Russian missile and drone attack kills at least 17 across Kyiv and its region, no missiles intercepted
Overnight Russian barrage of 28 missiles and 115 drones hit residential areas, warehouses and a railway station in Kyiv and the surrounding region, with Ukraine's air force unable to shoot down a single ballistic projectile.
Overnight assault
Russia launched 28 missiles and 115 drones at Kyiv and its surrounding region overnight Tuesday into Wednesday. Ukraine's air force said 24 of the missiles were ballistic and four were anti-ship. While air defenses shot down 98 of the drones, none of the missiles were intercepted. The barrage struck residential buildings, warehouses, and logistics facilities across four districts of the capital and the wider Kyiv region.
- Missiles launched
- 28 count
- Missiles intercepted
- 0 count
- Drones launched
- 115 count
- Drones intercepted
- 98 count
Casualties and damage
At least 17 people were killed and 44 injured across Kyiv and the surrounding region, according to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The regional military administration had earlier reported 14 dead and 27 injured in the region alone, with nine of the dead in Brovary district, while the city recorded one woman killed and more than 20 injured. Zelenskyy said the strikes hit warehouses belonging to civilian firms, a railway station, a brewery, stores of construction materials and civilian logistics sites. Mayor Vitali Klitschko said rescue teams pulled two people from the rubble of a destroyed warehouse near the city center.
There may still be people under the rubble.
The strikes caused fires in storage areas and an ammonia leak that emergency crews worked to contain. An ambulance driver was among the injured, four of whom were in critical condition.
Zelenskyy's plea for interceptors
Zelenskyy said the deaths could have been prevented if Ukraine had sufficient ballistic missile interceptors.
Ballistic missile interceptors could have saved the lives of those killed today.
He urged partners to speed up deliveries and called for new sanctions on Russian missile production, saying a significant share of it remains unsanctioned. "Delays in their deliveries or failure to provide anti-ballistic measures lead to such terrible casualties and destruction," he added.
Air defense shortfall and US politics
Ukraine has been warning for months that its stocks of Patriot interceptor missiles are critically low. The US-made Patriots are the only Western-supplied system capable of reliably destroying Russia's ballistic missiles. President Donald Trump had told Zelenskyy at the NATO summit in Türkiye last month that the US would allow Ukraine to produce the interceptors domestically, telling him "we're going to give a license to you to make Patriots". In a telephone interview with the Financial Times on Thursday 30 July he said the US had "not agreed to" grant the licences and that he was not sure it would.
It's a very extraordinary weapon, and we have to be a little bit careful of who we license it to.
Kyiv argues that domestic production would ease shortages, but no licence has been granted.
Escalating long-range strikes
The attack is part of an intensifying aerial campaign by both sides. Russia more than doubled its missile use in July compared to earlier months, according to an AFP analysis. On Saturday, Russian strikes on Kyiv and its suburbs killed 10 people and wounded more than 30. That same day, Ukrainian drones sank a Russian container ship in the Black Sea. On Tuesday, Ukraine struck logistics hubs of the Russian retailer Wildberries, and at least five people were killed in the Moscow region. Russia's defense ministry said Wednesday's strikes targeted transport and logistics centers it claimed were used for military supplies.
