KYIV ( WNAMMONITORING): Russia launched ballistic missile strikes on Kyiv early Thursday, triggering explosions across the Ukrainian capital hours after President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that Moscow was preparing a major overnight assault and renewed appeals for Western air defense support.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said Russia was attacking the city with ballistic missiles and urged residents to seek shelter. Reuters witnesses reported multiple explosions across the capital, while Klitschko said fires broke out at several non-residential sites.
The strikes came after Zelensky cautioned that Russia had prepared “a massive attack” and urged Ukrainians to heed air raid alerts nationwide.
“It is important that our partners fully understand what is happening and that the protection of people’s lives depends directly on their willingness, or lack of willingness, to provide air defense missiles,” Zelensky wrote on Telegram, singling out the United States and other countries operating Patriot air defense systems.
The latest barrage followed Zelensky’s visit to Washington, where he met US President Donald Trump and pressed for additional military assistance as Russia intensifies ballistic missile attacks.
Zelensky said Trump agreed to grant Ukraine licenses to manufacture Patriot missile interceptors, which Kyiv considers essential for defending against Russian ballistic missiles. He also said Ukraine was discussing joint production and technology-sharing with US defense contractors Lockheed Martin and Raytheon.
Trump described their White House meeting as a “Great Honor” and later wrote that “many things were discussed” and the talks “went very well.”
Only US-made Patriot systems can reliably intercept Russia’s ballistic missiles, but Ukraine says it faces a critical shortage of PAC-3 interceptor missiles.
Hours before Russia’s latest strikes, Ukraine said it had carried out long-range attacks on two of Russia’s largest oil refineries, targeting facilities in the Perm and Ryazan regions that Kyiv says are vital to Moscow’s military logistics and state revenues.
Ukraine’s Security Service and General Staff said the strikes ignited fires at both facilities, which together process an estimated 220 million barrels of oil annually. Russian authorities confirmed a drone attack in Ryazan that injured six people and caused fires at industrial sites but did not confirm damage to the refinery.
The attacks are part of Kyiv’s expanding campaign against Russia’s energy infrastructure, aimed at raising the economic cost of the war. Ukrainian officials also said their forces struck a naval base used by Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, a radar station in Bryansk region, and drone launch sites in occupied eastern Ukraine.
A senior Ukrainian military commander also said Kyiv’s forces had struck 201 Russian vessels in the Black Sea and Sea of Azov over the past three weeks, though the claim could not be independently verified.
