Russia killed at least 12 people in and around Kyiv overnight, the sixth consecutive night of combined drone and missile attacks on the capital. Eight died in the city itself — seven at a railway depot on the left bank — and four more in the surrounding region. The strikes hit at approximately 2.30am after hours of air alerts, part of a sustained campaign targeting infrastructure, logistics networks, and civilian morale. The operational logic is straightforward and deliberate. Russia is exploiting a specific gap in Ukraine's air defences: the near-total depletion of US-made Patriot interceptors, the only system capable of stopping high-speed ballistic missiles. Zelenskyy said as much openly, noting Russia had deployed "a significant number of jet-powered drones and ballistic missiles" and that the attacks succeed "only when air defence capabilities are insufficient." Moscow is reading the same supply spreadsheets Kyiv is. The numbers from the Ukrainian air force frame the scale. Russia attacked 28 locations, concentrating on Kyiv and Odesa. Air defences shot down five Iskander ballistic missiles, two Banderol and five Kalibr cruise missiles, and 187 of 218 drones — an 86% drone intercept rate, but the missiles that leak through carry catastrophic warheads. Ukraine no longer reveals total missile numbers fired, itself an indicator of how strained the defence posture has become. The supply chain dynamics are the load-bearing structure of this story. Lockheed Martin produces roughly 600 Pac-3 interceptors annually. US military stocks have been drawn down during the US war with Iran. Ukraine is attempting to secure approximately 300 interceptors for the winter, financed by European allies through a supply agreement with the US. The timeline is the vulnerability: Russia is attacking now, before that stockpile materialises. Thursday's strike on an ammunition store in Myla, 15 miles west of Kyiv, killed 38 people and triggered hours of secondary explosions that damaged surrounding homes. Six of the seven railway depot victims were Ukrainian Railways employees. These are not random targets — they are logistics nodes, the arteries that move military supplies and civilian goods across the country. The frontline remains nearly deadlocked, so Moscow has shifted the decisive effort to the air campaign, attempting to degrade Ukrainian infrastructure and political will before winter amplifies civilian suffering. Ukraine's response has been symmetric in logic if not in scale: striking oil refineries, warehouses, and military facilities deep inside Russia to impose economic costs. Both sides are now waging parallel wars of attrition against the other's rear echelon. The core question is whether the Patriot resupply pipeline closes the gap before winter, or whether Russia successfully degrades enough infrastructure — railways, power, logistics — to create a humanitarian crisis that shifts the political calculus in European capitals.
