Ukraine experiences its biggest bombardment since the war began
Newshour
BBC
4.4 • 984 Ratings
🗓️ 4 July 2025
⏱️ 39 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Russian drones and missiles hit nearly every district of Kyiv overnight. A record 539 drone and 11 missiles strikes were recorded by Ukrainian authorities. Meanwhile, Dutch and German intelligence agencies have warned that Russia's use of chemical weapons in Ukraine is intensifying in both frequency and strength.
Also on the programme: Donald Trump is due to sign the "Big Beautiful Bill." And music's "bad-boy" brothers Noel and Liam Gallagher are onstage together for the first time in sixteen years as Oasis play their first reunion show in Cardiff.
(Picture: A drone explodes in the skies above Kyiv. Credit: Reuters)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to NewsHour live from the BBC World Service in London. |
| 0:07.8 | I'm Rebecca Kesb. |
| 0:09.5 | It happened almost immediately after an hour-long phone conversation between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, |
| 0:16.6 | Russia's largest, most intensive air assault in the war so far. |
| 0:21.6 | Nearly every district of the capital Kyiv was hit, |
| 0:24.9 | a record 539 drones and 11 missile strikes. |
| 0:30.0 | Recorded by Ukrainian authorities, also hitting Sumi and Kharkiv as well as other areas. |
| 0:35.8 | Barely had the two presidents hung up their phones, did the strikes begin. |
| 0:39.8 | Surely a sign that Mr Putin has not heeded Mr Trump's advice to end the war. |
| 0:45.3 | President Trump said he was disappointed. |
| 0:47.5 | President Putin repeated his insistence that what he calls, |
| 0:50.8 | the root causes need to be fixed, |
| 0:52.8 | which means territory and a limit on Ukraine's right to join alliances such as NATO. |
| 0:58.8 | Our correspondent in Kiev is Paul Adams. |
| 1:01.8 | He went out this morning to assess the damage of the attacks overnight. |
| 1:08.6 | The attack went on for hours. D drones constantly buzzing in the darkness overhead, air defence units frantically trying to shoot them down, hitting most, but not all. |
| 1:22.1 | Well, that was a pretty long interrupted night. And as Kiev gets going this morning, you can see and smell what |
| 1:30.6 | kind of night it was. From up here on the roof of the hotel, I can see a thick pall of smoke |
| 1:36.6 | hanging over large parts of the city. The eastern side of Kiev across the river is hardly |
| 1:42.1 | visible at all. And there's a really acrid smell in the air. |
| 1:50.1 | This is one of the areas that was hit overnight. |
| 1:53.9 | This is a residential area, a few miles from the city centre. |
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