At least 17 people were killed in Russian air attacks on Ukraine overnight amid fresh signs that Kyiv’s ability to defend against missile strikes is becoming exhausted.
Russia fired 28 missiles, including 24 ballistic projectiles and 115 drones, mainly at Kyiv and its surrounding region, Ukraine’s Air Defence said in a Telegram statement on 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 of the country’s biggest retailer, Epicentr K, and the Nova Post delivery service, authorities said. Ukraine’s Railway Company Ukrzaliznytsia said many died while waiting for a train at a regional station outside Kyiv.
Ukraine has struggled to defend against stepped-up Russian strikes in recent weeks. It’s seeking more interceptors from allies’ existing stocks for the US-made Patriot system that’s most capable of taking out Russian ballistic missiles.
Zelenskyy’s meeting with President Donald Trump in Washington last week produced no new commitment for supplies of Patriots. While Trump pledged on July 8 to grant Ukraine licenses to produce its own interceptors, those permits haven’t been issued and it may take months before any become available for use.
The focus on logistics centers indicates a war of the warehouses may be emerging as Russia retaliates against Ukrainian strikes that have targeted 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 of 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.
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.