Hours after U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew his pledge to allow Ukraine to build Patriot interceptors, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy renewed his appeal for Western air defenses following a deadly overnight attack by Russia.
The attack was Russia’s second major air raid in two days, and the Kremlin appears to be seeking to expose deficiencies in Kiev’s critical defense systems as it struggles to advance along its vast front.
Mayor Vitali Klitschko said at least nine people, including four children, were killed and 30 injured in the latest attack on Ukraine, which targeted the capital Kiev and surrounding areas.
Of the 27 ballistic missiles launched by Russia, only one was shot down.
Ukraine’s president has often appealed to Western countries to provide much-needed air defense systems to protect Ukraine’s cities and critical infrastructure from air attack. The country faces a shortage of U.S.-made interceptors for the Patriot, the only defense system capable of shooting down certain advanced ballistic missiles.
But the situation has become even more desperate in recent weeks, with large-scale Russian attacks claiming civilian lives. Earlier this week, Ukrainian authorities announced that at least six family members, including four children, were killed when a ballistic missile hit a house in Radushne, a rural village in the Dnipropetrovsk region.
After Saturday night’s airstrike, President Zelenskiy wrote on Telegram: “There is a shortage of missiles for the Patriot system. And it is precisely the shortage of anti-ballistic missiles that only encourages Russia to carry out such deadly attacks.”
On Friday, President Trump said he was hesitant to allow Ukraine to build its own Patriot anti-missile missile. The idea was first announced by President Trump during the NATO summit in Turkey last month.
“We’re talking about it, but it’s difficult to transfer that kind of technology,” Trump told a Cabinet meeting at Camp David. “We have to be very careful.” He expressed particular concern about the risk that Ukraine could someday use Patriot interceptor missiles against the United States, although he acknowledged that was unlikely.
The deliberations mark a turnaround from earlier this month, when President Trump hinted at a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit that he would help Ukraine fight Russia by allowing it to build the Patriot System.
The Patriots needed the here and now.
CNN teams on the ground heard at least three waves of explosions in the capital overnight.
“People are trapped in a five-story house due to fragments of a rocket that fell in the Solomyanske district,” Klitschko wrote on Telegram. He said the fire broke out in the courtyard of a residential building and emergency services were on the way to the scene.
Police officers were among those killed in the Kiev strike. Police said Yehor Terekhin, 22, and his patrol partner were helping people at the scene of the shelling when a second attack occurred in the same area. Terekhin was mortally wounded.
“He gave his most precious thing – his life, while saving others,” the Kyiv Police Department said in a statement. “He’ll be 22 forever.”
Zelenskiy said Kiev bore the brunt of Russian military attacks, while the regions of Dnipropetrovsk, Sumy, Kharkiv and Poltava were also targeted.
“18 buildings, schools, the Lithuanian embassy and infrastructure were damaged,” he added.
Russia’s powerful ballistic missiles move at extremely high speeds, making it extremely difficult for Ukraine to intercept them. Some of the most advanced missiles can only be shot down using the U.S.-made Patriot Defense System.
“It’s important that our partners understand that these systems don’t need to sit in a warehouse for some hypothetical scenario, they are needed here and now,” Zelenskiy said Saturday.
“Every anti-ballistic missile package saves lives, and when it falls short there are casualties every night.”
At least 14 civilians were killed and 87 injured across Ukraine in the past 24 hours, according to data from local authorities.
Meanwhile, Russia intercepted and destroyed 274 Ukrainian drones targeting its territory, including the Moscow region, overnight, according to the Russian Ministry of Defense.
