Ukraine must 'unblock' Patriot missile delivery, Zelenskyy says after deadly strikes
LONDON -- Russian drone and missile attacks on multiple Ukrainian regions killed at least four people on Saturday night, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a post to social media on Sunday.
Ukraine's air force said Russia launched 153 drones along with an unspecified number of cruise missiles into the country in its latest round of attacks. The air force said that 119 drones were shot down or otherwise suppressed, with impacts reported in 15 locations.
Four people were killed by a Russian attack in the southeastern Dnipropetrovsk region on Saturday evening, Zelenskyy said, with another 22 people injured.
Zelenskyy said it was "crucial" to bolster Ukrainian defenses alongside renewed U.S.-led peace negotiations. "We need to unblock the already agreed-upon deliveries of interceptors for Patriot systems," the Ukrainian leader wrote, referring to the U.S.-made air defense system that has been key to Ukrainian efforts to blunt Russian ballistic missile attacks.
The tightening supply of Patriot batteries and their interceptor missiles has become a fraught diplomatic issue. The problem has been exacerbated by the ongoing U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran, which has seen American and allied forces across the Middle East expend large numbers of interceptors to defend against Iranian ballistic missile and drone attacks.
Zelenskyy has repeatedly criticized the U.S. for failing to ensure an adequate supply of missiles. The Ukrainian leader told ABC News during an interview in Kyiv last week that his country needs to be supplied with around 350 Patriot interceptors each month to defend against Moscow's attacks.
Over the last three months, Zelenskyy said, Kyiv had received only 24 interceptor missiles.
Ukraine's State Emergency Service reported Russian strikes in the Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, Zhytomyr and Vinnytsia regions on Saturday night into Sunday morning. At least six people were injured in the attack on Vinnytsia, the SES said, with four people -- among them three emergency workers -- also injured in the attack in Kharkiv.
Among the targets of the overnight Russian strikes were residential buildings, a hypermarket, thermal power plants, substations, coal mines and grain storage facilities, Zelenskyy said in a post to Telegram, adding that damage was reported in nine regions of Ukraine.
"This is how Russia reacts to diplomacy and efforts to isolate it," Zelenskyy said.
Russia's Defense Ministry, meanwhile, reported the interception of at least 532 Ukrainian drones overnight, with craft shot down over 22 Russian regions -- including Moscow -- plus occupied Crimea and the Black Sea.
Last week saw President Donald Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff travel to meet with Zelenskyy in the Norwegian capital of Oslo, followed by a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg.
Witkoff described the talks as "constructive," but deadly strikes continued in the days after his meetings with the Ukrainian and Russian leaders.
Fresh trilateral U.S.-Ukraine-Russia talks are expected to be held in the United Arab Emirates in November. In an interview with Kremlin propagandist Pavel Zarubin published on Sunday, Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov said that a possible deal between Moscow and Kyiv "still needs work."
Discussing the planned trilateral meeting in November, Ushakov said, "Not much could be decided during the first meeting too, it will perhaps be observational."
