Russian Strikes Kill Two in Ukraine as Kyiv Air Defenses Falter

Russian strikes killed two people and wounded five more across Ukraine on Friday, officials said, as Kyiv struggles to counter a bombardment that has killed more than 50 people over the past three days, according to The Associated Press.

What happened in Friday's strikes?

One man was killed and five people were wounded in Russian strikes on Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia region Friday morning, said Mykhailo Semikin, head of the regional military administration, according to the AP. Semikin said the attacks hit residential areas and that a child was among the wounded. A second man was killed in Ivano-Frankivsk in western Ukraine, regional military administration head Svitlana Onyshchuk reported. Russia also struck warehouse facilities in the Bucha district of the Kyiv region, wounding three people, Ukraine's Interior Ministry said on Telegram. Rescuers were searching for a woman believed to still be under the rubble, the ministry said.

How many people have Russian strikes killed this week?

The Friday deaths add to a toll that has climbed sharply since Wednesday. A Russian missile strike killed 22 people, including five children, in the northern town of Pryluky, the AP reported. A day later, a Russian guided bomb exploded next to public buses filled with passengers in eastern Ukraine, killing 30 people. Combined with Friday's casualties, Russian attacks have killed more than 50 civilians over three days, according to the wire service.

Why can't Ukraine stop the attacks?

Ukraine's defenses are being outpaced by a mix of ballistic missiles and jet-powered drones, the AP reported. Without ammunition for its U.S.-made Patriot air defense systems, Ukraine cannot stop Russian ballistic weapons, according to the report. Kyiv is racing to develop a new generation of interceptors fast enough to catch Moscow's high-flying, jet-propelled drones, the AP said. Recent Russian targets have included energy systems, key industries, railways, post offices, shopping centers, telecom networks, gas stations and grain exports, according to the wire service.

What is Zelenskyy asking NATO for?

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appealed Thursday for additional defense support from NATO countries. "It is important that support in words takes concrete form in new packages for Ukraine's defense," Zelenskyy wrote in an online post, according to the AP. "Supplies of anti-ballistic capabilities, ammunition for our combat aircraft and investments in interceptors — all of this is directly helping save lives every day." Zelenskyy has also warned that Moscow will likely escalate daily attacks as winter approaches, adding pressure on Ukraine as it prepares for the cold season and as Russia continues to target the infrastructure keeping the country's war-battered economy running, the AP reported.

Did Ukraine strike back at Russia?

A Ukrainian attack on Russia's eastern Belgorod region killed two people Friday, the area's regional emergency headquarters said, according to the AP. Regional governor Alexander Shuvayev said 12 people were wounded in Ukrainian strikes. Separately, a Ukrainian drone strike damaged a data center belonging to a Russian technology company, the wire service reported, though further details on that strike were not included in available reporting.

Timeline of the week's attacks

• Wednesday: A Russian missile strike kills 22 people, including five children, in Pryluky in northern Ukraine, the AP reported.
• Thursday: A Russian guided bomb explodes next to buses carrying passengers in eastern Ukraine, killing 30 people. Zelenskyy publicly appeals to NATO for more anti-ballistic capabilities, aircraft ammunition and interceptor investment.
• Friday: Strikes on Zaporizhzhia kill one man and wound five, including a child. A second man is killed in Ivano-Frankivsk. Warehouse facilities in Kyiv region's Bucha district are hit, wounding three and leaving a woman missing under rubble. A Ukrainian strike on Russia's Belgorod region kills two and wounds 12, Russian officials say.

Russia and Ukraine remain locked in a long-range aerial war while their armies stay largely deadlocked along the front line more than four and a half years after Moscow's full-scale invasion, the AP reported. Neither side's military position on the ground has shifted significantly even as the civilian toll from long-range strikes continues to mount on both sides of the border, according to the wire service's account of casualties in both Ukraine and Russia's Belgorod region.

The competing tallies underscore how the war has settled into a pattern: trench warfare at the front, paired with escalating strikes deep behind each side's lines aimed at infrastructure, industry and, officials on both sides say, civilians. For now, both Kyiv and Moscow are reporting mounting dead and wounded from strikes hundreds of miles from the contact line, with no public indication from either government of a near-term change in approach.

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