Ukraine warns of interceptor missile shortage as 22 killed in Kyiv region
Ukraine’s Air Force says a critical shortage of interceptor missiles prevented it from shooting down any of the 23 ballistic missiles launched by Russia during a major overnight attack on Kyiv on Sunday.
Ukrainian officials said at least 15 people were killed in the capital, while another seven died elsewhere in the Kyiv region, making it the second large-scale Russian assault on the city within a week.
President Volodymyr Zelensky has urged Ukraine’s allies to make decisive commitments at this week’s NATO summit by supplying additional air defence systems, particularly Patriot interceptor missiles.
In a statement following the attack, Zelensky said Ukrainian forces successfully intercepted cruise missiles and attack drones but lacked the capability to stop the ballistic missiles.
According to the president, Russia launched a total of 68 missiles and 351 attack drones during what he described as a massive assault. Ukraine’s Air Force said it intercepted or neutralised 37 missiles and 326 drones.
Zelensky warned that Russia would continue targeting residential areas as long as Patriot missile systems remained in the stockpiles of Ukraine’s international partners rather than being deployed to protect Ukrainian cities.
The overnight bombardment caused widespread destruction across Kyiv. Several apartment buildings suffered extensive damage, with three residential blocks partially collapsing after being struck.
Emergency crews worked throughout Monday to extinguish fires, while helicopters transported water from nearby rivers to support firefighting efforts.
Ukraine’s State Emergency Service reported that 56 people, including seven children, were injured in Kyiv. A further 29 people, among them four emergency responders, were injured elsewhere in the region.
Rescue teams continued searching for survivors in the rubble of damaged apartment buildings, using sniffer dogs and heavy machinery to locate those trapped beneath collapsed concrete.
Residents described scenes of devastation as they surveyed the destruction of their homes. Some waited to register their losses with authorities, while others searched for missing relatives buried beneath the debris.
One resident, Olena, recalled that shattered glass narrowly missed her after a nearby explosion. She admitted she had ignored air raid sirens because she was exhausted after years of living through the war.
Questioning Ukraine’s inability to intercept the ballistic missiles, she asked why more support had not arrived from the country’s international partners.
The latest strikes came just hours after Zelensky warned that Russia was preparing another large-scale attack following a previous assault on Thursday that killed 30 people.
Ukraine has accused Russia of deliberately targeting civilian areas, while Moscow insists its attacks are aimed at military and energy infrastructure in response to Ukrainian strikes inside Russian territory.
Meanwhile, Ukraine has continued its long-range drone campaign against Russian energy facilities. Ukrainian officials said their forces struck three oil refineries, including Russia’s largest refinery in Omsk, more than 2,400 kilometres from Ukraine.
Russia’s Ministry of Defence claimed Ukraine launched 625 long-range drones overnight, adding that its air defence systems destroyed 613 of them.
Zelensky is expected to meet U.S. President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the NATO summit, which opens in Ankara, Turkey, on Tuesday.
Ahead of the meeting, the Ukrainian leader stressed that the United States and European allies must agree on stronger measures to bolster Ukraine’s air defences, arguing that they have the capacity to help protect civilians from continued Russian missile attacks.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also said Ukraine’s urgent need for additional air defence systems would be a key topic of discussion at the summit.
Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and currently occupies about one-fifth of Ukrainian territory.
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