Ukraine gets more Patriot air defense systems to counter deadly Russian attacks

KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine received more American-made Patriot air defense systems to help it counter Russia’s daily barrages, President Volodymyr Zelensky said, as Russian drones killed a man and injured five family members, including two children, in the latest nighttime attack.

Russia’s relentless pounding of urban areas behind the front line following its full-scale invasion of Ukraine nearly four years ago has killed thousands of civilians. It also has targeted the energy supply to deny civilians heat and running water in winter, as well as disrupt industrial production of Ukraine’s newly developed drones and missiles.

The sophisticated Patriot systems are the most effective weapon against Russian missiles. Zelensky pleaded with Western partners to provide more of them, but production limitations and the need to maintain stockpiles have slowed their delivery.

“More Patriots are now in Ukraine and being put into operation,” Zelensky said on social media late Sunday. “Of course, more systems are needed to protect key infrastructure sites and our cities across the entire territory of our state.”

He thanked Germany and Chancellor Friedrich Merz for the Patriots. Germany said three months ago it would deliver two more Patriot air defense systems to Ukraine. It agreed to the move after securing assurances that the U.S. will prioritize the delivery of new Patriots to Germany to backfill its stocks. Patriot systems are made only in the U.S.

Germany has given to Ukraine more Patriot systems from its own armed forces than any other country, the German Defense Ministry said Monday. Germany also has supplied air defense systems with different ranges, such as IRIS-T and Skynex, a statement said.

NATO is coordinating regular deliveries of large weapons packages to Ukraine. European allies and Canada are buying much of the equipment from the United States, which has greater stocks of ready military materiel, as well as more effective weapons. The Trump administration is not giving any arms to Ukraine, unlike the Biden administration.

Russia launched 12 missiles of various types and 138 strike-and-decoy drones at Ukraine overnight from Sunday to Monday, Ukraine’s air force said. On some nights it has fired hundreds of drones and missiles at Ukraine.

In Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy region, Russian drones hit a house where they killed a man and injured five members of his family, authorities said. Two women also were injured in a separate Sumy attack.

“The Russians cynically targeted people — deliberately, at night, while they were sleeping,” regional head Oleh Hryhorov wrote on Telegram in response to the attacks.

Russian missiles started a fire at a business in the central city of Dnipro, injuring one man, regional head Vladyslav Haivanenko said.

Russian drones also have struck energy infrastructure in the southern Mykolaiv region.

At the same time, Ukraine has been trying to constrain Russia’s oil industry, a mainstay of its economy. Ukrainian forces struck Russia’s Saratov oil refinery overnight and started a fire, according to Ukraine’s general staff. It was Ukraine’s fourth attack on the Saratov installation in almost seven weeks. The refinery, located some 300 miles from the Ukrainian border, can process several million metric tons of oil a year.

Zelensky claimed last week that long-range strikes on Russian refineries have reduced Moscow’s oil refining capacity by 20%.

Novikov writes for the Associated Press. Stefanie Dazio in Berlin contributed to this report.