Kyiv: Russia unleashed waves of missiles and drones at Ukraine early Monday, killing at least 21 people in attacks that exposed widening gaps in country’s air defences more than four years into Moscow’s full-scale invasion, authorities said.
All of the ballistic missiles launched by Russia struck their targets, underscoring Kyiv’s need for more US-made Patriot interceptor missiles – a point Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will likely reiterate at a NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, this week.
Fifteen people were killed in the capital of Kyiv, which was Russia’s main target, and 56 were injured, according to administrative head Tymur Tkachenko. Another six people were killed in the wider Kyiv region and 21 were inured, according to Mykola Kalashnyk, the head of the regional administration, and other emergency officials. Emergency workers searched for survivors in the rubble of residential high-rises in two locations that suffered direct hits.
Moscow has stepped up strikes on Kyiv in retaliation for Ukraine’s recent long-range strikes, according to the Russian Defense Ministry. Those attacks have caused severe fuel shortages and put pressure on President Vladimir Putin.
On Thursday, a Russian strike killed 31 people in Kyiv, the deadliest attack in the capital this year.
Ukraine’s advances in drone technology have given it an edge in recent months, analysts and Western officials say, striking supply routes behind the front line, stripping the Russian army of momentum on the battlefield and slowing its advance.
But Russia is now exploiting a different kind of momentum: vulnerabilities in Ukraine’s air defences, which remain heavily reliant on the Patriot missile systems to intercept ballistic missiles it can rarely shoot down. The war in the Middle East has strained the global supply of Patriot interceptors – a shortage now felt keenly in Ukraine.
Ukraine’s air force said Russia fired 351 drones and 68 missiles overnight, targeting mainly Kyiv, and all 29 ballistic missiles struck their targets.
“To intercept ballistics, we need the means for interception,” air force spokesman Yurii Ihnat said on national television. “Russians are certainly using the fact that there is a serious deficit of interceptor missiles now, in Ukraine and the world.”
Ahead of the NATO summit in Turkey, Zelenskyy said Ukrainian forces had performed well against drones and cruise missiles but not against ballistic missiles – a shortfall he blamed on insufficient supplies of interceptors. He urged US and European partners at the summit to bolster Ukraine’s air defense and protect civilians.
