Russian air attack kills 16 as Zelenskyy pleads for Patriots

Olesia Safronova, Bloomberg News on Aug 20, 2026

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More than a dozen people were killed and many more wounded in a Russian missile attack targeting Kyiv, the latest in a string of large-scale barrages Ukraine has struggled to fend off amid a lack of interceptors.

“As long as Ukraine does not have enough anti-ballistic defense, Russia will not consider peace seriously,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Thursday on X. “Patriot interceptors cannot yet be replaced, and we need them every day.”

Russia launched more than 40 ballistic and cruise missiles as well as 168 drones, including jet-powered ones, overnight, Ukraine’s military said. The Air Defense forces didn’t specify how many ballistic missiles were intercepted, in line with recent practice, but said they shot down 39 Kaliber, Kh-101 and Iskander K/Kh-59 cruise missiles.

Fifteen people died in Kyiv, the city’s mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Telegram. Zelenskyy said at least one other person was killed in the Kyiv region and 40 others were injured.

Russian airstrikes on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities have become increasingly deadly as Ukraine runs short of Patriot interceptors, the main Western-supplied weapon it uses to defend against many missiles, while new allied deliveries have lagged demand. Zelenskyy has taken to urging Ukraine’s partners to step up supplies of air defenses in the wake of such attacks.

“Unfortunately, while Moscow is investing in ballistic missiles and escalation, such strikes do not always receive the response they should from the world,” the Ukrainian president said Thursday.

Russia hit several industrial sites and residential areas in Kyiv and its suburbs, Ukraine’s Interior Ministry said, causing fires, with some partially extinguished as of early Thursday morning. In some locations, civilians were trapped in shelters and apartment buildings due to damage and destruction, the ministry said on Telegram.

Russia also attacked a border crossing with Moldova, as well as areas in the southern Odesa and northern Chernihiv regions, Zelenskyy said.

Ukraine’s biggest private energy company operating in Kyiv, DTEK, said around 40,000 households in the capital lost electricity amid the attack. The company was able to restore power supply by midday Thursday, according to a statement on Telegram.

Ukrainian state railway company Ukrzaliznytsia said on Telegram it implemented emergency protocols to ensure passenger safety and rerouted trains to bypass damaged sections of the railway network.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said its forces carried out a large overnight strike with precision weapons and long-range drones against military-industrial and logistics targets in Kyiv and the surrounding region. The ministry said the attacks damaged drone and missile production sites, as well as an ammunition storage site, a logistics center and a fuel depot in the Kyiv region.

Russian forces also intercepted 726 Ukrainian drones over several regions, including near Moscow, the annexed Crimean peninsula and the Black Sea and Sea of Azov, according to the ministry.