Kyiv (Ukraine) (AFP) – Russian daytime strikes on Kyiv killed five people on Friday, local authorities said, the latest in a wave of intensifying attacks on the war-torn capital. Kyiv has faced increasing drone and missile strikes in recent months, prompting renewed calls for air defense systems, including for advanced Patriot air defense systems that Ukraine hopes to produce with US licenses.
New explosions rang out in the capital in the early afternoon, sending some people running for shelter, while others walked by without reacting, an AFP journalist saw. Shortly after, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said four people had been found dead. This followed an earlier attack, which killed a 14-year-old boy, in what Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called “an absolutely savage and sickening strike, devoid of any military logic.” AFP journalists at the scene earlier saw residents gathering around a multi-storey building, with apartments on the ninth and 10th floors left charred.
While Russia used to target Kyiv mainly during hours of darkness, it now often attacks in broad daylight. Alisa Boyko, who lived in the multi-storey building struck on Friday morning, said Russia’s objectives were clear. Russian forces seek “to torment us,” she said, “so that everyone is affected, one way or another.” Moscow has been increasingly firing at the capital with 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 countermeasures against the new drones. “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,” he added. Moscow has also increased its attacks with ballistic missiles, which Kyiv’s air force struggles to intercept. US-designed Patriots remain the only system reliably able to counter Russia’s powerful ballistic missiles, experts say.
Zelensky has repeatedly called for more air defenses, especially Patriot systems, including during his visit to the United States this week. “At our last meeting, President Trump emphasized to me that yes, I have made a final decision. Ukraine will receive licenses 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 licenses, before backtracking, saying the United States should be “very careful” before granting Ukraine authorization.
Ukraine has reported an acute shortage of Patriot interceptors since the United States and Israel went to war with Iran in February, diverting supplies of the advanced systems. Even if the licenses 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.
© 2024 AFP
