Russian missile attacks kill at least nine in Ukraine's Kyiv

Russian missile attacks kill at least nine in Ukraine's Kyiv

Russia has pounded Kyiv in a heavy ballistic missile and drone attack, killing nine people and wounding 33 others, as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warns that Ukraine has run out of interceptor missiles for its US Patriot air defence systems.

More than a dozen explosions reverberated through the capital city during several waves of attacks, according to Reuters news agency witnesses.

Fires broke out across Kyiv and power outages were reported in some areas. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said a residential building in Shevchenkivskyi district was partially destroyed, trapping people inside.

The heaviest casualties were reported in two districts. In Solomianskyi, falling debris damaged a five-storey residential building and sparked a fire, and 35 people were evacuated from the upper floors, two died and eight were injured, including two children. In Darnytskyi, seven people were killed and 14 injured as the attack caused fires and damaged homes, vehicles and an administrative building.

Lithuania's embassy in Kyiv was also damaged on Saturday after two missiles landed nearby during a Russian attack, the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry said.

On Saturday, Russian forces also took control of two more villages across two Ukrainian regions -- Olgivka in the northern Kharkiv and Lyubytske in the southeastern Zaporizhia -- the Interfax news agency reported, citing the Defence Ministry.

Hitting back, Ukraine struck three Russian oil refineries' infrastructure in the Bashkortostan region, nearly 1,600km (990 miles) from the border, Zelenskyy said on Saturday, adding that the Ukrainian troops sank a sanctioned Russian container ship, Yanina, and hit other targets in the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov.

"Our targets are consistently defined facilities that sustain the war effort," Zelenskyy said.

Zelenskyy has pressed allies for more support, and has been negotiating with the United States for a licence to manufacture Patriot interceptor missiles.

On Friday, US President Donald Trump said that talks were ongoing, but that Washington had not yet agreed to the proposal, and had to be "very careful about letting somebody build them", despite initially saying earlier this month that he had agreed to give the Ukrainians a licence.

"You have to be very judicious, but you have to be very careful," Trump said on Friday. "Now we have not agreed to that. We're talking about it, but it's a hard thing to give away that kind of technology. And I don't think this would ever happen, but, you know, there's people that you give that technology, they can someday turn on you."

With the Russia-Ukraine war in its fifth year, fighting is raging along about 1,200km (750 miles) of front line. But Russian advances have slowed by more than half this year, and Ukraine has been launching strikes inside Russia, hitting its oil facilities, logistics sites and weapons production.

Russian strikes launched against Ukraine overnight into Saturday included 27 ballistic missiles and only one of them was intercepted, "simply because there are no interceptors for the Patriot system", Zelenskyy said.

"Every package of ballistic missile interceptors saves the lives of our people. And every night without them results in more casualties," Zelenskyy added on the Telegram app.

This was the second major attack on Kyiv this week. It came two days after a suspected Russian cruise missile landed in Poland during a separate large-scale strike on Ukraine that killed at least 10 people nationwide, including members of one family near Kryvyi Rih.