Russian missile and drone barrage in Kyiv region kills 17

Firefighters put out a fire after Russian missiles hit a warehouse in Kyiv, Ukraine, yesterday [AP Photo]

Russian missile and drone strikes on Kyiv and the surrounding region killed 17 people and wounded 44 others overnight into yesterday, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.

The attack was the latest in a series of large-scale Russian ballistic missile strikes that have become near-routine this summer. The intensified barrages are exploiting Ukraine’s critical shortage of interceptor missiles for the U.S.-made Patriot systems, the sole air defense system in its arsenal able to shoot down ballistic missiles. Zelenskyy has pleaded with other countries to send more of the ammunition made scarcer by the Iran war.

“Ballistic interceptors are what could have saved the lives of those killed today,” Zelenskyy said on social media. “It is very important for our partners to understand that delays in supplying them, or a reluctance to hand over anti-ballistic systems, lead directly to such horrific casualties and destruction.”

Ukraine hits back

With U.S.-led peace efforts apparently stalled, Ukraine has stepped up its deep strikes on key Russian targets such as oil refineries in an effort to compel Russian President Vladimir Putin to negotiate. Zelenskyy has accepted an unconditional ceasefire demanded by U.S. President Donald Trump but Putin has refused.

In its latest attack on logistics facilities of Wildberries, Russia’s biggest online retailer, Ukrainian drones hit a warehouse in the Tula region south of Moscow, the company and the region’s governor said yesterday.

It was the 14th Wildberries warehouse to catch fire in less than three weeks, according to a Ukrainian tally. Ukraine says the company provides goods that can be used by the military. Kyiv is also keen to unsettle the Russian public with high-profile attacks.

The Russian Defense Ministry said its forces downed 475 Ukrainian drones overnight over 16 Russian regions, as well as illegally annexed Crimea and the waters of the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea.

Russia struck war-related targets

Russia fired 24 ballistic missiles, four other missiles identified as either hypersonic Zircons or supersonic Oniks, and 115 drones, many of them jet-powered, in the attack, Ukrainian authorities said.

The strikes mainly targeted warehouses belonging to civilian businesses, Zelenskyy said, as well as infrastructure and a railway station — sites that he said have “no connection to the war,” including a brewing company, building materials warehouses and civilian logistics facilities.

But the Russian Defense Ministry said it struck transport, logistics and distribution centers involved in military activity. It listed four targets in Kyiv, claiming they ran war-related operations.

It was not immediately possible to reconcile the different accounts.

Ukraine’s largest private postal operator, Nova Poshta, said a Russian cluster munition destroyed one of its sorting centers in Kyiv.

The Russian Defense Ministry said the center was “storing and distributing dual-use goods, including those used in the production of long- and medium-range uncrewed aerial vehicles, as well as robotic systems and electronic warfare systems.” It claimed that two other logistics centers in the Kyiv region stored drones or components for drones.

Separately, the ministry said its forces hit three bulk carriers on the Black Sea south of Odesa that it claimed were transporting weapons and military equipment for the Ukrainian armed forces. Ukrainian officials didn’t comment on that claim.

Truck drivers make narrow escape

Ivan Braga, a 46-year-old truck driver from Moldova who was in Kyiv during the attack, said he and a colleague ran from their vehicle when it was struck by shrapnel in a blast wave.

“We didn’t even have time to grab our documents or anything else,” Braga told The Associated Press. “I couldn’t believe it. I’d already been in Kyiv and had heard explosions before, but nothing like today.”

Serhii Beskrestnov, an adviser to Zelenskyy on defense technology development, said the war of attrition has entered a new phase. “The enemy is attacking everything indiscriminately — retail warehouses, food storage facilities, logistics hubs, enterprises, building materials warehouses,” he said on Facebook.

One of the companies that came under heavy fire was Epicentr, one of Ukraine’s largest retail and construction chains. It said in a statement on Facebook that “in minutes, Russian missiles destroyed what the company had built over decades.” One employee was killed and three others were wounded.

According to the Russian Defense Ministry, the Epicenter logistics center handled order processing, sorting, storing, and delivery of dual-use goods and components for drone production. HANNA ARHIROVA, KYIV, MDT/AP