KYIV, July 6: Russia unleashed waves of missiles and drones at Ukraine early Monday, killing at least 21 people in attacks that exposed widening gaps in country’s air defences more than four years into Moscow’s full-scale invasion, authorities said.
All of the ballistic missiles launched by Russia struck their targets, underscoring Kyiv’s need for more US-made Patriot interceptor missiles — a point Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will likely reiterate at a NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, this week.
Fifteen people were killed in the capital of Kyiv, which was Russia’s main target, and 56 were injured, according to administrative head Tymur Tkachenko. Another six people were killed in the wider Kyiv region and 21 were inured, according to Mykola Kalashnyk, the head of the regional administration, and other emergency officials.
Moscow has stepped up strikes on Kyiv in retaliation for Ukraine’s recent long-range strikes, according to the Russian Defence Ministry.
Those attacks have caused severe fuel shortages and put pressure on President Vladimir Putin.
On Thursday, a Russian strike killed 31 people in Kyiv, the deadliest attack in the capital this year.
Ukraine’s advances in drone technology have given it an edge in recent months, analysts and Western officials say, striking supply routes behind the front line, stripping the Russian army of momentum on the battlefield and slowing its advance.
But Russia is now exploiting a different kind of momentum: vulnerabilities in Ukraine’s air defences, which remain heavily reliant on the Patriot missile systems to intercept ballistic missiles it can rarely shoot down.
The war in the Middle East has strained the global supply of Patriot interceptors — a shortage now felt keenly in Ukraine.
Ukraine’s Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said Russia is deliberately ramping up ballistic missile attacks on a scale unseen before, exploiting the acute shortage of Patriot interceptors.
Russia’s Defence Ministry said the attack targeted weapons factories in Kyiv, including sites it said produce drones, armoured vehicles and missiles, as well as facilities repairing air defence systems and fuel and energy infrastructure. (AP)
