• 30 wounded as missiles, drones hit five districts
• Ukraine claims sinking Russian ship in Black Sea
• Zelensky renews plea for air defence systems; Trump cautious over request for Patriot production licences

KYIV: Russian attacks on Kyiv and its suburbs killed 10 people early on Saturday, officials said, as Ukrainian drones sank a huge Russian container ship in the Black Sea and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky appealed for more air defences.

The exchange of strikes comes amid a prolonged lull in US-led talks aimed at ending the conflict, Europe’s deadliest since World War II.

Both Moscow and Kyiv have escalated long-range attacks on each other in recent weeks, with Russia more than doubling its use of missiles last month, according to an AFP analysis.

Civilian casualties in Ukraine have meanwhile soared to their highest since Russia invaded in 2022, according to UN human rights monitors, with Kyiv pressing its allies to provide more air defences.

In a statement on social media, Mr Zelensky appealed for supplies of Patriot air defence systems, Kyiv’s only effective counter against Russian ballistic missile attacks.

“It is this shortage of ballistic missile interceptors that only encourages Russia to launch such attacks that take human lives,” Mr Zelensky said in a post on X. More than 30 people were wounded in Saturday’s attacks on Kyiv, which struck five districts of the city, Ukrainian authorities said.

Among the buildings damaged was the embassy of Lithuania, with the Baltic country’s foreign minister publishing images appearing to show a cracked door and damaged light fixture.

Journalists reported hearing more than 10 explosions in a row early on Saturday, triggering car alarms on the streets as dark clouds of smoke rose over Kyiv.

In Kyiv’s eastern Darnytsky district, the attacks damaged multiple buildings and vehicles, with authorities reporting seven people killed and 14 wounded.

Two people were killed and eight others were wounded in the western Solomiansky district, where strikes damaged a five-storey residential building. One other person was killed in an attack on the Kyiv suburb of Brovary, authorities said.

“Everything was smashed, the windows, everything,” 75-year-old resident Kateryna Kravchenko said of her apartment. “I can barely stand. I don’t know how I’m going to get through all this.”

Another resident, 46-year-old Oksana, said her plan was to leave. “You can’t stay here after something like this. … What guarantee is there that it won’t happen again?”

Russia’s Defence Ministry said it had struck “military-industrial complex enterprises and logistics centres”.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian drones sank a Russian-owned container ship in the Black Sea early on Saturday, forcing its 17-member crew to abandon the vessel.

The Russian-flagged Yanina, owned by the shipping arm of Russia’s state-owned nuclear power operator Rosatom, was sailing near the Russian port of Novorossiysk when it was hit.

The ship was carrying civilian goods including frozen food and construction materials. “All 17 crew members have been rescued and are in good condition,” Rosatom said in a statement on Telegram.

Mr Zelensky confirmed Ukraine was behind the strike in a post on X, describing it as a “sanctioned Russian container ship”. Both Ukraine and Russia deny targeting civilians.

Meanwhile, the Ukranian president had met with US President Donald Trump on Tuesday for talks, partly to lobby Washington for licences to produce Patriots domestically.

But the US president appeared to express reservations on Friday, saying that Washington would have to be “very careful” about the decision.

Published in Dawn, August 2nd, 2026