Zelensky says lack of US Patriot missiles left Kyiv wide open to Russian blitz | News World

⁠Russia ⁠pounded Kyiv with ballistic missiles this morning, killing not less than nine people and wounding 28 others, including 4 children.

The Ukrainian Air Force raised the alarm over the missiles at around 1.30am local time.

Kyiv military officials asked civilians to duck into their nearest shelter only a minute later, with Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko reporting ‘explosions’.

Images posted by photographer Yan Dobronosov show wounded people lying on the streets, with cars gutted by the explosions and fires.

‘Some residents of Kyiv didn’t even have time to succeed in the shelter,’ Dobronosov said.

One in all the blasts caused a fireplace in a six-story constructing within the Solomyanskyi district, Volodymyr Zelensky said on the social media network X.

‘There have been many fires in town – seven districts were affected. And, as usual, the Russians hit atypical residential buildings,’ he added.

‘Eighteen houses, a faculty, the Lithuanian embassy and infrastructure facilities were damaged.’

Two people died within the Solomianskyi blaze that also injured eight, including two children.

People were also trapped in a burning constructing in Shevchenko and debris flattened non-residential buildings in Holosiivske and Darnytske.

Some five years since Russia’s war against Ukraine began, Zelensky warned the country’s air defence system is dwindling.

And Moscow knows this, the president added, with Russia launching dozens of aerial assaults this summer.

Zelensky said that because the country has only a number of Patriot interceptors – the one kind that may cope with Kremlin-built missiles – it’s ‘encouraging Russia to launch attacks that take human lives’.

‘It’s critical that partners hear that these capabilities are needed not somewhere in stockpiles for hypothetical scenarios, but here and now, to contain and stop the Russian war in Ukraine.’

‘Every package of ballistic missile interceptors saves the lives of our people. And each night without them ends in more casualties. I thank everyone who’s working to strengthen our defences.’

That is the second major attack on Kyiv this week after missiles killed nine people, including six members of 1 family, on ​Thursday.

Throughout the attack, a Russian cruise missile also entered the airspace of Nato member Poland.

Polish officials described it as an ‘unidentified object’ that caused a 9-metre-wide crater in a field within the country’s southeast.

Only the US could make Patriot interceptor missiles, so Ukraine has asked Washington to grant it a licence to make its own.

US President Donald Trump, who vowed to finish the Russia-Ukraine war ‘on day one’ of his re-election, said talks for this are still ‘ongoing’ on Friday.

Washington, he cautioned, needed to be ‘very careful about letting anyone construct them’.

He added: ‘ We’re talking about it, however it’s a tough thing to provide away that form of technology. And I don’t think this is able to ever occur, but, you realize, there’s folks that you give that technology, they’ll someday activate you.’

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