KYIV, Ukraine—A heavy Russian missile and drone attack killed at least 17 people and injured another 44 in Ukraine’s capital city of Kyiv and its surrounding region, the Ukrainian government said.
Russia has stepped up its ballistic missile attacks on Ukraine’s cities in recent months.
The impact of ballistic missiles in Kyiv could be heard around the city in the small hours of Wednesday, as the explosions rattled windows and set off car alarms. The attack targeted a train station, infrastructure and warehouse facilities belonging to civilian businesses, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a social-media post.
Russia has stepped up its ballistic missile attacks on Ukraine’s cities in recent months, exploiting the country’s severe shortage of Patriot interceptor missiles that can shoot down ballistic missiles. Ukraine’s air defense forces said they were unable to intercept any of the 28 missiles launched by Russian in Wednesday’s attack.
Zelensky again urged Western countries to send more interceptors, and to implement tougher sanctions to curb Russia’s production of missiles.
“Ballistic missile interceptors could have saved the lives of those killed today,” Zelensky wrote on X. “It is very important that our partners understand that delays in supplying them, or an unwillingness to provide antiballistic systems, lead directly to such horrific casualties and destruction.”
The U.S.-Iran war has compounded a global shortage of Patriot interceptors. President Trump recently said he supported giving Ukraine a license to produce Patriots itself, but last week he backtracked, casting doubt on the idea of sharing the technology. Setting up production of Patriots in Ukraine would in any case take time, even if the U.S. gave approval.
Meanwhile, the U.S. and European countries have been reluctant to send Ukraine more Patriot interceptors from their limited stocks.
Russia’s defense ministry said it had carried out strikes on logistics and distribution centers in Kyiv, alleging that the targets were involved in the storage, delivery and assembly of weapons and military cargo.
Ukrainian delivery service Nova Poshta said three of its employees were killed and eight were injured after Russia used cluster munitions to attack a facility.
Another eight people were killed at a train station in the Kyiv region, according to local officials.
Ukraine has been conducting a long-range drone campaign aiming to bring the war home to Russia’s urban middle class, most recently with attacks on logistics hubs for the country’s biggest e-commerce company, Wildberries.
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