Russian strikes kill 17 in Ukraine, Zelenskiy says lack of Patriots costing lives

By Daniel Flynn and Anna Pruchnicka

KYIV, Aug 20 (Reuters) – Russian airstrikes killed 17 people and injured more than 40 in Kyiv and the surrounding region on Thursday as President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said a failure by Ukraine’s allies to replenish its stock of air defence missiles was costing lives.  

Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched dozens of cruise missiles, as well as ballistic and hypersonic ones, and 168 drones, in a massive overnight attack.

The air force said that nearly 90% of the drones and most of the cruise missiles were downed. It did not specify whether any of the more deadly ballistic missiles were intercepted – having said last week that providing such information was giving Russia cause to celebrate.

Zelenskiy called Thursday’s strike one of the most “cynical, calculated, and large-scale” of the 4-1/2-year war.

The upper floors of a nine-storey residential block were destroyed in Kyiv’s Solomianskyi district, where at least eight people were killed, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said. He declared Friday a day of mourning.

WORLD’S RESPONSE ‘NOT ADEQUATE’, SAYS ZELENSKIY

Outside the damaged apartment block, an elderly woman wailed as rescuers carried out the body of her grandson. She stood sobbing beside his body after he was placed on the ground, before medics came to support her.

Overall, 30 residential buildings, a school, a children’s hospital and a kindergarten were among those damaged in Kyiv and the surrounding areas, Zelenskiy said.

Russia’s defence ministry said that Moscow had used airstrikes and drones to hit targets in and around Kyiv, including facilities producing drone components, a military depot and a logistics hub.

As Russia has escalated its ballistic strikes in recent months, Zelenskiy has pleaded with allies to replenish Ukraine’s stock of Patriot interceptors – the only weapon in its arsenal capable of downing a ballistic missile.

“Each additional missile saves the lives of our people,” Zelenskiy said on the Telegram app, adding that replacement missiles had not been received. “Unfortunately … the world’s response to such attacks is not always adequate.”

FOOD WAREHOUSES DAMAGED

Zelenskiy warned that Moscow would not seriously negotiate for peace as long as Ukraine had no missile defences to defend its cities. U.S.-mediated talks to end the war stalled earlier this year as Kyiv refused to yield to Russian demands to cede more territory.

EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on X, in response to Zelenskiy’s message, that she was working with member states and partners to provide Ukraine with anti-ballistic capabilities as “the most urgent of priorities”. 

Ukrainian Prime Minister Sergii Koretskyi said that some food warehouses and the facilities of the Red Cross around Kyiv were damaged in the overnight attack, which lasted nearly nine hours.

In recent weeks, fresh fruit and vegetables have occasionally disappeared from the shelves in some supermarkets in Kyiv as a result of strikes on logistics depots of food retailers.

DRONES COME DOWN IN ROMANIA AND MOLDOVA

Sporadic attacks continued into Thursday evening. For the first time in months, Russia targeted critical infrastructure in the capital, Klitschko said.

As a result, residents in two districts of Kyiv could see their hot water disrupted, he said – a grim reminder of winter bombardments that left many residents without heat and power for days at a time.      

While most of the dead were in the Ukrainian capital, one person was also killed in the surrounding region, an official said on Telegram. 

The Russian strikes also targeted a border crossing with Moldova in the Black Sea region of Odesa, where repeated attacks on ports and ships have brought Ukraine’s vital agricultural exports to a virtual halt, pressuring global food prices. 

Ukraine has also increased its attacks on Russia, targeting oil facilities and logistics infrastructure to try to undermine Moscow’s ability to wage war. 

Ukraine’s military said on Thursday it struck the TANECO oil refinery in Tatarstan and an oil terminal in Krasnodar region. 

A drone crashed into Romania, a NATO and European Union member state, during the Russian attack on Ukraine, the Romanian defence ministry said. Another drone came down on Moldovan territory, President Maia Sandu said.

Ukraine has handed peace proposals to U.S. negotiators, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, for a plan to end the war, Zelenskiy said this month.

The Kremlin said on Thursday there was no information yet on a possible visit to Moscow by Kushner and Witkoff, who were last in the Russian capital in January and have not yet visited Kyiv. No date has yet been confirmed for a proposed visit to Ukraine, according to one source familiar with the discussions. 

(Reporting by Daniel Flynn in Kyiv, Anna Pruchnicka in Gdansk, and Jekaterīna Golubkova in Tokyo; Editing by Clarence Fernandez, Alison Williams and Gareth Jones)