At least 18 killed in Kyiv strikes as Zelensky pleads for Patriot missiles at Ankara summit

A devastating Russian assault on Kyiv in the early hours of Monday, comprising ballistic missiles and attack drones, killed at least 12 people in the capital and a further six in the surrounding region, with dozens more wounded, according to city officials. The bombardment, which came on the eve of a critical Nato summit in Ankara that President Donald Trump is scheduled to attend, lit up the night sky over the Ukrainian capital and inflicted extensive damage on residential buildings in four districts, with the Podilsky district suffering the heaviest impact. Mayor Vitali Klitschko confirmed that residential blocks had partially collapsed, trapping occupants beneath the rubble, and that an entire family had been pulled from the debris, while burning cars were reported on city streets. Rescue teams were seen evacuating residents, including children, from the upper floors of damaged structures in the early hours, as many Kyivans spent extended periods in air-raid shelters.

The assault came just hours after President Volodymyr Zelensky had warned that Moscow was "preparing a new massive strike," and followed a ferocious Russian attack on the capital last Thursday that killed 30 people—the third-deadliest assault on Kyiv since the full-scale invasion began in February 2022. The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, in a statement issued on Monday, observed that civilian casualties in 2026 are "significantly higher" than during the corresponding period in 2025, underscoring the intensifying toll of the conflict. Mr Zelensky, writing on X on Sunday before the attack, characterised the timing as characteristic of President Vladimir Putin: "right after America's Independence Day and before the NATO Summit in Ankara."

The lethality of the past week's Russian assaults has exposed the mounting challenge Ukraine faces in defending its capital, as Moscow innovates its attack methods and escalates the frequency of its strikes. According to data from the Ukrainian Air Force, none of the ballistic missiles fired on Monday were intercepted, with 29 ballistic missiles and 18 attack drones striking 34 locations across the country, while more than 350 drones and 66 missiles were launched overall, with Kyiv identified as the primary target. The attacks caused power outages across several regions, including Kyiv, Sumy, Kharkiv and Dnipropetrovsk, according to the country's electricity transmission agency. Russia's defence ministry, in a statement, said it had used "high-precision, long-range weapons" to target military-industrial facilities and fuel and energy sites in Kyiv, adding that the strikes were in retaliation for Ukrainian attacks on civilian infrastructure within Russian territory.

The war in Ukraine is set to form the backdrop to the Nato summit this week, where President Trump is expected to meet Mr Zelensky, following a telephone conversation between the two leaders on Saturday. A subsequent call between Mr Trump and President Putin, lasting nearly 90 minutes on Sunday, saw the American leader again offer to help end the conflict, according to Russia's foreign ministry. Despite Mr Trump's campaign promise to resolve the war within 24 hours of his second term, more than 500 days into his current presidency, the administration has yet to broker a peace settlement, despite multiple diplomatic overtures. Mr Zelensky, ahead of the summit, has used the latest attack on Kyiv to renew his appeal to allies for the supply of Patriot system interceptor missiles, citing the "insufficient supply of interceptor missiles" as the reason Ukraine failed to shoot down any of Monday's ballistic missiles.

"It is critically important that the world – first and foremost the United States and our European partners – come out of the NATO Summit in Ankara with strong decisions in support of our air defense," the Ukrainian president said in a statement. "As long as Patriot missiles remain in our allies' stockpiles, Russia is only encouraged to keep 'vanquishing' residential buildings," he added. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen confirmed that Ukraine "urgently needs more air defence" and that the matter would be discussed at the Ankara summit. Mr Zelensky regards the Patriot system as essential for countering Russia's arsenal of ballistic missiles, loitering munitions and its increasingly deployed Geran-4 jet-powered drones, which fly too fast for mobile fire groups and can only be engaged with ground-to-air missiles or fighter jets.

The latest versions of Patriot interceptors are capable of engaging incoming short-range ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and drones at altitudes of up to 15 kilometres and distances of up to 35 kilometres. The Geran-4 UAVs, which were employed in both Monday's and last Thursday's attacks, represent a growing challenge to Ukraine's air defences, as do Russian forces' stepped-up efforts to capture more of Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region, a long-standing Kremlin objective. Ukraine has meanwhile recently intensified its own missile and drone strikes against key infrastructure deep inside Russia, including oil refineries, ports and military factories; Russia's state news agency TASS reported that Moscow's forces shot down 519 Ukrainian drones launched overnight into Monday. The reciprocal escalation suggests that both sides are seeking to inflict maximum damage ahead of the diplomatic gathering, even as the summit offers the prospect of renewed international commitment to Kyiv's defence.