Russia launched a heavy ballistic missile and drone attack on Kyiv early Saturday, killing 10 people, as President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukraine had run out of interceptor missiles for its Patriot air defence systems. Only one of 27 ballistic missiles fired was intercepted, and the strikes damaged homes, a school and the Lithuanian Embassy across seven districts of the capital.
Kyiv hit by dozens of missiles and drones
Russia pounded Kyiv and the surrounding region in a heavy ballistic missile attack early on Saturday, killing 10 people, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said. He said Russia launched 35 missiles at Ukraine, including 27 ballistic missiles, along with 185 drones. Only one ballistic missile was intercepted, since no interceptors remain for the Patriot system, he said.
More than a dozen explosions reverberated through the city during several waves of attacks, according to Reuters witnesses. According to Reuters: "Every package of ballistic missile interceptors saves the lives of our people." Zelenskiy said on the Telegram app that every night without them results in more casualties.
Interceptor shortage follows diversion to the Gulf
Ukraine relies on U.S.-made Patriot air defence systems, but the war with Iran has seen supplies of interceptor missiles previously earmarked for Ukraine diverted to the U.S. military and U.S. allies in the Gulf. With the war in its fifth year, fighting is raging along about 1,200 kilometres (750 miles) of front line, though Russian advances have slowed by more than half this year.
Meanwhile, Ukraine has been striking inside Russia, hitting oil facilities, logistics sites and weapons production. Zelenskiy said his troops struck the infrastructure of three oil refineries in the Bashkortostan region and other targets that sustained Moscow's war effort. Moscow and Kyiv both deny targeting civilians in the war launched by Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Second major strike on Kyiv this week
Saturday's attack is the second major strike on Kyiv this week, after nine people, including six members of one family near Kryvyi Rih, were killed on Thursday and a suspected Russian cruise missile landed in Poland. Damage was recorded in seven districts across Kyiv, a city of about 3 million people, the Prosecutor General's Office said.
Zelenskiy said fires broke out across the city and 18 residential buildings, a school, the Lithuanian Embassy, and infrastructure facilities were damaged. Ukrainian prosecutors said seven people were killed in the Darnytskyi district on the left bank of the Dnipro river, and two more died in the Solomyanskyi district on the right bank. One more person was killed in the Kyiv region, where the attacks also damaged several warehouses.
Dozens of people in Kyiv and the region were injured, including four children who suffered multiple shrapnel wounds and lacerations. Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha renewed a plea for urgent air defence supplies, saying the battle for the skies will define the trajectory of the war.
Source: Investing.com
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