Russian attacks kill 4 in Kyiv and surrounding region as air defenses fall short

Four people, including a child, were killed in Russian attacks on the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, and the surrounding region, local officials said Saturday, as Ukraine hit another oil refinery in Russia.

Residents endure regular drone and missile barrages that Kyiv’s depleted air defenses are struggling to counter amid Moscow’s 4-year-old full-scale invasion, while repeated Ukrainian strikes on oil facilities have caused fuel shortages and rattled Russians.

Grandparents and grandson killed in Ukraine’s Kyiv region

Two grandparents and their 3-year-old grandson were killed after multiple Russian drones destroyed their home in the Brovary district of Kyiv region, northeast of the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, early Saturday.

Three other members of the same family and a neighbor who came to their aid were hospitalized, local authorities said. The attack reduced the house to rubble and wrecked outbuildings and cars.

In the city of Kyiv, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said at least one other person died in a “strike involving six ballistic missiles against civilian infrastructure.”

In its daily report, Ukraine’s air force said it had downed or intercepted 135 of 151 drones launched by Russia overnight. The attack also involved six ballistic missiles and other guided missiles.

Russia has relentlessly pounded civilian areas of Ukraine, even though Moscow insists its forces target only military facilities.

Moscow is exploiting Ukraine’s critical shortage of interceptors for the US-made Patriot systems, the sole air defense weapon in its arsenal able to shoot down ballistic missiles.

Zelensky has pleaded with other countries, especially the US, to send more of the ammunition made scarcer by the Iran war.

Failing that, he wants to make Patriot ammunition in Ukraine or win permission from Elon Musk to use his Starlink satellite communications system to guide strikes inside Russia that can hit its missile launchers.

Following the latest attacks, Zelensky appealed on X for more sanctions to “prevent the production of these ballistic missiles,” along with “anti-ballistic capabilities” and “interceptor missiles.”

Ukraine’s air defenses shot down around 5,300 drones and missiles last month, Ukraine’s defense ministry said Friday, just under 60% of the around 9,000 attack drones and missiles Russia fired in the same period.

Ukraine strikes a Russian oil facility

In Russia, five people were wounded when a fire broke out at the Ilsky Oil Refinery in the southern Krasnodar region due to debris from a falling drone, local officials said.

Ukraine’s almost daily long-range drone and missile strikes using domestically developed weapons have battered Russian oil facilities for months. The operation has brought a fuel crisis that is embarrassing the Kremlin.

Zelensky in Serbia for talks

The latest attacks came hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived Friday for his first official visit to Serbia, one of the few European countries that have maintained friendly relations with Russia despite its invasion of Ukraine.

“Important talks are scheduled for today and tomorrow,” Zelensky said Friday. He added that he will meet with Vucic and Serbia’s Prime Minister Djuro Macut.

“We will discuss expanding economic ties between our countries, relations with the European Union, and other areas where we can find practical opportunities that benefit our peoples, as well as security issues,” Zelensky said.