KYIV, Ukraine — Russian missile and drone strikes on Kyiv and the surrounding region killed 17 people and wounded 44 others overnight into Wednesday, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.The attack was the latest in a series of large-scale Russian ballistic missile strikes that have become near-routine this summer.The intensified barrages are exploiting Ukraine's critical shortage of interceptor missiles for the U.S.-made Patriot systems, the sole air defense system in its arsenal able to shoot down ballistic missiles.
Zelenskyy has pleaded with other countries to send more of the ammunition made scarcer by the Iran war."Ballistic interceptors are what could have saved the lives of those killed today," Zelenskyy said on social media."It is very important for our partners to understand that delays in supplying them, or a reluctance to hand over anti-ballistic systems, lead directly to such horrific casualties and destruction."With U.S.-led peace efforts apparently stalled, Ukraine has stepped up its deep strikes on key Russian targets such as oil refineries in an effort to compel Russian President Vladimir Putin to negotiate.
Zelenskyy has accepted an unconditional ceasefire demanded by U.S.President Donald Trump but Putin has refused.In its latest attack on logistics facilities of Wildberries, Russia's biggest online retailer, Ukrainian drones hit a warehouse in the Tula region south of Moscow, the company and the region's governor said Wednesday.It was the 14th Wildberries warehouse to catch fire in less than three weeks, according to a Ukrainian tally.
Ukraine says the company provides goods that can be used by the military.Kyiv is also keen to unsettle the Russian public with high-profile attacks.The Russian Defense Ministry said its forces downed 475 Ukrainian drones overnight over 16 Russian regions, as well as illegally annexed Crimea and the waters of the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea.Russia fired 24 ballistic missiles, four other missiles ident...