At least nine people were killed and 33 wounded in Kyiv after a Russian barrage of ballistic missiles and drones overnight into Saturday, Ukrainian authorities said. The attack followed a Russian strike two days earlier that killed at least 10 and injured more than 50 across Ukraine.
President Volodymyr Zelensky used the latest assault to renew his appeal for ballistic missile interceptors, warning that every night without them brings more casualties. Russia's defence ministry said it had carried out a massive strike on military-industrial complex facilities and logistics centres in the capital.
Deadly strikes across Kyiv districts
In the Solomianskyi District, a five-storey residential building was damaged by falling debris and caught fire. Rescue workers evacuated 35 people from the upper floors; two died and eight were injured, including two children, according to Ukraine's state emergency service.
In the Darnytskyi District, seven people were killed and 14 more injured after the attack sparked fires and damaged houses, vehicles, an administrative building and a non-residential building, emergency services said. Firefighters also extinguished a blaze in a non-residential building in the Shevchenkivskyi district, and damage to commercial and residential buildings was reported in two other districts.
Zelensky presses allies for Patriot systems
Zelensky has been pressing the US and Western partners for more Patriot anti-ballistic missile defence systems. In a post on X on Saturday, he stressed the "shortage of ballistic missile interceptors… only encourages Russia to launch such attacks that take human lives".
"It is critical that partners hear that these capabilities are needed not somewhere in stockpiles for hypothetical scenarios, but here and now, to contain and stop the Russian war in Ukraine. Every package of ballistic missile interceptors saves the lives of our people. And every night without them results in more casualties," he said.
Last month, at a NATO summit in Ankara, Donald Trump said the US would grant Ukraine a licence to make Patriot systems. But on Friday, during a Cabinet meeting at Camp David, Maryland, he appeared to step back from that commitment, saying he had not made a final decision.
A resident describes the ordeal
Liudmyla Nakonechna, 64, who took cover in a basement shelter as a second air alarm sounded for another wave, said she was woken by loud explosions at 1.30am. In poor health after cancer treatment, she described being struck by the bathroom door after it was blown off its hinges. "I ran into the corridor and was standing there when the bathroom door was blown off its hinges and struck me in the leg."
She had not gone to a shelter since Russia's full-scale invasion began on February 24, 2022, but said the stress became too much. "I heard the sound of shattering glass. My balcony was covered in glass and it was completely blown apart, while the windows in my bedroom were also blown out." She added: "It's getting worse by the day. Whereas before there was an attack once every two weeks, or maybe once a week, now it happens practically every day. It is incredibly hard to bear this psychologically."
Attacks elsewhere
In Russian-occupied Crimea, the Moscow-appointed head of Sevastopol, Mikhail Razvozhayev, said a 60-year-old woman was killed and two people wounded in a drone attack on the city. Meanwhile, President Zelensky said a sanctioned Russian container ship, the Yanina, had sunk in the Black Sea after being hit by Ukraine, and listed it among facilities that sustain the war effort.
In the southern city of Kherson, a Russian airstrike killed one person and wounded five more, local officials said.
