[Anchor]

Russia has launched an airstrike on Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine. It is the largest scale attack since the beginning of the war.

Reporter Hong Yeongjae has the story.

[Reporter]

In the early hours of July 19 local time, the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv was engulfed in explosions.

Apartments, offices, and shops across Kyiv were destroyed, and a series of fires broke out due to Russian ballistic missile and drone attacks.

Ukraine claimed that Russia carried out the largest number of ballistic missile attacks since the war began.

[Zelenskyy / President of Ukraine: Our air defense forces and all anti-aircraft assets succeeded in shooting down 18 missiles and neutralizing over 100 drones today.]

This Russian airstrike appears to be in retaliation for Ukraine's attack on a logistics warehouse on the outskirts of Moscow a day earlier.

Ukraine used drones to strike two logistics warehouses belonging to Wildberries, Russia's largest online retailer, leaving 7 night-shift workers dead and 25 injured.

Ukraine claimed that the warehouses were used to supply parts for drones and navigation equipment for the Russian military, which is under Western sanctions.

Ukraine also continued its additional attacks.

The country announced that it struck two Russian oil tankers and a floating crane in the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, and also attacked three oil storage facilities in the Stavropol region of southern Russia.

Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin met with North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui, who visited the Kremlin.

Russia's TASS news agency reported that "President Putin emphasized that he will never forget the contributions of the North Korean troops who supported the Russian military."

It has been about 9 months since Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui's last visit to Russia, leading to speculation that this visit may be to coordinate a potential visit to Russia by Chairman Kim Jong-un.

(Video Editing: Ahn Yeo-jin)