KYIV — Ukrainian forces failed to shoot down a single Russian missile early Wednesday during Moscow’s latest aerial bombardment of Kyiv and the surrounding region — an assault that comes only days after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that his country had run out of air defense interceptors.
It was the third major ballistic attack on Kyiv in a week. Russia launched 24 ballistic and four hypersonic cruise missiles overnight, along with 115 attack drones, most of which targeted the area outside of Kyiv, Ukraine’s Air Force said on social media. All of the missiles and 17 drones struck targets.
Seventeen people died and more than 40 were injured, officials said.
On Saturday, after a similar overnight attack, Zelensky wrote on social media that “only one ballistic missile” had been intercepted “simply because there are no interceptors.”
Ukraine relies on the U.S.-designed Patriot air defense systems as its only means to shoot down Russian ballistic missiles, and until recently, a large number were intercepted. However, the system’s interceptor missiles are in short supply, in part because of the large number used during the Iran war.
On Friday, President Donald Trump also appeared to reverse an agreement reached with Zelensky earlier to provide Ukraine with licenses to produce interceptor missiles itself.
“Ballistic missile interceptors could have saved the lives of those killed today,” Zelensky wrote on social media on Wednesday. “It is very important that our partners understand that delays in supplying them, or an unwillingness to provide anti-ballistic systems, lead directly to such horrific casualties and destruction.”
Zelensky also called for Ukraine’s allies to impose additional sanctions on Russia since he said “a significant share” of the components that Moscow obtains abroad for its ballistic missile production were not under sanctions.
Russia’s attack on Wednesday destroyed warehouses and logistics centers of some of Ukraine’s largest retail companies.
Iryna Chechotkina, a co-founder of Rozetka — Ukraine’s largest online marketplace, similar to Amazon — said that a distribution warehouse in the Kyiv suburb of Brovary, where more than 100,000 orders were processed daily, was destroyed completely and could not be restored.
“Today I was supposed to post about Rozetka turning 21. To thank our customers, partners, and team for this long journey we have traveled together,” Chechotkina wrote on Facebook.
“Instead, at night I watched as my life’s work burned down after three ballistic missiles hit,” she said.
Stern reported from Mukachevo, Ukraine.
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