Russian Missiles Kill Civilians in Kyiv as Zelensky Presses Trump for Patriot Systems

A Russian missile attack on Kyiv killed civilians and wounded more than a dozen people early Saturday, Ukrainian officials said. A partially collapsed residential building caught fire with residents trapped inside. Casualty counts varied across accounts, from three dead reported by Al Jazeera to at least nine cited in other coverage, a spread that reflects how tolls rise as rescuers reach the wreckage.

Moscow described its operation in different terms. Russian state outlets reported that Russian forces struck Ukrainian defense-industry plants and logistics centers in Kyiv and the surrounding region, and Russia's defense ministry said air defenses downed 274 Ukrainian drones overnight across 17 regions and the Azov and Black seas. The competing accounts, a civilian toll on one side and military-industrial targets on the other, are typical of a war in which both governments contest what was hit.

The attack came as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky pressed Trump to supply additional Patriot air-defense systems, and after United Nations monitors found that June had been the deadliest month for civilians in Ukraine in years. The reciprocal pattern is now well established. Ukraine strikes Russian refineries and supply lines to reduce Moscow's oil revenue, and Russia responds with strikes on Ukraine's cities and energy grid.