Russian airstrike kills 16 in Kyiv as Zelensky seeks more Patriots

Kyiv — A major Russian airstrike killed 16 people and injured more than 40 in Kyiv and the surrounding region on Thursday as President Volodymyr Zelensky said a failure by Ukraine’s allies to replenish its stock of air defence missiles was costing lives.

Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched dozens of cruise missiles, as well as ballistic and hypersonic ones, and 168 drones, in the massive overnight attack.

The air force said that nearly 90% of the drones and most of the cruise missiles were downed. It did not specify how many ballistic missiles were launched and whether any were intercepted.

Zelensky called Thursday’s strike one of the most “cynical, calculated and large-scale” of the four-and-a-half-year-long war.

The upper floors of a nine-storey residential block were destroyed in Kyiv’s Solomianskyi district, mayor Vitali Klitschko said. He called for Friday to be observed as a day of mourning.

Overall, 30 residential buildings, a school, a children’s hospital, and a kindergarten were damaged in the capital and the surrounding areas, Zelensky said.

Private energy company DTEK said it had restored power to about 90,000 households that lost the supply after the attack.

The Russian defence ministry said Moscow attacked Kyiv and the surrounding region with airstrikes and drones, hitting facilities producing drone components, a military depot and a logistics hub, as well as other targets.

The Russian strikes also targeted a border crossing with Moldova in the Black Sea region of Odesa, where repeated attacks on ports and ships have brought Ukraine’s vital agricultural exports to a virtual halt in recent weeks, pressuring global food prices.

As Russia has escalated its ballistic strikes in recent months, Zelensky has pleaded with allies to replenish Ukraine’s stock of Patriot interceptors — the only weapon in its arsenal capable of downing a ballistic missile.

Emergency crews have been working at the sites of Russian strikes since overnight. It was a massive attack – the Russians had been preparing for a long time, combining different types of ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and drones, aiming to cause as much damage as possible… pic.twitter.com/zvOkAwgNlf

Moscow, he said, would not seriously negotiate for peace as long as Ukraine had no missile defences to defend its cities. U.S.-mediated talks to end the war stalled earlier this year as Kyiv refused to yield to Russian demands to cede more territory.

“Unfortunately ... the world’s response to such attacks is not always adequate,” Zelensky said.

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said on X, in response to Zelensky’s message, that she was working with member states and partners to provide Ukraine with anti-ballistic capabilities as “the most urgent of priorities”.