Russian missile barrage on Kyiv kills 17 as Zelensky says interceptors could have saved lives

Hind Al Soulia - Riyadh - KYIV — Russian strikes killed at least 17 people and wounded dozens more in Kyiv and the surrounding region overnight, authorities said on Wednesday.

In one of the deadliest strikes across Kyiv this year, which started after midnight on Wednesday, at least 44 people were injured after residential buildings, a railway station and warehouses were hit, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said.

Russia has significantly upped its attacks on the Ukrainian capital in recent months, typically firing salvos of hard-to-intercept ballistic missiles in short blitzes that rock buildings and send booms echoing across the city.

“Ballistic interceptors are what could have saved the lives of those killed today,” Zelensky said, announcing the deaths.

Ukraine, who has consistently urged allies for more US-made Patriot missile interceptors to defend against Russian ballistics, has not reported intercepting any of the missiles in the overnight attack.

Zelensky added delays in receiving anti-ballistic systems from partners leads to "horrific casualties and destruction".

A cloud of smoke hovered over the capital at sunrise after the attacks sparked fires in several locations in the region, the AFP news agency reported.

Over 40 people were wounded in the capital and its surrounding areas, local authorities said.

Explosions were heard in Kyiv after midnight (2100 GMT Tuesday), following Ukrainian air force warnings of incoming ballistic missiles.

One journalist reported seeing dark smoke and the acrid smell of burning lingering in the air hours later.

Ukraine shot down 98 of the 115 drones fired by Russia overnight, the air force said. But it was unable to shoot down any of the missiles, preliminary statistics from the air force showed.

Ukraine has the capability to intercept the vast majority of drones, but still relies on supplies from allies to counter missiles.

Zelensky has warned that Ukraine faces critical shortages of air defenses needed to counter missile attacks, particularly Russia’s increasing use of ballistic missiles.

The Russian attacks overnight mainly targeted warehouses, Kyiv said, with some strikes on infrastructure and a railway station.

Eight people were killed in a strike on a train station on the eastern edge of Kyiv, a local official said.

Logistics centers of the general merchandise chain Epicentr were struck, burning one hub completely to the ground and killing an employee, the company said.

Three people working at a postal sorting center were also killed.

Moscow said it hit “transportation, logistics, and distribution centers in the city of Kyiv and the Kyiv region that were involved in the storage, delivering various weapons and military cargo, as well as in the production and distribution of unmanned aerial vehicles.”

Facilities of Russian online retailer Wildberries have been hit around a dozen times by Ukrainian forces since mid-July, killing at least eight people and have knocked out a large chunk of the company’s storage capacity.

Kyiv accuses the e-commerce giant, which employs tens of thousands of people, of storing drone parts for the Russian army.

The day before, Russian officials said seven people were killed and 58 injured after a drone hit a busy beach in the southern Krasnodar region.

Ukraine, meanwhile, expressed outrage over a video showing a man chased by a drone in Kherson, calling it a deliberate "hunt" and "safari" targeting civilians.

Both sides have denied deliberately targeting civilians.