Russian strikes kill 22, exposing Ukraine's air-defence shortage

Russia unleashed waves of missiles and drones at Ukraine early Monday, killing at least 22 people in attacks that exposed widening gaps in the country's air defences more than four years into Moscow's full-scale invasion, authorities said.Ukraine's air force said Russia fired 351 drones and 68 missiles overnight, targeting mainly Kyiv, and all 29 ballistic missiles struck their targets, underscoring Kyiv's need for more US-made Patriot interceptor missiles - a point Ukrainian President Zelensky will likely reiterate at a Nato summit in Turkiye this week.Fifteen people were killed in the capital of Kyiv, which was Russia's main target, and 56 were injured, according to administrative head Tymur Tkachenko.

Another seven people were killed in the wider Kyiv region and 21 were injured, according to Mykola Kalashnyk, the head of the regional administration, and other emergency officials. Emergency workers searched for survivors in the rubble of residential high-rises in two locations that suffered direct hits.Moscow has stepped up strikes on Kyiv in retaliation for Ukraine's recent long-range strikes, according to the Russian defence ministry.

Ukraine's advances in drone technology have given it an edge in recent months, analysts and Western officials say, striking supply routes behind the front line, stripping the Russian army of momentum on the battlefield and slowing its advance. But Russia is now exploiting a different kind of momentum: vulnerabilities in Ukraine's air defences, which remain heavily reliant on the Patriot missile systems to intercept ballistic missiles.

The war in West Asia has strained the global supply of Patriot interceptors - a shortage now felt keenly in Ukraine.