At least 15 killed in Kyiv as Ukraine grapples with air defence shortages

At least 15 people have been killed in the latest Russian strikes targeting the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv's mayor said, as Ukraine continues to face a shortage of air defence missiles.

Apartment blocks and warehouses were struck across the city overnight, the State Emergency Service of Ukraine said, while a children's hospital and school were also damaged.

The deaths were the result of a shortage of air defence missiles, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said, which Kyiv relies on western allies to supply.

Speaking to BBC News at a wrecked apartment block in Kyiv, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said Ukraine needed "ammunition, anti-missile systems - we need support from our partners".

Klitschko was in Solomianskyi district to assess the damage. Around him, emergency workers continued to sift through rubble and people stood outside their destroyed homes.

Among them was Valeria Bondaruk, who moved to Kyiv after her home in southern Ukraine was bombed, believing it would be safer for her and her daughter.

Now she has been driven from her home for the second time during this war.

A shard of glass embedded in her bedroom wall served as a sign of how close this was. She hid in a hallway overnight as they have no bomb shelter.

She told the BBC she fears for her 13-year-old daughter's future and is considering leaving Ukraine.

Ukrainian MP Oleksiy Goncharenko told the BBC that Ukraine is "absolutely unprotected" from ballistic missile attacks and "can't do anything" without interceptors.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, he said: "Russia is using this trying to destroy as much infrastructure as possible.

"For us it's very painful because we are dying here every day without these interceptors."

Writing on Telegram, Zelensky said "as long as Ukraine does not have enough anti-ballistics, Russia will not seriously think about peace".

He added: "The interceptors for the Patriots have not yet been replaced, and they are needed every day. Each additional missile saves the lives of our people."

An update released by the Ukrainian Air Force on Thursday morning implied that none of the Russian ballistic missiles used overnight were intercepted.

The Russian defence ministry said it used air, land and sea-based weapons to target military facilities and warehouses.

Ukraine has relied on American supplies of Patriot interceptor missiles to combat Russian ballistic missiles, but the US has used much of its stockpile during the war in the Middle East and has been supplying Ukraine with less.

Zelensky's renewed plea for more military aid came as he faced a direct political challenge from the popular ex-defence minister Mykhailo Fedorov, who has called for an election and launched a scathing attack on the government by claiming corruption has deprived the military of weapons.

The latest strikes on Kyiv began around midnight local time as air raid sirens sounded across the city, followed by the impact of around 20 Russian missiles.

The strikes cut power to thousands of properties, plunging parts of the Kyiv region into darkness.

A day of mourning for those killed overnight was declared on Friday.

At a local school in the Solomyanski disctrict, the windows were knocked out and its playing fields were left covered in debris.

A nearby storeroom was totally ruined, exposing the basement. The BBC was told it was a laundry and boiler house supplying heating to the surrounding apartment blocks.

Wednesday night's attack was the kind Ukraine's deputy intelligence chief told the BBC that Russia was planning ahead of the winter in order to make life difficult, even for those who haven not seen their homes destroyed.

Russia used 168 drones and 44 missiles in the attack, mainly targeting Kyiv, Ukraine's air force said, adding that air defences shot down 146 drones and 39 cruise missiles.

Anastasiia Kovtun, 31, sat with her partner next to the ruins of her flat, which was part of a nine-storey building.

The primary school teacher said she felt like her "head was going to blow" when she heard the explosions in her area from the shelter.

"It's so frightening to realise it's your house, you never think you're going to be next," she told the BBC.

When asked if she would ever be able to live in her flat again, she said: "Even if were able to move back in, we wouldn't want it after this. If we stayed in the flat for ten minutes more we might have been killed."

Elsewhere in the broader Kyiv region, an attack in the Brovary and Boryspil districts killed one man and wounded seven. One person was killed and 11 injured in Donetsk Oblast, a local official said.