KYIV, Ukraine — President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that Ukraine ran out of interceptor missiles for its U.S. Patriot air defense systems as Russia pounded Kyiv and the region in a heavy ballistic missile attack early Saturday, killing 10 people.
Zelenskyy said Russia launched 35 missiles at Ukraine, including 27 ballistic missiles, and also 185 drones. Only one ballistic missile was intercepted, "simply because there are no interceptors for the Patriot system," he said.
More than a dozen explosions reverberated through the city during several waves of attacks, according to Reuters witnesses.
"Every package of ballistic missile interceptors saves the lives of our people. And every night without them results in more casualties," Zelenskyy said on the Telegram app.
U.S. President Donald Trump said at a meeting in Turkey last month that he would give Ukraine a license to manufacture Patriot missile interceptors to help defend against Russian strikes, but he since backed away from that pledge despite hosting Zelenskyy at the White House this past week.
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On Friday, Trump said the United States did not agree to Ukraine building the missiles but talks were ongoing.
With the war in its fifth year, fighting rages along about 750 miles of front line. Russian advances slowed by more than half this year and Ukraine launched strikes inside Russia, hitting its oil facilities, logistics sites and weapons production.
Ukraine was bringing back war to Russia, Zelenskyy said, adding his troops struck the infrastructure of three oil refineries in the Bashkortostan region and other targets that sustained Moscow's war effort.
Two Ukrainian drones hit and sank a civilian vessel owned by Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom sailing in the Black Sea overnight, the company's head, Alexei Likhachev, said in a statement. All 17 crew members survived the attack on the ship, which was transporting goods such as frozen food and construction materials, he added.
"Such an attack can only be described as piracy and maritime robbery," he said.
Writing on social media, Zelenskyy confirmed the strike. "A sanctioned Russian container ship, Yanina, sailing under the Russian flag and with a capacity of more than 100,000 tons, was also struck. Thanks to the precision of our Defense Forces, it was sent to the bottom," he said.
Both Russia and Ukraine stepped up attacks in recent weeks on ships they say are aiding the other side's war effort.
Russia also intensified its attacks on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities. Ukraine relies on U.S.-made Patriot air defense systems, but the Iran war has seen supplies of interceptor missiles previously earmarked for Ukraine diverted to the American military and U.S. allies in the Persian Gulf.
Moscow and Kyiv both deny targeting civilians in the war launched by Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Saturday's was the second major attack on Kyiv in a week after nine people, including six members of one family in a village near Kryvyi Rih, were killed Thursday and a suspected Russian cruise missile landed in Poland.
Damage was recorded in seven districts across Kyiv, a city of about 3 million residents, the Prosecutor's General Office said after Saturday's attacks.
Zelenskyy said fires broke out across Kyiv and 18 residential buildings, a school and the Lithuanian Embassy, and infrastructure facilities were damaged.
Ukrainian prosecutors said seven people were killed in the Darnytskyi district on the left bank of the Dnipro River and two more people died in the Solomyanskyi district on the right bank of the city.
The International Atomic Energy Agency said Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant lost off-site power for the 23rd time since the military conflict began. The cause of the latest off-site power loss, which lasted almost two hours, was not yet known, the IAEA said.
One more person was killed in the Kyiv region, where the attacks damaged several warehouses, regional officials said.
Dozens of people in Kyiv and the region were injured, including four children who suffered multiple shrapnel wounds and lacerations.
"I looked at my phone, it was 1:30 and sirens (blared), I was lying dressed in my bed, I got up immediately. And at once explosions started — boom, boom," said Nadiia Komarova, a 68-year-old concierge at an apartment building in Kyiv.
"Our ceilings have started to crumble. My window here is smashed, and everything has fallen inside," she told Reuters.
Reuters television footage showed police and rescuers working on the site. Two rescuers put a body in a black sack in a car. Firefighters worked to extinguish blazes and charred cars sat near an apartment building.
Mayor Vitali Klitschko said Kyiv was working to build and prepare more shelters as attacks continue to intensify.
Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha issued a fresh plea for urgent air defense supplies. "It is the battle for the skies that will define the trajectory of this war. The stronger the air shield over Ukraine, the closer peace becomes."
