Russian strike on Kyiv kills 17 as Ukraine's Patriot missile shortage bites

Kyiv,UPDATED: Aug 5, 2026 19:18 IST

Russian attacks on Kyiv and the surrounding region killed 17 people and injured at least 44 in an overnight barrage that lasted about two hours, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Wednesday. Ukraine’s depleted air defences did not stop any of the incoming missiles, as Moscow continued a pattern of large-scale strikes that has become common this summer.

As Kyiv dealt with the aftermath, Ukraine carried out fresh long-range drone strikes inside Russia, including on a Wildberries warehouse in the Tula region south of Moscow. Russia said it had struck targets linked to Ukraine’s war effort, while Ukraine said civilian businesses and logistics facilities had been hit.

Zelenskyy said Ukraine was facing a critical shortage of missiles for the US-made Patriot systems, which he described as the only weapon in the country’s arsenal capable of bringing down ballistic missiles. He has appealed to other countries, especially the US, to send more ammunition, which he said had become scarcer because of the Iran war. Failing that, he wants to produce Patriot ammunition in Ukraine or get permission from Elon Musk to use the Starlink satellite communications system to guide strikes inside Russia against missile launchers.

It is unclear how many air defence missiles Ukraine has left. After a Russian aerial attack on Friday night, Zelenskyy said air defences shot down only one ballistic missile “solely because there are no missiles for the Patriots”. He also said supplies of air defence missiles for Ukraine in the first half of this year had fallen to one-third of the 2025 level.

“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.” He said the targets hit included a brewery, a warehouse for construction material and a mail sorting office that had nothing to do with the war, though Russia’s Defence Ministry said the businesses had military ties.

Tymur Tkachenko, head of Kyiv’s regional military administration, said Thursday would be observed as an official day of mourning for those killed. Ukrainian authorities said 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 because of their speed. Russia’s Defence Ministry said it had struck transport, logistics and distribution centres involved in war-related activity, including four in Kyiv.

Serhii Beskrestnov, an adviser to Zelenskyy, wrote on Facebook: “The enemy is attacking everything indiscriminately -- retail warehouses, food storage facilities, logistics hubs, enterprises, building materials warehouses.” It was not immediately possible to independently reconcile the Russian and Ukrainian accounts of the military value of the targets. Kyiv warehouse worker Mykhailo Hukov said an air raid warning with 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.” Minutes later in an underground shelter, he said, 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. Russia’s Defence Ministry said the centre had been “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, Russia said its forces had hit three bulk carriers on the Black Sea south of Odesa that it claimed were transporting Ukrainian weapons and military equipment. Ukrainian officials did not comment on that claim.

Ukraine has meanwhile stepped up deep strikes on Russian targets such as oil refineries as US-led peace efforts appear to have stalled. Zelenskyy has accepted an unconditional ceasefire demanded by US President Donald Trump, but Russian President Vladimir Putin has refused. In the latest strike on facilities linked to Russia’s biggest online retailer Wildberries, Ukrainian drones hit a warehouse in the Tula region, according to the company and the regional governor. Ukraine says it has struck more than a dozen Wildberries facilities in under three weeks, arguing that the company supplies goods that can be used by the military. Russia’s Defence Ministry said its forces downed 475 Ukrainian drones overnight over 16 Russian regions, as well as over illegally annexed Crimea and the waters of the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea.

There were also accounts from survivors of the Kyiv attack. Ivan Braga, a 46-year-old truck driver from Moldova, said he and a colleague ran from their vehicle after it was hit 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.” Epicentr, one of Ukraine’s biggest retail and construction chains, said one employee was killed and three were injured after its facilities came under heavy fire. “In minutes, Russian missiles destroyed what the company had built over decades,” it said on Facebook. Russia’s Defence Ministry said the Epicentr logistics centre handled the processing, sorting, storage and delivery of dual-use goods and components for drone production.

The latest wave of attacks left Kyiv and the surrounding region with 17 dead, dozens injured and major damage to businesses and logistics sites, while Ukraine responded with another round of long-range drone strikes inside Russia. Both sides said they were hitting targets linked to the other’s war effort, even as the fighting intensified and calls for stronger air defences in Ukraine continued.

With PTI Inputs

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