Russian missile and drone barrage in Ukrainian capital region kills 17

Russian missile and drone strikes on Kyiv and the surrounding region killed 17 people, wounded 44 others overnight into Wednesday, smashing business premises and a train station, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said. Zelenskyy said the targets hit included a brewing company, a warehouse for construction material, and a mail sorting office that had nothing to do with the war, while the Russian Defense Ministry said the businesses masked ties to the military. The roughly two-hour nighttime attack was the latest in a series of large-scale Russian ballistic missile strikes that have become near-routine this summer, exploiting Ukraine's critical shortage of interceptor missiles for the U.S.-made Patriot systems - the sole air defense weapon in its arsenal able to shoot down ballistic missiles. Ballistic interceptors are what could have saved the lives of those killed today. It is very important for our partners to understand that delays in supplying them or a reluctance to hand over anti-ballistic systems lead directly to such horrific casualties and destruction. Supplies of air defense missiles to Ukraine during the first half of this year tumbled to one-third of the 2025 level. With U.S.-led peace efforts apparently stalled, Ukraine has stepped up its deep strikes on key Russian targets such as oil refineries. Ukrainian drones hit a warehouse in the Tula region south of Moscow. It was the 14th Wildberries warehouse to catch fire in less than three weeks. Russia fired 24 ballistic missiles, four other missiles identified as either hypersonic Zircons or supersonic Oniks and 115 drones, many of them jet-powered, harder to stop due to their speed. Russian Defense Ministry said it struck transport, logistics and distribution centers involved in military activity. It listed four targets in Kyiv, claiming they ran war-related operations. The enemy is attacking everything indiscriminately - retail warehouses, food storage facilities, logistics hubs, enterprises, building materials warehouses. The war of attrition has entered a new phase. It was not immediately possible to reconcile the different Russian and Ukrainian accounts of the military value of what was hit. Russian ministry also said its forces hit three bulk carriers on the Black Sea south of Odesa it claimed were transporting weapons and military equipment for the Ukrainian armed forces. Ukrainian officials didn't comment on that claim. The Russian Defense Ministry said its forces downed 475 Ukrainian drones overnight over 16 Russian regions as well as illegally annexed Crimea and the waters of the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea.