sitting down with Putin is a pipedream. Moscow is not doing anything that would signal its intention to end the war. It continues to treat Western entreaties with derision and aerial assaults against innocent Ukrainians.

European leaders have also reacted with intense fury and sharp condemnation, making it clear that this strikes right at the heart of why they are gathered for the NATO summit.   

The condemnation from Europe’s top figures has been swift and direct:

EU Chief Diplomat Kaja Kallas stated bluntly that “words of condemnation alone will not stop attacks on Kyiv. Only sustained military support for Ukraine and increased pressure on Moscow can do that.” She immediately announced a proposal to slap fresh sanctions on more entities feeding Russia's military-industrial complex, adding, “We keep raising the cost until Russia understands it cannot win.”   

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen led the collective outcry, pointing out that the Russian regime “once again blindly attacked civilians from the air.” She explicitly tied the horror of these strikes to the immediate agenda in Turkey, stating, “Ukraine urgently needs more air defense. We will discuss it this week in Ankara at the NATO Summit.”   

France’s Foreign Ministry issued a scathing statement, declaring that the deliberate targeting of civilian residential neighborhoods proves Moscow’s “contempt for international humanitarian law” and entirely exposes their “unwillingness to negotiate in good faith.”   

Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna emphasized that the Kremlin’s calculus will only change under forced compulsion, calling for a massive ramp-up of economic, political, and military pressure.   

The overriding message from the Europeans today is one of deep frustration with Western hesitation. They are pushing the narrative that these regular slaughters of civilians are happening precisely because the West is leaving gaps in Ukraine’s skies, and they are trying to use this horrific moment to pressure the alliance – and a skeptical Washington – into dropping restrictions and delivering the hardware needed to actually stop the missiles.

Any expression of hope, any dream, any offer of negotiations or diplomacy will only result in additional deaths of innocent Ukrainians. Europe is fast approaching the point when it must recognize that Russia must encounter the full wrath of the free world.