By Max Hunder
KYIV, July 11 (Reuters) – Russia attacked Ukraine with missiles and drones on Saturday, killing two and wounding 19 others, officials said, as Kyiv awaits supplies of air defence munitions after a shortage has left it exposed to Russian attacks.
Eleven people were wounded in the capital, Kyiv, by an attack that used ballistic and cruise missiles as well as drones.
“Civilian infrastructure was hit even before the air raid alert was issued,” President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, adding that rescuers were working on the site.
“Our defenders managed to shoot down most of the targets, but not the ballistic ones,” he added, calling on Ukraine’s allies to quickly deliver the support packages of air defences agreed at the NATO summit this week.
Russia launched six ballistic missiles, another six cruise missiles and 121 drones, Ukraine’s air force said, adding that it downed at least two cruise missiles and 111 drones.
Later in the morning, a missile strike in the port city of Odesa killed two people and wounded another, while a drone hit a civilian enterprise in the eastern city of Kharkiv, wounding seven.
UKRAINE PLEADS FOR SUPPLIES FROM ALLIES
Ukraine, which is critically low on munitions for its Patriot air defence systems, has been largely unable to down ballistic missiles, which travel at several times the speed of sound, over the past month.
It has pleaded with allies for greater supplies of those munitions, and has also pushed Europe to work with Kyiv on its own anti-ballistic air defence system.
U.S. President Donald Trump said this week that Ukraine will be granted a licence to produce its own Patriot interceptor missiles.
After Saturday’s attack, Zelenskiy called for those projects to move “as swiftly as possible”.
Russia has stepped up attacks on the capital in recent weeks. So far this month, strikes on Kyiv and the surrounding region have killed more than 60 people.
Kyiv, in turn, has been pressuring Russia’s military logistics in occupied southern Ukraine, seeking to deprive Russian forces of fuel and munitions by conducting strikes on trucks and vessels deep behind the front lines.
Ukraine’s drone forces chief Robert Brovdi said his units had struck 21 fuel tanker vessels in the Sea of Azov overnight, as well as seven other cargo and support ships, bringing the total up to 76 vessels struck this week.
(Reporting by Max Hunder in Kyiv; Editing by William Mallard, Tomasz Janowski and Barbara Lewis)
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