Ukraine reports three killed in Russian strikes near Kyiv

Russian strikes near the Ukrainian capital killed three people, including a child, as explosions rocked Kyiv and fires broke out across parts of the city on Saturday.

The attacks targeted three locations in the Boryspil district, just southeast of Kyiv, according to Tymur Tkachenko, head of the regional administration. Three others were wounded in the strikes. Fires erupted in two central districts after air raid sirens blared early Saturday, with residents reporting powerful explosions that shook nearby buildings.

Ukraine’s air defences are struggling to stop Russia’s increasingly frequent missile attacks. Ballistic missiles travel at supersonic speeds and dive steeply, leaving defenders only seconds to react. The U.S.-supplied Patriot systems are the only reliable way to intercept them, but Ukraine has too few batteries and interceptors. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said this week that Ukraine received only a third as many air-defence missiles in the first half of this year compared to the same period in 2025, blaming the shortfall on the U.S.-Israel conflict with Iran draining global stockpiles.

Russian forces now launch about 100 ballistic missiles a month, officials warn, with plans to intensify attacks as winter approaches. The strikes come as Ukraine ramps up its own long-range strikes deep inside Russia, including drone and missile attacks on oil refineries and a logistics warehouse in Ekaterinburg linked to military supply chains. Separately, a Ukrainian drone killed two people in a Russian-occupied apartment building in Crimea on Friday. The U.S. Senate passed a sweeping sanctions bill targeting Russian energy exports, imposing 100% tariffs on countries still buying Russian oil and gas. The bill, approved 86-11, now goes to the House and President Trump for approval. Zelenskyy welcomed the move, while EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said it would help “drain Russia’s means to continue a war it cannot win.”