KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia attacked Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities with ballistic missiles, drones and guided bombs Sunday, killing at least six people and wounding dozens, authorities said, again highlighting Ukraine’s shortage of U.S.-made Patriot air defense systems.
Moscow has in recent weeks stepped up its use of ballistic missiles as it seeks to choke off Ukrainian strikes on oil facilities deep inside Russia that have caused critical fuel shortages affecting both the military and the civilian population.
U.S. President Donald Trump has said he is prepared to grant Ukraine licenses to produce Patriots, the most effective means of intercepting Russian ballistic missiles, potentially bolstering Kyiv’s defenses. However, the details and timeline remain unclear, and full production could take years.
The latest attack on Kyiv began at around 1:30 a.m. and continued for several hours, with explosions echoing across the city.
Russia launched 41 missiles and 125 drones across Ukraine overnight, according to the Ukrainian air force. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said most of the missiles had targeted the capital.
Later Sunday, a Russian attack on a postal facility near Ukraine’s second-largest city of Kharkiv killed three people and wounded at least 20, according to the regional administration.
Russian guided bombs also hit the cities of Kherson and Sumy, local authorities and Ukraine’s emergency service reported, with each of the strikes leaving at least one person dead.
Ballistic missile strikes are becoming more frequent
The strikes on Kyiv sparked fires in five districts, damaging residential buildings, office and industrial sites, a dormitory and vehicles, according to Ukraine’s State Emergency Service.
Viktoria Shejko, 32, was taking shelter in the corridor of her apartment block with her seven children and husband when they heard the loud explosions.
“When the alarm started, we checked that there were ballistics, then went into the corridor. Then it started exploding one missile after another,” she said.
The strain of constant bombardment is “very difficult psychologically,” she said. “It used to be once a week or even more rarely, but now if not every day, then every other day.”
Rescuers pulled four people from a burning home in the Sviatoshynskyi district, while in the Shevchenkivskyi district, they rushed to save residents from a three-story building on fire. One person was found dead. Firefighters also responded to blazes in the Solomyanskyi, Desnianskyi and Dnipro districts.
Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed the attack on Kyiv targeted sites linked to the Ukrainian military — including plants producing Flamingo drones and parts for Neptune guided missiles, as well as a postal terminal used for storing dual-use goods and assembling drones, robotic systems and electronic warfare equipment.
Oil tankers hit at key terminal off Russia’s coast
Separately, a strike on two oil tankers at the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) terminal off Russia’s Black Sea halted oil loadings at the site, the CPC said Sunday.
The attack on the ASIA and NISSOS tankers in the port of Novorossiysk sparked a fire aboard the ASIA, which was extinguished. The company did not say who was responsible for the attack. It added there were no casualties or oil spills, and the tankers — sailing under the flags of Liberia and the Marshall respectively — remained afloat.
Both Russia and Ukraine have sharply ramped up strikes on ships in the Black and Azov seas over the past week. Ukraine’s strikes on oil tankers there are part of its efforts to cut fuel supplies to the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014. Kyiv also says it targets Russia’s so-called shadow fleet, which ships oil in violation of international sanctions over the Kremlin’s invasion of its neighbor.
Kyiv has for months been targeting Russia’s oil industry, which it says both directly fuels Moscow’s war effort and funds it through export revenues, triggering acute fuel shortages in a country that is one of the world’s top oil producers.
The CPC is a 940-mile (1,510-kilometer) oil pipeline connecting Kazakhstan’s Caspian Sea oil deposits with Novorossiysk, where the oil is loaded and shipped by tanker to world markets. The pipeline accounts for about 80% of oil-rich Kazakhstan’s crude exports, with the Russian government and Russian state oil firms holding a combined 31% stake in the enterprise.
Russia’s energy sector under attack
Zelenskyy announced on Sunday that Ukrainian units struck more energy infrastructure in Russian territory.
He said units of Ukraine’s Security Service agency struck three oil depots in the Stavropol region, while a separate unit of the army hit another fuel-related facility in the same region. Three Russian tankers were also struck in the Black Sea, he said.
Stavropol Gov. Vladimir Vladimirov earlier referenced Ukrainian drone attacks igniting fires at “industrial facilities” in two locations within the region. He did not specify what the facilities were, but said nobody was hurt.
Russian news outlet Astra on Sunday reported that three oil depots may be burning in Stavropol, based on its analysis of photos and videos sent in by locals after the attack.
Russian air defense systems shot down 140 Ukrainian drones over eight Russian regions, annexed Crimea, and the Black and Azov seas overnight into Sunday, Russia’s Defense Ministry reported. It did not say how many were launched or reached their targets.
In Russia’s Kursk region near the Ukrainian border, Ukrainian drones struck four apartment buildings, setting off a fire and injuring one person, according to local Gov. Alexander Khinshtein.
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