At least 17 people were killed and dozens more were injured in Russian air attacks on Ukraine amid fresh signs that Kyiv’s ability to defend against missile strikes is becoming exhausted.
Russia fired 28 missiles, including 24 ballistic missiles, and 115 drones, mainly targeting Kyiv and the surrounding region overnight, Ukraine’s Air Defense said in a Telegram statement Wednesday.
While 98 drones were shot down, none of the missiles were intercepted, it said.
“Ballistic interceptors are something that could save the lives of those killed today,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on the X platform. “It is very important that partners realize that delays in their delivery or unwillingness to transfer anti-ballistics leads to such terrible casualties and destruction.”
Residential areas were hit, as well as warehouses and production facilities belonging to the country’s biggest retailer, Epicentr K, and the Nova Post delivery service, authorities said. At least eight people died in a strike while waiting for a train at a regional station outside Kyiv, Brovary district Gov. Vitaliy Bihun said on 1+1 TV.
Ukraine has struggled to defend against stepped-up Russian strikes in recent weeks. It is seeking more interceptors from allies’ existing stocks for the U.S.-made Patriot system, which is considered the most capable of taking down Russian ballistic missiles.
Zelenskyy’s meeting with President Donald Trump in Washington last week produced no new commitment for supplies of Patriot systems. While Trump pledged July 8 to grant Ukraine licenses to produce its own interceptors, those permits have not been issued, and it may take months before any become available for use.
Shipments of air defense missiles to Ukraine from its allies dropped threefold in the first half of the year compared with 2025, Zelenskyy said in a separate statement on X on Wednesday.
“Our partners do have the missiles,” he said. “It is important that the necessary political decisions on supplies and the acceleration of production processes are ultimately made – including decisions on localization in Ukraine.”
In a televised meeting with his military chiefs, Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday appointed Denis Lyamin, formerly chief of staff of the army’s Center Group, to lead a newly created Unmanned Systems Force branch.
The focus on logistics centers in the latest attack indicates a war of the warehouses may be emerging as Russia retaliates against Ukrainian strikes targeting the e-commerce giant Wildberries in recent weeks. Wildberries has lost at least 17% of its warehouse capacity, and sellers on the platform have suffered more than $3 billion in losses, according to Russian media estimates.
“According to preliminary estimates, the full restoration of the destroyed production will require at least a year and a half, and most likely about two years,” Epicentr K in Ukraine said in a statement on Facebook.
A fire broke out following a drone attack on a Wildberries logistics center in Russia’s Tula region overnight, the state-run TASS News Service reported.