Kyiv Death Toll Rises to 22 After Largest Russian Barrage
The death toll from Russia’s overnight assault on Kyiv climbed through the day to 22, with 85 injured, after an eleven-hour barrage of 74 missiles and nearly 500 drones — the largest volume of weaponry ever aimed at the capital. Strikes hit 33 locations, destroying a nine-storey residential block and a Red Cross warehouse holding 320,000 relief items, while 52,500 people sheltered in metro stations. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov promised to “continue to increase pressure on the Kyiv regime”.
The toll — 13 at dawn, 22 by evening — makes this one of the deadliest strikes on the capital of the war, and residents describe a pattern shift: rarer but longer, heavier attacks designed to exhaust air defences that have been rationing interceptors for months. President Zelensky has asked Washington for licences to manufacture Patriot interceptors in Ukraine itself — a step beyond resupply that would deepen US-Ukrainian defence integration. Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha said it would be “immoral” to justify the strikes as retaliation for Ukraine’s long-range attacks on Russia. Watch whether European capitals announce fresh air-defence transfers in the coming days, and whether the Patriot-licence request gains traction.