At least ۱۲ people have been killed in and around Kyiv overnight as Ukraine’s capital endured a sixth consecutive night of Russian drone and missile attacks aimed at shattering infrastructure and lowering the morale of the city.
Eight of the dead were reported killed in Kyiv, including seven at a railway depot on the city’s left bank, and four were killed in Boryspil, to the east of the city, in a wave of strikes at about ۲.۳۰am after hours of air alerts.
A further four people were killed in other parts of Ukraine, regional officials said, in ۲۸ waves of attacks that included a strike on a border crossing point with Romania on the Danube at Orlivka.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine’s president, said “a significant number of jet-powered drones and ballistic missiles were used in the attack” and that Russia was taking advantage of a shortage of US-made Patriot interceptors.
In a morning post on social media, Zelenskyy said: “Russia always plans its strikes specifically to cause as much destruction to people’s lives as possible, and it succeeds only when air defence capabilities are insufficient.”
Kyiv and the surrounding towns and villages have come under sustained attack in the past few days. Thirty-eight people were killed after a Russian drone struck an ammunition store in Myla, ۱۵ miles west of Kyiv, on Thursday, the hit causing hours of secondary explosions and damaging nearby homes.
Ukraine’s air force said Russia had attacked ۲۸ locations, focusing on the cities of Kyiv and Odesa and their surroundings. Air defences shot down five Iskander ballistic missiles, two Banderol and five Kalibr cruise missiles and ۱۸۷ out of ۲۱۸ drones. Officials no longer reveal the total numbers of missiles fired.
Oleksandr Pertsovskyi, the chief executive of Ukrainian Railways, said six of the seven people killed in and around the depot were employees of the network. Another rail worker was hospitalised, he added.
Kyiv has been chronically short of air defence systems since the supply of Patriot interceptors dried up. The Patriots are the only weapon that can effectively stop high-speed Russian ballistic missiles, made at the rate of about ۶۰ a month.
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Lockheed Martin, the US company that makes the most capable Pac-۳ interceptors, produces about ۶۰۰ a year, but US military supplies have been depleted during the US war with Iran. Ukraine is trying to secure a stockpile of about ۳۰۰ for the winter, paid for by European allies, in a supply deal agreed with the US.
Moscow appears to be trying to take advantage of an absence of air defence capability before winter, in an escalation of a conflict nearly deadlocked on the frontline. Ukraine has been responding by attacking oil refineries, warehouses and other military facilities deep inside Russia, aiming to hurt the country’s economy.
Ukraine’s GUR military intelligence said it had attacked an oil refinery at the Baltic port of Ust-Luga, about ۵۵۰ miles (۸۸۵km) from its border. Russian officials said a civilian was killed in the border Belgorod region in an attack.
Russia captured ۳۵ square miles (۵۶ sq km) of Ukraine’s territory during August, analysis by the AFP news agency concluded. It was Moscow’s largest advance since February but still much lower than the ۱۵۰ square mile a month average of ۲۰۲۵.
There remains little serious diplomatic effort to end the war, although on Monday India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, urged Vladimir Putin to end the war in public remarks at a bilateral meeting in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.
“Every day that the war continues, humanity is, in effect, set back a step, while every step towards peace gives all of humanity real hope for peace. We need to move from endless war to an end to the war,” Modi said.
Putin appeared impatient, tapping his feet as he listened. “Thank you very much, prime minister. We are moving forward along this path,” he replied.
