Attacks prompt new Ukrainian Patriot pleas

Russian missile and drone attacks on Ukraine overnight into Saturday killed at least four people and wounded 20, officials said, and prompted fresh pleas from Ukraine’s president for Western air defense systems.

- BY SAMYA KULLAB AND ELISE MORTON

In the capital, Kyiv, two people were killed and 13 were wounded in a ballistic missile attack in the early hours Saturday, police said.

A fire broke out in a nonresidential building, while debris from intercepted missiles fell in an open area at another site, damaging windows in nearby buildings, Ukraine’s State Emergency Service wrote on the messaging app Telegram.

"Explosions in the capital. The city is under ballistic attack," Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, wrote on Telegram during the onslaught.

In the Dnipropetrovsk region, two people were killed and seven wounded, acting regional Gov. Vladyslav Haivanenko said, adding that apartment buildings and houses were damaged in the strikes.

Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched nine missiles and 62 drones, of which four missiles and 50 drones were intercepted.

In Russia, the Defense Ministry said its air defenses shot down 121 Ukrainian drones over Russia overnight.