Ukraine received no advance warning from its partners of a Russian ballistic missile strike overnight, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday, adding that some vital deliveries from the United States were being delayed.
Moscow launched one of its broadest air assaults in months overnight, cutting power to more than half a million households and damaging energy infrastructure across Ukraine.
Ten people were reported killed.
A Russian drone attack killed six people, including two children, in a park near Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, according to the regional governor, Oleh Syniehubov. Zelenskiy called the strike “an act of absolute barbarity”.
In all, Russia fired 16 ballistic missiles overnight at Kyiv and the surrounding region and more than 200 drones in attacks stretching from Kharkiv and Dnipro in the east to Odesa in the south and Volyn and Rivne in the west.
Two people were killed in Kyiv and the nearby region and two more in the industrial city of Kryvyi Rih, officials said.
HIGH TENSIONS
Tensions are running high between Zelenskiy and President Donald Trump’s administration over US support for Ukraine and Washington’s approach to Russia.
“Another Russian ballistic missile attack came in several waves overnight, and once again, there was no early warning from our partners,” Zelenskiy said on the Telegram app.
“When deliveries of missiles for Ukraine’s air defence are blocked while Russia is granted relief or delays in sanctions, this is, unfortunately, a denial of reality on the part of our partners.”
Zelenskiy later said he had discussed speeding up supplies of the Patriot system, vital to countering Russian ballistic missiles, with representatives of the US company Lockheed Martin.
“It is their Patriot systems and F-16 planes that play an important role in defending against Russian ballistic missiles and jet-powered drones. The company is now boosting production of ballistic interceptors. We are hoping that we will be able to buy some of them to protect more lives,” Zelenskiy said on Telegram.
“And things are not easy on both fronts right now. We talked about how we can expand and increase supplies.”
For several months, Ukraine has suffered from critical shortages of US-made Patriot missiles.
Zelenskiy said earlier that the United States had slowed some vital supplies for Ukraine, adding that the delays were at the US Defense Department level. He provided no other details. Kyiv has previously said it has struggled to get interceptors critical to repelling Russian missile attacks.
Zelenskiy said that some political agreements on air defence were not implemented at a working level.
Throughout the nearly five-year war, Ukraine has relied on US intelligence to detect Russian ballistic missile launches and provide early warning of incoming strikes.
Yurii Ihnat, a spokesman for the Ukrainian air force, said Kyiv received no warning ahead of the first ballistic missile strike overnight but did receive information ahead of a second attack.
“For some reason, no information was received the first time, a matter our experts are investigating together with our partners, as this is not the first time such a situation has occurred,” Ihnat told Ukrainian television.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio denied that the United States had paused some intelligence sharing with Ukraine.