Russia launched a blistering ballistic missile attack on Kyiv and its suburbs before dawn on Wednesday, killing at least 17 people and wounding dozens more, Ukrainian officials said, as Moscow takes advantage of Kyiv’s depleted air defenses.
The attack set off large blazes that filled the skies with smoke as rescue workers raced to find survivors in the rubble of a city that is now largely defenseless against ballistic missile strikes.
It was the third major attack on the capital in a week as Ukraine runs desperately low on interceptor missiles for its Patriot batteries, the only reliable defense against Russia’s most sophisticated missiles.
“Ballistic missile interceptors could have saved the lives of those killed today,” President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said in a statement, putting the initial death toll at 17. “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 shortage of interceptors has become a wider problem as the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East drain military stockpiles around the world. Late last month, President Trump put aside plans to escalate attacks on Iran after advisers raised concerns about the dwindling American supplies of Patriot systems and other antimissile munitions.
