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See the full story · 6 sourcesKyiv says that Ukraine has been supplied with a third of the air defence missiles it was given in 2025
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Volodymyr Zelensky has pleaded with Ukraine’s allies to send more missile defences after a major Russian air attack on Kyiv killed at least 17.
“Ballistic interceptors are what could have saved the lives of those killed today,” the Ukrainian president said on social media, adding that Kyiv has been supplied with just a third of the air defence missiles in 2026 compared to a year earlier.
“It is very important for our partners to understand that delays in supplying them, or a reluctance to hand over anti-ballistic systems, lead directly to such horrific casualties and destruction.”
Some 44 others were wounded as Russia pummelled Ukraine’s capital region with ballistic missiles and drones in one of the deadliest attacks this year, officials said.
Russia’s attack came after Ukraine targeted the logistics hub of leading online retailer Wildberries and large warehouse fires burned in the city of Brovary and the villages of Velyka Dymerka, Kvitneve and Peremoha.
The overnight barrage on Kyiv, which lasted about two hours, was the latest in a series of large-scale Russian missile strikes that have become increasingly common this summer. Moscow is exploiting Ukraine’s critical shortage of interceptors for the US-made Patriot systems, the sole air defence weapon capable of shooting down ballistic missiles.
If the US does not send more Patriots, Mr Zelensky said he wants the ability to make Patriot ammunition in Ukraine or win permission from Elon Musk to use his Starlink satellite communications system to guide strikes inside Russia to hit missile launchers.
The US is pressing ahead with talks on allowing Ukraine to make Patriot missiles, sources told Reuters news agency, even after Donald Trump cast doubt on such a deal, four sources familiar with the discussions said.
The discussions include an option for Ukraine to build some components for final assembly elsewhere in Europe, the sources added.
It’s unclear how many interceptors Ukraine has left. Mr Zelensky said after a Russian aerial attack last Friday that air defences shot down only one ballistic missile “solely because there are no missiles for the Patriots”.
The targets hit in the latest barrage included a brewery, a warehouse for construction material, and a mail sorting office that had nothing to do with the war, Mr Zelensky said. But Russia’s defense ministry claimed the businesses had military ties.
Thursday has been declared an official day of mourning for the 17 people killed, said Tymur Tkachenko, head of Kyiv’s regional military administration.
With US-led peace efforts apparently stalled, Ukraine has stepped up its deep strikes on key Russian targets such as oil refineries to try to compel Vladimir Putin to negotiate. Mr Zelensky has accepted an unconditional ceasefire demanded by Trump but Putin has refused.
Ukraine has struck more than a dozen Wildberries facilities in under three weeks, saying the company provides goods that can be used by the military. Kyiv is also keen to unsettle the Russian public with high-profile attacks. A strike on a Russian-occupied Crimean beach over the weekend killed seven.
In response, the Russian Defense Ministry said its forces downed 475 Ukrainian drones overnight over 16 Russian regions, as well as in Crimea and the waters of the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea.
It said it struck transport, logistics and distribution centres involved in war-related activity, four of which were in Kyiv.
“The enemy is attacking everything indiscriminately – retail warehouses, food storage facilities, logistics hubs, enterprises, building materials warehouses,” Mr Zelensky adviser Serhii Beskrestnov, said on Facebook.
It was not immediately possible to independently reconcile the different Russian and Ukrainian accounts of the military value of the targets.
Kyiv warehouse worker Mykhailo Hukov said an air raid warning that included a ballistic missile threat sounded just after midnight.
“So everyone started running,” he said. “I turned everyone around so they wouldn't go back inside for their backpacks.”
In an underground shelter minutes later, they heard “very loud explosions”.
Ukraine’s largest private postal operator, Nova Poshta, said a Russian cluster munition destroyed one of its sorting centres in Kyiv.
The Russian defense ministry claimed the centre was “storing and distributing dual-use goods, including those used in the production of long- and medium-range uncrewed aerial vehicles, as well as robotic systems and electronic warfare systems.” It claimed that two other logistics centers in the Kyiv region stored drones or components for drones.
Separately, Russia said its forces hit three bulk carriers on the Black Sea south of Odesa that it claimed were transporting Ukrainian weapons and military equipment. Ukrainian officials didn’t comment on the claims.
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