The biggest threats to Ukrainian cities can strike with little or no warning.
Over the past few months, Ukraine has put Russia at a disadvantage with strikes that have hit Russia’s oil refining capacity, caused long lines at fuel stations and set fire to commercial distribution centers. But Russia took advantage of Ukraine’s key vulnerability – a lack of anti-ballistic missiles – and launched deadly high-velocity missile attacks on Ukrainian cities, combined with other long-range attacks, killing hundreds of civilians.
On one night last week alone, more than 20 ballistic and anti-ship missiles hit Ukraine’s capital region. All of the missiles passed through Ukraine’s defenses, killing at least 17 people and injuring dozens more.
Russia’s massive airstrikes on Ukraine are complicated. In attacks focused on the Kiev and Lviv regions on the night of June 30, Russia fired four anti-ship missiles, nine ballistic missiles, 61 cruise missiles and nearly 300 unmanned attack aircraft at targets across the country, according to the Ukrainian Air Force.
But the threat Ukrainian leaders are most concerned about appears to be Russian ballistic missiles. Russia’s ballistic missile broadside attack on Ukraine comes as Kiev is desperately trying to replenish its supply of U.S.-made Patriot air defense missile interceptors, one of the few weapons capable of shooting down ballistic missiles.
Ballistic missiles are not new to warfare. Nazi Germany debuted the V-2 rocket during World War II, and dueling V-2 descendants, the Scud missiles, wreaked havoc on civilians during “urban warfare” during the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s. However, the technology for defeating ballistic missiles has advanced significantly since the Cold War. Patriot’s PAC-3 interceptor fires directly at its target, destroying it with pure kinetic energy rather than an explosive warhead. In other words, the warhead hits the bullet.
In a statement last week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called for more interceptor missiles.
“An anti-ballistic missile could have saved the lives of those who died today,” he said. “It is very important that partners understand that delays in the supply of ballistic missiles, or reluctance to provide anti-ballistic missile systems, lead directly to such catastrophic casualties and destruction. Partners who are not yet ready to take a more active role in the supply of anti-ballistic missiles can assist by introducing new sanctions. A significant portion of Russia’s ballistic missile production is not yet under sanctions.”
President Zelenskiy told CNN on Wednesday that Ukraine has 2.5 times fewer interceptors than in 2025, while Russia has twice as many ballistic missiles, adding that he spends his days making “millions” of calls on opaque deals with allies demanding more.
Threats to Ukrainian cities can be summarized into three broad categories: ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and drones. These are usually all launched from within Russian territory or from occupied territories in Ukraine. Closer to the front lines, the Russians are using small attack drones to terrorize civilian areas of Ukraine, targeting gas stations and vehicles. Earlier this month, a food vendor in the southern Kherson region narrowly escaped death after being attacked by an FPV drone, commonly referred to as a “drone safari.”
Ukraine has already demonstrated its excellence and ingenuity in countering Russian drones. This device is relatively inexpensive and plentiful. Russia is mass producing the Gueran-2, a version of the Iranian-designed Shahed drone, and has introduced upgrades including jet engines and decoy drones to increase the effectiveness of drone strikes. But Ukraine has a layered defense against relatively slow-flying drones, and its anti-drone expertise is in demand after the war between the United States and Iran.
Cruise missiles typically carry much larger payloads than drones. It is propelled by a jet engine and can usually fly close to the ground to avoid detection. The Missile Defense Defense Alliance says that Kalibr, a sea-launched cruise missile deployed by Russian surface ships and submarines, can cruise approximately 20 meters above sea level and 50 meters above ground.
In contrast, ballistic missiles vary widely in speed and trajectory. Accelerated by a rocket engine, the missile descends toward its target in a high arc. The range varies, but the speed is extremely fast. Russia’s Iskander short-range ballistic missile flies at six to seven times the speed of sound and can carry up to 700 kilograms of explosives. Long-range intercontinental ballistic missiles, originally designed to blast nuclear warheads out of the atmosphere before re-entry, can fly from a launch site in the United States across the Arctic Circle to a Russian target in less than 30 minutes, the time it takes to deliver a pizza. The recent attack on Kiev caused an air raid siren to sound simultaneously with the impact.
Russia has launched several Oleshnik missiles, an intermediate-range hypersonic weapon, in attacks on Ukraine that are seen as an indication of Kremlin’s willingness to escalate. However, short-range systems such as the Iskander ballistic missile have become the mainstay of the Russian military. Ukrainian officials said Russia is also reusing S-400 air defense missiles as ballistic missiles to attack targets in Ukraine.
Kiev, facing a shortage of interceptor missiles and worsening attacks on the city, is pressuring the United States to co-develop the Patriot system. On the sidelines of a NATO summit in Ankara last month, US President Donald Trump hinted that he might be open to licensing a co-produced movie with Ukraine called “The Patriot,” but Trump later appeared to dash Ukraine’s hopes, saying, “We’re talking about it, but it’s difficult to provide that kind of technology.”
Meanwhile, Ukrainian officials say Russia is increasing North Korea’s ballistic missile arsenal, further increasing the threat.
Ukrainian Presidential Sanctions Envoy Vladislav Vlasyuk said that Ukraine has identified North Korea’s KN-23 missile, which is the equivalent of Russia’s Iskander. The missile recently destroyed a house in Radushne, Dnipropetrovsk region, killing six people, including three children, and five more children are missing after the attack.
He said the KN-23 is “virtually identical to the Russian Iskander. The parts are the same, including those made in the West. This is an example of Russia’s dependence on military aid from North Korea. North Korean missiles are killing Ukrainian civilians just as much as Russian missiles.”
And a war between the United States and Iran could further widen Ukraine’s missile defense gap. As CNN reported last week, the U.S. military has burned through nearly four-fifths of another missile defense system, the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense System, according to multiple sources. Inventories of Patriot interceptors have been reduced by about half since the war began, according to two sources familiar with the latest inventory reports.
“Ballistic missile defense remains a difficult problem,” military analyst Dara Mashikot said in a post on X after a recent research visit to Ukraine. “The problems with the Patriot interceptor are known. Ukraine knows what it has to do and, in my opinion, now is the time to consider Plan B and Plan C on how to undermine Russia’s launch potential.”
And while Kiev considers Plans B and C, the clock is ticking in Ukrainian cities as Russia continues to ramp up its missile operations.
CNN’s Svitlana Vlasova contributed to this report.
