Kyiv strike kills 17 as Zelenskyy seeks more Patriot missiles

Kyiv,UPDATED: Aug 5, 2026 14:38 IST

Russian missile and drone strikes on Kyiv and the surrounding region killed 17 people and wounded 44 others overnight into Wednesday, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said. The attack was the latest in a series of large-scale Russian ballistic missile strikes that have become near-routine this summer.

Zelenskyy said the intensified attacks were exploiting Ukraine's shortage of interceptor missiles for US-made Patriot systems, which he described as the only air defence system in the country's arsenal capable of shooting down ballistic missiles. He said Ukraine had asked other countries to send more of the ammunition, which has become scarcer because of 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."

With US-led peace efforts appearing to have stalled, Ukraine has stepped up long-range drone strikes on Russian targets such as oil refineries in a bid to force President Vladimir Putin to negotiate. Zelenskyy has accepted an unconditional ceasefire demanded by US President Donald Trump, but Putin has refused. In the latest such strike, Ukrainian drones hit a Wildberries warehouse in Russia's Tula region south of Moscow, the company and the regional governor said. According to a Ukrainian tally, it was the 14th Wildberries warehouse to catch fire in less than three weeks. Ukraine says the company provides goods that can be used by the military. The Russian Defence Ministry said its forces shot down 475 Ukrainian drones overnight over 16 Russian regions, as well as Crimea and the waters of the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea.

Ukrainian authorities said Russia fired 24 ballistic missiles, four other missiles identified as either hypersonic Zircons or supersonic Oniks, and 115 drones, many of them jet-powered, in the attack. Zelenskyy said the strikes mainly targeted warehouses belonging to civilian businesses, as well as infrastructure and a railway station, adding that the sites had "no connection to the war", including a brewing company, building materials warehouses and civilian logistics facilities. The Russian Defence Ministry, however, said it struck transport, logistics and distribution centres involved in military activity. It listed four targets in Kyiv and said they were running war-related operations. It was not immediately possible to reconcile the different accounts.

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 also said two other logistics centres in the Kyiv region stored drones or drone components. Separately, the ministry said its forces hit three bulk carriers on the Black Sea south of Odesa that it claimed were transporting weapons and military equipment for the Ukrainian armed forces. Ukrainian officials did not comment on that claim.

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 hit by shrapnel in a blast wave. "We didn't even have time to grab our documents or anything else," Braga told The Associated Press. "I couldn't believe it. I'd already been in Kyiv and had heard explosions before, but nothing like today." Serhii Beskrestnov, an adviser to Zelenskyy on defence technology development, said on Facebook that the war of attrition had entered a new phase. "The enemy is attacking everything indiscriminately - retail warehouses, food storage facilities, logistics hubs, enterprises, building materials warehouses," he said.

One of the companies that came under heavy fire was Epicentr, one of Ukraine's biggest retail and construction chains. The company said on Facebook that "in minutes, Russian missiles destroyed what the company had built over decades". One employee was killed and three others were wounded. The Russian Defence Ministry said the Epicentr logistics centre handled processing, sorting, storing and delivering dual-use goods and components for drone production. Overall, the overnight attacks left heavy casualties and damage around Kyiv, while both sides also reported fresh long-range strikes on logistics targets.

With PTI Inputs

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