Russian missiles pounded the Ukrainian capital Kyiv and its surrounding region on Wednesday, killing at least 17 people, as Ukrainian officials reported that not a single ballistic missile was intercepted due to Ukraine’s lack of advanced air defense munitions.
According to Reuters, Ukraine’s Air Force said that it was able to intercept 90% of the 115 Russian drones launched into Ukraine but that all 24 ballistic missiles and four Zircon cruise missiles were able to get through.
Targets hit inside Ukraine included warehouses and logistics centers belonging to Ukrainian retailers, strikes that came after weeks of Ukrainian drone attacks targeting Wildberries, Russia’s online retailer. Silpo, a Ukrainian food retailer, said that six of its employees were killed and two of its distribution centers were set on fire by Russian attacks.
For its part, the Russian Defense Ministry claimed that its forces targeted “transport, logistics and distribution centers” involved in the “storing and delivering armaments and military cargo, producing and distributing unmanned aerial vehicles.”
Local Ukrainian officials said that at least eight civilians were also killed by a strike that hit a commuter station in Brovary, a suburb of Kyiv, and photos show bodies scattered across the train platform.
Ukrainian drone attacks also continued in Russia and Russian-controlled parts of Ukraine, with the Russian Defense Ministry reporting that its forces downed 425 drones over multiple Russian regions and the Black and Azov Seas. In Donestk, a Ukrainian drone attack was reported to hit a hospital, killing one person.
Two days earlier, a Ukrainian drone crashed into a crowded beach in a Russian Black Sea resort town, killing seven civilians, including three children. In recent months, civilian casualties have spiked significantly on both sides as Ukraine has escalated its US-backed drone attacks and Russia has ramped up its missile bombardments.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday blamed his military’s inability to intercept Russian missiles on the decline in military aid from the US and other Western countries, saying that it’s “very important that our partners understand that delays in supplying them, or an unwillingness to provide anti-ballistic systems, lead directly to such horrific casualties and destruction.”
Russia’s heavy strikes are also the result of Ukraine’s long-range drone attacks inside Russia, which Zelensky often boasts about in posts on social media. Despite Ukraine’s success at striking oil infrastructure and warehouses inside Russia, the attacks haven’t changed the situation on the frontlines, where Russian forces still have the momentum and continue to slowly advance.
