At least 13 people have been killed and 40 injured in the latest Russian strikes targeting the Ukrainian capital, Ukraine’s prime minister said, as Kyiv continues to face a shortage of air defence missiles.
Apartment blocks and warehouses were struck across the city overnight, the State Emergency Service of Ukraine said, while a children’s hospital and school were also damaged.
The deaths were the result of a shortage of air defence missiles, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said, which Kyiv relies on western allies to supply.
Speaking to BBC News at a wrecked apartment block in Kyiv, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said Ukraine needed “ammunition, anti-missile systems – we need support from our partners”.
As he was meeting residents whose flats were destroyed in Solomianskyi district, he said “it’s very important to have support from our partners”.
Ukrainian MP Oleksiy Goncharenko told the BBC that Ukraine is “absolutely unprotected” from ballistic missile attacks and “can’t do anything” without interceptors.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, he said: “Russia is using this trying to destroy as much infrastructure as possible.
“For us it’s very painful because we are dying here every day without these interceptors.”
Writing on Telegram, Zelensky said “as long as Ukraine does not have enough anti-ballistics, Russia will not seriously think about peace”.
He added: “The interceptors for the Patriots have not yet been replaced, and they are needed every day. Each additional missile saves the lives of our people.”
An update released by the Ukrainian Air Force on Thursday morning implied that none of the Russian ballistic missiles used overnight were intercepted.
The Russian defence ministry said it used air, land and sea-based weapons to target military facilities and warehouses.
Ukraine has relied on American supplies of Patriot interceptor missiles to combat Russian ballistic missiles, but the US has used much of its stockpile during the war in the Middle East and has been supplying Ukraine with less.
