Volodymyr Zelensky has appealed to Donald Trump to supply Patriot missiles to Ukraine after a devastating Russian attack killed at least 18 people and injured dozens more. Russia launched 73 missiles and 656 drones overnight, including eight hypersonic Tsirkon missiles, targeting Kyiv, Dnipro, Zaporizhzhia, Poltava and Kharkiv.
In Kyiv, loud explosions rocked the capital as residents sheltered in basements and metro stations. At least 22 died and 66 were injured, including three children. “If Ukraine is not protected from ballistic and other missile strikes, these strikes will continue,” Zelensky wrote on social media. He stressed that Europe needs its own anti-ballistic missiles and that US Patriots are vital.
Ukraine’s air defences intercepted about half of the missiles, but over 30 hit civilian targets. Zelensky has previously warned Kyiv is running out of Patriot interceptors. The Trump administration has so far ignored his pleas, with hundreds of Patriots used in February during the US-Israeli conflict with Iran.
In Dnipro, at least 12 were killed and 37 injured. A three-year-old boy died when a four-storey residential building collapsed, with six missing under rubble. A rescuer was also killed in a second strike. The city’s mayor accused Moscow of using cluster munitions in built-up areas. In Kharkiv, at least 15 were injured and residential homes damaged.
Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said a missile struck a 24-storey block, triggering a collapse, and a nine-storey block caught fire. In the Podilskyi district, people were trapped under debris. Ukraine’s foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, said Putin is “a war criminal and loser who has no cards except terror” and that Moscow is losing on the battlefield.
