At least 12 killed in Kyiv as Zelensky pleads for allied air defence support at Nato summit

A serious shortfall in interceptor missiles left Ukraine unable to shoot down any of the 23 ballistic missiles Russia fired at Kyiv on Sunday night, the Ukrainian Air Force has acknowledged, in a stark admission that underlined the vulnerability of the capital to Moscow’s evolving aerial assault. At least 12 people lost their lives in the attack, which represented the second large-scale Russian bombardment of Kyiv in the space of a week, with three further fatalities reported in the wider region surrounding the city. In the aftermath, President Volodymyr Zelensky issued an urgent appeal to Ukraine’s allies, urging them to take “strong decisions” during the Nato summit convening this week in Ankara to supply Kyiv with the air defence systems it so desperately needs to counter the relentless Russian onslaught.

Writing on X, Mr Zelensky disclosed that Sunday’s “massive Russian attack” had comprised 68 missiles and 351 strike drones, and acknowledged that while Ukrainian forces had succeeded in intercepting cruise missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles, they had been unable to stop the ballistic missiles that caused the most devastation. He warned that Moscow would persist in striking residential buildings for as long as Patriot interceptor missiles remained unused in allied stockpiles rather than deployed to defend Ukrainian skies. His comments came as another terrifying night descended on the capital, with residents enduring the thunderous detonations of explosions and the percussive roar of air defence systems straining to respond to the incoming threat, driving many once again to seek refuge in underground shelters.

Come Monday morning, the scale of the destruction was all too visible across the city, where three large blocks of flats had partially collapsed, some of them struck directly by missiles, and rescue workers were labouring to reach those trapped beneath the debris. Mayor Vitali Klitschko reported that the strikes had hit multiple buildings across Kyiv, igniting fires in several apartment complexes, while warehouses and a garage workshop had also sustained damage. Helicopters were observed shuttling back and forth overhead, drawing water from the Dnipro river to douse the flames that continued to smoulder in the aftermath of the bombardment. According to Timur Tkachenko, Kyiv’s top military administrator, 49 people were injured in the capital, while Mr Zelensky put the number of wounded in the wider region at 16.

The Ukrainian Air Force, in a statement detailing the night’s events, said the latest Russian barrage had been countered by “aviation, anti-aircraft missile troops, electronic warfare and unmanned systems units, and mobile fire groups of the Defense Forces of Ukraine”. Preliminary data recorded by 08:30 local time indicated that 37 missiles and 326 drones had been shot down or suppressed, though the 23 ballistic missiles had evaded interception entirely. The attack came just hours after Mr Zelensky had warned that Moscow was preparing a second “massive strike” on Kyiv, following the bombardment on Thursday that killed 30 people and prompted tens of thousands to seek shelter in the capital’s metro stations as air-raid sirens blared through the early hours. Ukraine has accused Russia of deliberately targeting civilian areas in that earlier assault, while Moscow has maintained that it was striking military and energy installations in retaliation for Ukrainian drone attacks on power stations and energy facilities within Russian territory.

Kyiv has continued its campaign of drone strikes against critical Russian energy infrastructure, with power having been temporarily cut in Sevastopol, the port city in Russian-occupied Crimea, and with the Baltic oil terminals of Vyssotsk and Ust-Luga, north and west of St Petersburg, also coming under renewed attack. By escalating its strikes on the Crimean peninsula, Ukraine has sought to pressure the Kremlin into meaningful peace negotiations, though Moscow has thus far responded by intensifying its deadly assaults on the Ukrainian capital rather than de-escalating. Reports suggest that Mr Zelensky is due to meet President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the Nato summit, which opens in Ankara on Tuesday, and in his X post on Monday he stressed that it was “critically important” for the United States and European partners to arrive with “strong decisions in support of our air defense, and thus the protection of ordinary people’s lives”. “The United States and Europe have enough power to stop this terror,” he declared, while Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, confirmed that Ukraine’s urgent need for additional air defence capabilities would be a central topic of discussion at the gathering. Since launching its full-scale invasion in February 2022, Russia has seized approximately one-fifth of Ukrainian territory, and the latest assault on Kyiv served as a grim reminder that, for all Ukraine’s resilience, its ability to protect its skies remains perilously dependent on the decisions of its allies.