Ukraine failed to intercept a single Russian ballistic missile during an overnight attack on Kyiv that killed at least 17 people and wounded 44, marking a sharp deterioration in air-defence capability after earlier strikes killed six in the Kryvyi Rih area.
Russian forces fired 24 ballistic missiles and 115 drones at the capital, targeting civilian infrastructure including a brewery and logistics centre. While Ukrainian forces shot down 98 drones, none of the ballistic missiles were intercepted. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy attributed the interceptor shortage primarily to demand from the war in the Middle East, where Gulf states expended more than 1,100 interceptors in the first three months of the Iran conflict.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, who coordinated with Zelenskyy on rallying allied support, stressed the urgent need to reinforce Ukrainian defences. The United States is pressing ahead with talks to allow Ukraine to manufacture Patriot interceptor components for assembly elsewhere in Europe, while allied missile supplies have fallen to a third of their 2025 level.