KYIV – Russian strikes killed 16 people and injured more than 40 in Kyiv and the surrounding region on Thursday as President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said a failure by Ukraine’s allies to replenish its stock of air defence missiles was costing lives.
Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched dozens of cruise missiles, as well as ballistic and hypersonic ones, and 168 drones, in the massive overnight attack.
The air force said that nearly 90 per cent of the drones and most of the cruise missiles were downed. It did not specify how many ballistic missiles were launched and whether any were intercepted.
The upper floors of a nine-storey residential block were destroyed in Kyiv’s Solomianskyi district, where the majority of the 15 deaths in the capital occurred, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said. He called for Friday to be observed as a day of mourning.
Two other districts suffered damage, Klitschko said, with a school and a children’s hospital hit as well as non-residential facilities and warehouses.
The Russian defence ministry said Moscow attacked Kyiv and the surrounding region with airstrikes and drones, hitting facilities producing drone components, a military depot and a logistics hub, as well as other targets.
The Russian strikes also targeted the Black Sea region of Odesa, where repeated attacks on port infrastructure and ships have brought Ukraine’s vital agricultural exports to a virtual halt in recent weeks, pressuring global food prices.
As Russia has escalated its ballistic strikes in recent months, Zelenskiy has pleaded with allies to replenish Ukraine’s stock of Patriot interceptors – the only weapon in its arsenal capable of downing a ballistic missile.
“The interceptors for Patriot systems have not yet been replaced, and they are needed every day,” Zelenskiy said on the Telegram app. “Each additional missile saves the lives of our people.”
Moscow, he said, would not seriously negotiate for peace as long as Ukraine had no missile defences to defend its cities. US-mediated talks to end the four-year war stalled earlier this year as Ukraine refused to yield to Russian demands to cede more territory. (Reuters)