More than three years under fire. Where and when does Kyiv receive the most strikes?

When Kyiv war shelled most frequently?

March 2022 was the most destructive month since the full-scale invasion began. At that time, fierce battles were raging near the capital. The city was often hit not only by rockets but also by ordinary Russian artillery shells and MLRS.

Thus, Kyiv was living the life of a frontline city, which was located (not all of it, but certain areas) within the range of Russian artillery. Of the 29 identified shellings in March, 14 were artillery shells, Grad MLRS, and mines. Although, of course, the Russians also used missiles during this time.

Another "peak" month of shelling was May 2023. For a whole month, Kalibr, Kinzhal, Iskander missiles and everything else that the Russian military-industrial complex was producing at the time flew incessantly over Kyiv. In total, the Russians carried out 18 shelling attacks on Kyiv that May, sometimes several times a day. At the same time, the enemy began to use Iranian drones "Shaheds" on a massive scale.

Another thing that catches the eye when looking at this graph is that starting around the last quarter of 2024, the shelling of the city becomes more and more regular. If before we saw sharp peaks followed by several months of relative "calm," now the shelling in Kyiv is more evenly distributed throughout the month. Russia began to launch more drones, which are being improved, fly higher, and are more difficult to shoot down.

Where is the most dangerous area in Kyiv?

The four districts of Kyiv that are most frequently shelled are Shevchenkivskyi (the center), Sviatoshynskyi, Solomianskyi, and Holosiivskyi.

The missile strikes mainly target areas where large industrial enterprises are located: the Artem factory and Kyiv Automation plants (both in the Shevchenkivskyi district), the Bolshevik plant (Solomianskyi district), and the Antonov plant (Sviatoshynskyi district).

Missiles constantly fly into or around these areas. To see this, it is worth visiting the area around the Lukyanivska metro station, which increasingly resembles a war zone. There are apartments in nearby buildings that have been damaged several times.

Large factories cover large areas, although they are located next to residential buildings. Plus, since Soviet times, there are usually real and large bomb shelters there. Russians are trying to destroy all of this.

Airports are a separate story. Zhuliany, an airport in the Holosiivskyi district, was regularly targeted by Russian missiles. Apparently, the Russians believed that some elements of the Ukrainian Air Force or air defence forces were located there, and thus tried to reach them.

To this should be added the energy facilities scattered throughout the city, which were constantly targeted during several Russian campaigns to destroy Ukrainian energy infrastructure.

The "Shaheds" threats

Over time, Russians are increasingly shifting their strikes to other industrial zones and office centers, where, in their opinion, some kind of production or simply warehouses may be located. In this case, Iranian drones "Shaheds" are very useful to them.

With "Shaheds" Russians can regularly strike medium-sized targets — warehouses or small enterprises.

There was a period when "Shaheds" were quite successfully shot down, but recently, they have been hitting their targets more and more often, sometimes firing them like machine guns: one after another, hits the target and explodes (read more about this here).

The Russians have improved this weapon, allowing them to change their tactics. "Shaheeds" have increasingly begun to rise to heights where they cannot be reached by mobile air defense groups and then dive towards their targets.

Unfortunately, Ukrainian anti-Shahed weapons are technologically inferior to those of the enemy. However, many military personnel involved in air defense have long and repeatedly said that we need to improve our air shield in this segment.

Ukrainian anti-drone capabilities are technologically inferior to those of the enemy

Ultimately, it was obvious that the Russians would actively develop drones. They are cheap weapons that cause Ukraine a lot of trouble and terrorize the rear. Recall that the first strikes of drones in Kyiv were recorded back in October 2022. At that time, they were given the derogatory nickname "lawnmowers" or "mopeds," because of their constant noise. However, over time, the Russians continued to make improvements to their design.

On Ukrainian side, the search for alternative ways to destroy these drones remained and remains at the level of experiments or volunteer initiatives. No solution has yet been put into practice, as was the case with mobile fire groups.

At the same time, experience shows that "Shaheds" could still be actively shot down not only by mobile air defense groups but also by motorized aircraft equipped with machine guns or anti-Shahed drones. Motorized aircraft and anti-Shahed drones have been talked about for over a year, but there is no mention of their widespread use. With the improvement of "Shaheds," it is only these means that should be scaled up in order to stop the massive strikes of on Kyiv and other cities, which Ukrainians have been living under for a month now.

Unfortunately, due to the lack of timely planning, only now the civil and military authorities are beginning to do something to counter the new tactics of the Russians. However, it takes time to implement and test new measures.

Currently, in addition to mobile fire groups, helicopters are actively hunting down "suicide drones," but they are unable to shoot down these swarms of explosives (read more about this here).

Combined strikes

It seems that in June 2025, the Russians fully tested their new tactic of combined strikes on Kyiv. Yes, the enemy had previously mixed different methods of attack, but now we are seeing the use of slightly modified and more scaled-up tactics.

Drone attacks occur practically throughout the night, with waves of drones flying in from different directions. At the same time, ballistic and cruise missiles are also being fired. The calculation here is very simple: overload the domestic air defense system with drones as much as possible and then launch a missile strike.

Such combined strikes can indeed have devastating results. During one of the latest such combined strikes in the city on June 17, a total of approximately 50 buildings were damaged.

The main goal is to terrorize the population

One might think that all Russian strikes are explicitly directed against industrial or energy enterprises in the Ukrainian capital. But no. One of the main objectives of such strikes was and remains to terrorize the civilian population.

Calculated strikes with maximum casualties, as was the case during the latest strikes, when missiles destroyed entire apartment buildings. In fact, these are terrorist acts that the Russians are trying to disguise as allegedly unsuccessful strikes on the city's industrial enterprises.

The same was true of the strikes on Okhmatdyt, which the Russians tried to "whitewash" through their propaganda resources with a fairy tale that they were trying to hit the Petrovsky factory. In fact, it is enough to watch a few videos of the 'arrivals' to understand that very often, the enemy deliberately directs drones and missiles at residential buildings. The main goal of the Russians was and remains to break the will of the people of Kyiv to fight.

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