Kyiv, Aug 5: Russian attacks on Kyiv and its surrounding region killed 17 people and wounded dozens, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Wednesday, as Ukraine’s depleted air defences failed to stop any of Moscow’s incoming missiles overnight.
The barrage, which lasted about two hours, was the latest in a series of large-scale Russian missile strikes that have become almost routine this summer. Moscow is exploiting Ukraine’s critical shortage of interceptors for the US-made Patriot systems, the sole air defence weapon in its arsenal able to shoot down ballistic missiles.
Zelenskyy has pleaded with other countries, especially the US, to send more of the ammunition made scarcer by the Iran war. Failing that, he wants to make Patriot ammunition in Ukraine or win permission from Elon Musk to use his Starlink satellite communications system to guide strikes inside Russia that can hit its missile launchers.
It’s unclear how many interceptors Ukraine has left. Zelenskyy said after a Russian aerial attack Friday night that air defences shot down only one ballistic missile “solely because there are no missiles for the Patriots.” Supplies of air defence missiles for Ukraine in the first half of this year fell to one-third of the 2025 level, Zelenskyy said.
“Ballistic interceptors are what could have saved the lives of those killed today,” Zelenskyy said Wednesday 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.”
The targets hit in the barrage included a brewery, a warehouse for construction material, and a mail sorting office that had nothing to do with the war, Zelenskyy said. But Russia’s Defence Ministry said the businesses had military ties.
Thursday was set as an official day of mourning for the 17 people killed, said Tymur Tkachenko, head of Kyiv’s regional military administration. In addition to the dead, at least 44 people were injured.
Ukraine retaliates with long-range drones
With US-led peace efforts apparently stalled, Ukraine has stepped up its deep strikes on key Russian targets such as oil refineries to try to compel Russian President Vladimir Putin to negotiate. Zelenskyy has accepted an unconditional ceasefire demanded by US President Donald Trump but Putin has refused.
In its latest attack on facilities for Russia’s biggest online retailer Wildberries, Ukrainian drones hit a warehouse in the Tula region south of Moscow, the company and the region’s governor said.
Ukraine has struck over a dozen Wildberries facilities in under three weeks, saying 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 Defence Ministry said its forces downed 475 Ukrainian drones overnight over 16 Russian regions, as well as in illegally annexed Crimea and the waters of the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea.
Russia says it struck war-related targets
Russia fired 24 ballistic missiles, four other missiles identified as either hypersonic Zircon or supersonic Onik cruise missiles, and 115 drones, many of them jet-powered and harder to stop due to their speed, Ukrainian authorities said.
The Russian Defence Ministry said it struck transport, logistics and distribution centres involved in war-related activity, four of which were in Kyiv.
“The enemy is attacking everything indiscriminately — retail warehouses, food storage facilities, logistics hubs, enterprises, building materials warehouses,” Zelenskyy adviser Serhii Beskrestnov, said on Facebook.
It was not immediately possible to independently reconcile the different Russian and Ukrainian accounts of the military value of the targets.
Kyiv warehouse worker Mykhailo Hukov said an air raid warning that included a ballistic missile threat sounded just after midnight.
“So everyone started running,” he told The Associated Press. “I turned everyone around so they wouldn’t go back inside for their backpacks.”
In an underground shelter minutes later, they heard “very loud explosions.”
Ukraine’s largest private postal operator, Nova Poshta, said a Russian cluster munition destroyed one of its sorting centres in Kyiv.
The Russian Defence Ministry said the centre 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 centres in the Kyiv region stored drones or components for drones.
Separately, Russia said its forces hit three bulk carriers on the Black Sea south of Odesa that it claimed were transporting Ukrainian weapons and military equipment. Ukrainian officials didn’t comment on that claim.
Truck drivers make a 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 AP. “I couldn’t believe it. I’d already been in Kyiv and had heard explosions before, but nothing like today.”
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 Defence Ministry, the Epicentr logistics centre handled order processing, sorting, storing, and delivery of dual-use goods and components for drone production. (AP)
