Kyiv, Ukraine. A Russian ballistic missile and drone attack on Kyiv and the surrounding region early on Saturday killed 10 people, Ukrainian authorities said, as President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the country had run out of interceptor missiles for its US-made Patriot air defence systems.
Russia launched 35 missiles, including 27 ballistic missiles, as well as 185 drones, Zelenskiy said. Only one ballistic missile was intercepted because Ukraine had no Patriot interceptors available, he added.
Damage across Kyiv
More than a dozen explosions were heard in Kyiv during several waves of attacks, according to Reuters witnesses.
Damage was recorded in seven districts of the city, which has a population of about 3 million, the Prosecutor General’s Office said.
“Every package of ballistic missile interceptors saves the lives of our people. And every night without them results in more casualties,” Zelenskiy said on Telegram.
Air defence supplies
Ukraine relies on US-made Patriot air defence systems. Zelenskiy said interceptor missile supplies previously earmarked for Ukraine had been diverted to the US military and US allies in the Gulf because of the Iran war.
Russia has intensified attacks on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities, while fighting continues along about 1,200 kilometres of front line in the fifth year of the war.
Strikes inside Russia
Zelenskiy said Russian advances had slowed by more than half this year and that Ukraine was carrying out strikes inside Russia against oil facilities, logistics sites and weapons production.
He said Ukrainian forces struck infrastructure at three oil refineries in Russia’s Bashkortostan region, as well as other targets supporting Moscow’s war effort.
Moscow and Kyiv both deny targeting civilians in the war that began with Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Saturday’s attack was the second major strike on Kyiv this week. On Thursday, nine people, including six members of one family in a village near Kryvyi Rih, were killed, while a suspected Russian cruise missile landed in Poland.