Russian strikes kill 17 in Kyiv region

Russian missile and drone strikes battered Kyiv and surrounding areas overnight into Wednesday, killing 17 people and wounding 44, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, as he urged allies to move faster to supply air defense systems and interceptor missiles.

Zelenskyy said Russia fired 24 ballistic missiles, four other missiles and 115 drones during the assault. NPR reported that Ukrainian authorities identified the four other missiles as either hypersonic Zircons or supersonic Oniks, while Al Jazeera described them as cruise missiles. Ukraine said many of the drones were jet-powered.

“Ballistic missile interceptors could have saved the lives of those killed today,” Zelenskyy wrote on X. “It is very important that our partners understand that delays in supplying them, or an unwillingness to provide anti-ballistic systems, lead directly to such horrific casualties and destruction.”

Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said cleanup operations were underway after what it called a “massive attack.” Warehouse facilities in Brovary were hit, and a fire broke out at another warehouse in Bucha. Zelenskyy said the main targets were warehouses belonging to civilian businesses, as well as infrastructure and a railway station.

“These facilities had nothing to do with the war – a brewing company, construction materials warehouses, and civilian logistics facilities,” he said.

Russia gave a different account. Its Defense Ministry said it struck transport, logistics and distribution centers involved in military activity and listed four targets in Kyiv that it claimed supported war-related operations. It also said a Nova Poshta sorting center in Kyiv was “storing and distributing dual-use goods,” including items used to make uncrewed aerial vehicles, robotic systems and electronic warfare systems. Nova Poshta, Ukraine’s largest private postal operator, said a Russian cluster munition destroyed one of its sorting centers.

The Russian ministry also said it hit three bulk carriers on the Black Sea south of Odesa that it claimed were transporting weapons and military equipment for Ukraine’s armed forces. Ukrainian officials did not comment on that claim. The competing accounts could not be immediately reconciled.

One of the companies hit was Epicentr, a major Ukrainian retail and construction chain. The company said on Facebook that “in minutes, Russian missiles destroyed what the company had built over decades.” It said one employee was killed and three others were wounded. Russia said the Epicentr logistics center handled dual-use goods and components for drone production.

Serhii Beskrestnov, an adviser to Zelenskyy on defense technology development, said the attacks showed a shift in the war of attrition. “The enemy is attacking everything indiscriminately — retail warehouses, food storage facilities, logistics hubs, enterprises, building materials warehouses,” he wrote on Facebook.

Ivan Braga, a 46-year-old truck driver from Moldova who was in Kyiv during the attack, told The Associated Press that he and a colleague fled their vehicle after it was hit by shrapnel in a blast wave. “We didn’t even have time to grab our documents or anything else,” he said. “I couldn’t believe it. I’d already been in Kyiv and had heard explosions before, but nothing like today.”

Ukraine also struck targets inside Russia on Wednesday. Regional Governor Dmitry Milyaev said Ukrainian drones hit a Wildberries warehouse facility in Aleksin in Russia’s Tula region, and that other local structures, including two apartment buildings, were also struck. Wildberries is Russia’s largest online retailer. Ukraine says the company supplies dual-use goods that can be used by the military. NPR reported that it was the 14th Wildberries warehouse to catch fire in less than three weeks, according to a Ukrainian tally.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said its forces downed 475 Ukrainian drones overnight over 16 Russian regions, as well as annexed Crimea and the waters of the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea. Al Jazeera, citing its correspondent in Moscow, also reported that Ukraine attacked an oil refinery in Ufa in Bashkortostan.

Zelenskyy has pressed allies for more Patriot missile interceptors, the ammunition used in the U.S.-made air defense system capable of shooting down ballistic missiles. Al Jazeera, citing Reuters, reported that U.S. officials are discussing ways to replenish Ukraine’s depleted Patriot stocks, including possible domestic production of some components before final assembly in Germany. Zelenskyy has also urged the G7 and European Union to impose additional sanctions on those involved in manufacturing Russian ballistic missiles.