Kyiv (Ukraine) (AFP) – Russian strikes on Kyiv killed five people during the day on Friday, including a 14-year-old boy, local authorities said, as Ukraine’s leader disclosed that Donald Trump had approved licences for Patriot air defence systems. Volodymyr Zelensky has made repeated calls on Ukraine’s Western allies for better air defence systems to combat the increasingly deadly barrage of drone and missile strikes, with hopes of producing the advanced Patriots under US licence.
With attacks in Kyiv intensifying, blasts again rang out across the capital in the early afternoon, sending some people running for shelter, while others walked by without reacting, an AFP journalist saw. Shortly afterwards, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said four people had been found dead, with dozens more injured. An earlier attack coinciding with the morning commute killed a 14-year-old boy. Israel’s foreign ministry said the teenager was an Israeli citizen and his mother was among those wounded.
Zelensky condemned the strike — the latest hitting civilian targets, transport infrastructure, warehouses and residential areas — calling it “absolutely savage and sickening” and “devoid of any military logic”. AFP journalists at the scene saw residents gathering around a multi-storey building, with apartments on the ninth and 10th floors left charred by the impact. Russia used to target Kyiv mainly during hours of darkness but now often attacks in broad daylight, with jet-powered drones heard and even seen flying overhead.
Alisa Boyko, who lived in the high-rise struck on Friday morning, said the Kremlin’s objectives were clear. She said Russian forces were seeking to “torment” Kyiv residents, “so that everyone is affected, one way or another”. Moscow has been increasingly firing at the capital with the newly developed jet-powered drones, which have succeeded in bypassing some of the drone interception systems developed by Ukraine.
Residents have expressed hope that Ukraine will soon find effective countermeasures against the new drones, which are deployed like missiles, travelling at high speed to strike cities and infrastructure. “This is a technological race and a technological war,” said Mykyta Sysoyev, smoking outside his damaged building. “Unfortunately, people will suffer while we’re searching for solutions.”
Russia has also increased its attacks with powerful ballistic missiles, which the Ukrainian air force struggles to intercept. The US-designed Patriots remain the only reliable system able to counter them, experts say. Zelensky renewed his appeal for more air defences in the United States, where he addressed the UN General Assembly earlier this week.
“At our last meeting, President Trump emphasised to me that yes, I have made a final decision. Ukraine will receive licences for the production of Patriot missiles,” Zelensky said in a voice note to journalists. In July, Trump said it would be “pretty cool” to grant Ukraine the licences, before backtracking, saying the United States should be “very careful” before granting Ukraine authorisation.
Ukraine has reported an acute shortage of Patriot interceptors since the US and Israel went to war with Iran in February, diverting supplies of the advanced systems. Even if the licences are granted, establishing industrial capacity would require more than a year and would not meet Kyiv’s immediate needs. In the southern region of Odesa, another person was killed in a repeated strike on a postal facility, authorities said. Firefighters and medical staff had to evacuate seven patients from a hospital in Zaporizhzhia when a Russian drone strike damaged the facility, sparking a fire on one ward. Two people were injured.
© 2024 AFP
