Russian missile and drone barrages on the Ukrainian capital region killed 17 people and wounded 44 others overnight into Wednesday, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
Targets included a brewing company, a construction material warehouse, and a mail sorting office that officials said had no connection to the military. Russian Defense Ministry spokespeople countered that these businesses were masking ties to the war effort.
According to Zelenskyy, the nighttime assault lasted approximately two hours. It marked the latest in a series of large-scale Russian ballistic missile strikes that have become near-routine this summer.
Ukraine’s largest private postal operator, Nova Poshta, confirmed that a Russian cluster munition destroyed one of its sorting centers in Kyiv. The Russian Defense Ministry claimed the center was storing and distributing dual-use goods.
Related: Tupac murder suspect goes on trial after decades
Supply Shortages
Zelenskyy said the intensified barrages are exploiting Ukraine’s critical shortage of interceptor missiles for the U.S.-made Patriot systems. These Patriot systems are the sole air defense weapon in Ukraine’s arsenal capable of shooting down ballistic missiles.
Supplies of air defense missiles to Ukraine during the first half of this year tumbled to one-third of the 2025 level, the president noted. He pleaded with other countries to send more ammunition, noting that the scarcity of these weapons is made scarcer by the Iran war.
“Ballistic interceptors are what could have saved the lives of those killed today,” Zelenskyy said 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.”
Retaliation and Defense
With U.S.-led peace efforts apparently stalled, Ukraine has stepped up deep strikes on key Russian targets such as oil refineries in an effort to compel President Vladimir Putin to negotiate. Zelenskyy has accepted an unconditional ceasefire demanded by U.S. President Donald Trump, but Putin has refused.
Related: HHS releases final rule on information blocking
In its latest attack on logistics facilities for Wildberries, Russia’s largest online retailer, Ukrainian drones hit a warehouse in the Tula region south of Moscow. It was the 14th such facility to catch fire in less than three weeks, according to a Ukrainian tally.
The Russian Defense Ministry said its forces downed 475 Ukrainian drones overnight over 16 Russian regions, as well as illegally annexed Crimea and the waters of the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea.
Russia fired 24 ballistic missiles, four other missiles identified as either hypersonic Zircons or supersonic Oniks, and 115 drones, many of them jet-powered and harder to stop due to their speed, Ukrainian authorities said.
Accounts Differ on Targets
While Ukrainian authorities said the attacks targeted civilian infrastructure, the Russian Defense Ministry claimed it struck transport, logistics, and distribution centers involved in military activity. It listed four targets in Kyiv, stating they ran war-related operations.
Related: Hospitals Lose $6.2M Yearly From Referral Gaps
Serhii Beskrestnov, an adviser to Zelenskyy, said the war of attrition has entered a new phase. “The enemy is attacking everything indiscriminately — retail warehouses, food storage facilities, logistics hubs, enterprises, building materials warehouses,” he said on Facebook.
Mykhailo Hukov, a 40-year-old Kyiv warehouse worker, described the moment an air raid warning 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.”
Minutes later, in an underground shelter, they heard “some very loud, very loud explosions.”