KYIV, Ukraine (AP) – Russia attacked Kyiv overnight with ballistic missiles and other weapons, killing one and wounding 16 people, local authorities said, again highlighting Ukraine´s shortage of U.S.-made Patriot air defense systems.
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 against similar Russian strikes. However, the details and timeline for implementing the decision remain unclear.
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.
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.
Rescuers pulled four people from a burning home in the Sviatoshynskyi district, while in the Shevchenkivskyi district, they saved 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.
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 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 remained afloat.
Both Russia and Ukraine have sharply ramped up strikes on ships in the Black and Azov seas over the past week.
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 km) oil pipeline connecting Kazakhstan’s Caspian Sea oil deposits with Russia’s Black Sea port of 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.
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