Russian Barrage Kills Eight in Ukraine as Sumy Is Hit
Russia launched another mass overnight attack on Ukraine — ballistic and cruise missiles and more than 120 drones — killing at least eight people and wounding dozens. Two glide bombs struck a crowded area of Sumy, killing five and injuring around thirty, while a dozen were wounded in Kyiv and port infrastructure at Odesa was hit again. Ukraine’s air force said it downed most of the drones but not the ballistic missiles, as President Zelensky renewed his plea for the air defences promised at this week’s NATO summit.
The glide bombs that hit Sumy are the weapon Ukraine can do least about: cheap, heavy and launched from Russian aircraft standing off beyond the front, they fall on border cities faster than warnings can clear the streets. It is why Zelensky’s demand at the Ankara summit was specifically for interceptors and the licence to build Patriots, and why the gap between promises and deliveries is measured in lives. Ukraine’s answer remains asymmetric and economic: its drone commander said units struck more than twenty fuel tankers overnight, part of a campaign that has hit dozens of vessels this week to make Russia’s oil exports too costly to run. More than sixty people have been killed across the Kyiv region since the start of the month. Watch whether the promised air defences arrive before the next barrage, and whether the tanker war and the Gulf crisis together lift the oil price further.