Russia missiles pound Kyiv, kill nine as Ukraine renews Patriot plea
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- Russia struck Kyiv overnight with ballistic missiles and drones, killing nine civilians and injuring 22 across multiple districts and igniting fires in residential and commercial buildings.
- The Darnytskyi district bore the heaviest toll — seven killed and 14 injured — with fires and damage to houses, vehicles, an administrative building and a non-residential building.
- In the Solomianskyi district, falling debris damaged a five-storey residential building, killing two and injuring eight including two children, as emergency workers evacuated 35 people from upper floors.
- Two days before the Kyiv attack, a broader Russian missile-and-drone barrage across Ukraine killed 10 civilians, injured more than 50, and saw a Russian missile enter Polish airspace.
- President Zelenskyy said he had spoken with Vice President JD Vance about a "positive and productive" Washington meeting with Trump earlier this week, calling Patriot interceptors against ballistic missiles "a top priority" on Telegram.
- Trump said at a July NATO summit in Ankara the US would license Ukraine to make Patriot systems, but at Camp David on Friday appeared to step back, saying he had not made a final decision.
- Liudmyla Nakonechna, a 64-year-old cancer survivor sheltering for the first time since the 2022 invasion, said she was woken at 1:30 a.m. by explosions and that attacks which used to come weekly now happen "practically every day."
Why it matters: Trump's apparent reversal on licensing Patriot production directly affects Ukraine's ability to defend against the kind of overnight barrage that killed nine in Kyiv, while the Russian missile that entered Polish airspace two days prior expands the conflict's spillover risk. With attacks escalating from weekly to daily, Ukraine's interceptor shortage has become a present operational gap, not a future contingency.
