Thirteen people died in overnight strikes on the Ukrainian capital. The military says they simply did not have the interceptors to shoot the heavy missiles down, leaving families hiding in hallways and begging the West for help.
When the air raid sirens go off in Kyiv, you are supposed to go to a shelter. But when your building does not have one, you just sit in the hallway and hope the concrete holds.
Around midnight, about 20 Russian missiles slammed into the Ukrainian capital. Apartment blocks and warehouses took direct hits. By morning, at least 13 people were dead, and 40 were injured. The city declared a day of mourning.
The Ukrainian military shot down a lot of drones and cruise missiles. But when it came to the heavy, fast ballistic missiles, the morning update was grim. The air force implied they did not intercept a single one.
The reason is simple and brutal: they are out of ammo.
“For us it’s very painful because we are dying here every day without these interceptors,” Ukrainian MP Oleksiy Goncharenko told reporters. He said the country is “absolutely unprotected” right now.
Ukraine relies heavily on American-made Patriot missiles to stop these specific attacks. But the US has been burning through its own stockpile in the Middle East, leaving fewer for Kyiv.
Mayor Vitali Klitschko stood in the rubble of the Solomianskyi district, watching emergency workers dig through the wreckage of what used to be people’s homes.
“We need ammunition, anti-missile systems, we need support from our partners,” he said.
For the people living in those buildings, the politics of global supply chains just mean they have to pack their bags again. Valeria Bondaruk fled southern Ukraine because it was too dangerous. She moved to Kyiv for safety. Now, with a shard of glass stuck in her bedroom wall, she is thinking about leaving the country entirely. She hid in her hallway with her 13-year-old daughter and told reporters she fears for the girl’s future.
Down in the emergency triage area, 60-year-old Larysa Bondaruk sat with her salvaged belongings and her cat, Chane, waiting for the dust to settle.
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President Volodymyr Zelensky did not mince words about what this shortage means for the war.
“As long as Ukraine does not have enough anti-ballistics, Russia will not seriously think about peace,” he wrote on Telegram. “The interceptors for the Patriots have not yet been replaced… Each additional missile saves the lives of our people.”
The sky is crowded everywhere right now. Ukraine fired hundreds of drones back at Russia, hitting warehouses and even triggering air alerts in neighboring Romania and Poland.
But back in Kyiv, the power is out for thousands of people. The politicians are arguing about elections and corruption. For the families sweeping glass out of their living rooms, the only thing that matters today is whether the next shipment of missiles arrives before the next siren sounds.
