At least nine civilians were killed and 33 others injured in Russia’s heavy overnight attack on the capital of Ukraine, Kyiv, which included firing ballistic missiles and drones.

The attacks came two days after a large Russian attack which claimed the lives of at least 10 people in Ukraine. There is no doubt Moscow is trying to take advantage of the lack of Western-supplied anti-ballistic missile defenses in Kyiv to overwhelm the country.

A five-floor residential building in Solomianskyi District hit by falling debris, which set off a serious fire, has been reported by the state emergency service of Ukraine. Thirty-five people were evacuated from the upper floors, but two people died, and eight others were injured, including two children.

The damage was even more devastating in the Darnytskyi District, where seven people were killed and 14 injured when fires engulfed houses, vehicles and commercial buildings. Moreover, Lithuania’s ambassador to Ukraine said that the Lithuanian embassy in Ukraine was damaged by the impact of nearby missiles.

Psychologically and physically, residents are suffering. Liudmyla Nakonechna, 64, who is recovering from cancer, told us of a night in which the doors and windows of her home were blown off by explosions. The attacks, once weekly or biweekly, now occur almost daily, and are “very difficult to endure,” she said.

Urgent Pleas for Air Defense and Retaliatory Strikes

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has asked Western allies in urgent need of acquiring more Patriot missile defense systems after the attacks. The deaths of civilians are directly being saved by every package of ballistic missile interceptors, and each night without them means yet more loss of life, he said.

Zelenskyy has recently talked about the issue with U.S. Vice President JD Vance, who met with President Donald Trump in Washington that had a positive outcome. Trump had previously indicated in a recent NATO summit that the U.S. would give Ukraine permission to produce Patriot systems, but that got moderated at a Cabinet meeting at Camp David, when he said he hadn’t made any final decision.

The fighting, however, raged on numerous fronts. A Russian aircraft shot down one person and injured five others in southern Ukraine in Kherson. At the same time, the Russian authorities in the annexed Crimea claimed that a Ukrainian drone struck a building in Sevastopol yesterday, killing a 60-year-old woman and injuring two others.

Ukraine has also continued with its aggressive long-range attacks on Russian infrastructure. Zelenskyy also reported that Ukrainian drones struck three oil refineries in the Russian republic of Bashkortostan, which is almost 1,000 miles from the border. The facilities are all aimed at handling millions of tons of oil every year and are part of an escalating fuel crisis that has left the Russian leadership embarrassed.

Ukrainian drones in the Black Sea have downed a sanctioned Russian container ship, called Yanina. Zelenskyy said it was a ship that was part of the Russian war effort, but the state nuclear agency Rosatom, which has a subsidiary operating the ship, said it was transporting civilian goods, such as frozen food and construction materials.