Russian strikes kill at least 22 in Kyiv and surrounding region
Ukraine said Russia fired hundreds of drones and missiles, with ballistic strikes exposing shortages in its air defenses.
By James Whitfield · Staff Writer
3 min read
Russian missile and drone attacks killed at least 22 people in Kyiv and the surrounding region early Monday, Ukrainian authorities said. The assault underscored Ukraine’s shortage of air-defense interceptors as Kyiv prepares to press allies for more support at a NATO summit in Turkey.
Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 351 drones and 68 missiles overnight, with Kyiv the main target. It said all 29 ballistic missiles fired by Russia hit their targets.
In the capital, 15 people were killed and 56 injured, according to Kyiv administrative head Tymur Tkachenko. Ukraine’s emergency service said seven more people were killed in the wider Kyiv region and 29 were wounded.
Rescue teams searched damaged residential high-rises at two sites that took direct hits. Tkachenko said on Telegram that the damaged buildings were homes where people had been sleeping, and said a building in Kyiv’s Podilskyi district partly collapsed while several multistory buildings were damaged in Darnytsia.
Ukraine’s Emergency Service said about 600 people were evacuated in Vyshneve, a Kyiv suburb, because of the risk posed by unexploded munitions.
Kyiv points to interceptor shortage
Air force spokesman Yurii Ihnat said on national television that Ukraine needs suitable weapons to stop ballistic missiles. He said Russia was taking advantage of a serious shortage of interceptor missiles in Ukraine and globally.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukrainian defenses performed better against drones and cruise missiles than against ballistic missiles. In a post on X after the attack, he urged the United States and European countries to strengthen Ukraine’s air defenses and said unused Patriot missiles in allied stockpiles encouraged Russia to keep striking residential buildings.
Ukraine’s Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said Russia was increasing ballistic missile attacks at an unprecedented scale and exploiting the shortage of Patriot interceptors. He said fewer such missiles are produced worldwide each month than Russia fires at Ukraine over the same period.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said the strikes targeted weapons factories in Kyiv, including sites it said produce drones, armored vehicles and missiles, along with repair facilities for air-defense systems and fuel and energy infrastructure. Those claims could not be independently verified.
The Russian ministry also said Moscow would respond to any increase in Western supplies of drones, missiles and ammunition with more powerful retaliatory strikes on Ukrainian territory. It has said recent attacks on Kyiv came in response to Ukrainian long-range strikes.
The United Nations says more than 16,000 Ukrainian civilians have been killed since Russia launched its full-scale invasion more than four years ago.
Ukraine reports strikes inside Russia
Russia’s Defense Ministry said its forces shot down 613 of 625 Ukrainian drones overnight. Ukraine’s military said its Special Operations Forces hit the Omsk oil refinery in western Siberia, about 1,550 miles from Ukraine’s border.
Omsk regional Gov. Vitaly Khotsenko confirmed a Ukrainian attack on the refinery on Telegram and said most of the drones aimed at the site were destroyed. He reported no casualties.
Gary Peach, an oil markets analyst at Energy Intelligence, said the Omsk refinery is Russia’s largest, with capacity of about 460,000 barrels a day, and had accounted for 12% of Russian refining output as of late June. He said a prolonged outage at even part of the facility would worsen Russia’s domestic fuel problems.
In Crimea, which Russia annexed illegally in 2014, an energy provider reported a peninsula-wide blackout after Ukrainian attacks. Sevastopol’s Moscow-appointed head, Mikhail Razvozhayev, said backup equipment restored power.
Ukraine’s military said it struck Russian energy and military facilities used to fuel and support Moscow’s war effort. Russian regional officials also reported Ukrainian drone attacks in Yaroslavl and the Leningrad region, including damage to unspecified infrastructure near the Luga training ground and Baltic Sea ports.
This story draws on original reporting from NPR.