Russia hits Kyiv again as Ukraine warns of missile interceptor shortages

Russian missiles struck east of Kyiv in the early hours of Saturday, killing at least three people, including a child, local officials said. The attack landed as President Volodymyr Zelensky pressed a warning that Ukraine’s missile interceptor supplies were dwindling, leaving the capital and surrounding region more exposed to the next barrage.

The latest deaths followed a far deadlier assault on Aug. 5, when Russia launched ballistic missiles and drones at Kyiv and surrounding areas. At least 17 people were killed there, and none of the ballistic missiles were intercepted. Zelensky said those interceptors “could have saved lives.” Kyiv and the surrounding region suffered the deadliest strikes it had seen this year, and deaths in Kharkiv and Donetsk pushed the nationwide toll to at least 21.

The pattern had already been set days earlier. On Aug. 1, an overnight Russian barrage killed at least nine people in Kyiv, as ballistic missiles tore into five districts of the capital before dawn. The repeated strikes on the city have exposed a shrinking air-defense shield around one of Ukraine’s most important population centers, even as Russian forces continue to find gaps in the system.

Late July and early August warnings said Ukraine’s stock of interceptor missiles was running perilously low, a shortage that has forced a harsher risk calculation for cities far from the front line. That vulnerability was part of the backdrop to a July 27 discussion between British Prime Minister Andy Burnham and Zelensky on drone projects and missile defense for Kyiv, a sign that allies were still trying to close the gap as the attacks intensified.

The latest strikes show how quickly the threat to civilians rises when interceptors run short. Each missed missile now carries a heavier cost for Kyiv and for communities beyond the capital that had once assumed they were beyond the war’s immediate reach.