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Meanwhile, in Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy openly acknowledges that his country is desperately short of air defense weapons. He says that's why Ukraine keeps getting hammered by Russian ballistic missiles. NPR's Greg Myre reports from Kyiv.
GREG MYRE, BYLINE: Ukrainians are way too familiar with air raid sirens wailing in the middle of the night...
(SOUNDBITE OF AIR RAID SIRENS BLARING)
MYRE: ...And with the boom of air defense weapons being launched.
(SOUNDBITE OF AIR DEFENSE WEAPONS LAUNCHING)
MYRE: These measures have helped protect people. But in recent weeks, Russia's ballistic missiles are slamming into Ukrainian cities far more often because the country is running out of American-made Patriot air defense missiles.
(SOUNDBITE OF GLASS BEING SWEPT)
MYRE: Workers are sweeping up in an apartment building in the western part of Kyiv. The scorched and pockmarked building was hit by a missile just hours earlier, shattering windows, spraying debris and inflicting multiple casualties. I spoke with a resident, Ivan Hyrnevich, age 24.
IVAN HYRNEVICH: (Through interpreter) There's no question these attacks will continue. The main question is how many more buildings will be hit before our foreign partners give us more help, more Patriot missiles?
MYRE: Ukraine began receiving Patriot air defense batteries three years ago, and this has limited the damage caused by Russian missiles. But Russia has been making and firing more missiles recently, at exactly the same time Ukraine's stocks have dwindled.
ROB LEE: The Patriot system has really been the main ballistic missile defense system, and it's a really big stockpile problem. And so I don't know if there's any immediate solution.
MYRE: Rob Lee is an American military analyst living in Ukraine and working with the Foreign Policy Research Institute of Philadelphia. The attack last Saturday showed just how dire the situation is. Russia unleashed 27 ballistic missiles and Ukraine only shot down one, according to officials. Seven different parts of Kyiv were hit. Nine people were killed, more than 30 injured. When facing Russian drones, Ukraine shoots down more than 90% of them.
Air Force spokesman Yurii Ihnat explains that Ukraine does this in multiple ways. It fires its own interceptor drones. It uses electronic jamming to drive Russian drones off course. And it sends up helicopters and old propeller planes equipped with machine guns to shoot them down.
YURII IHNAT: (Through interpreter) We use all these different means, and we have to act quickly. The Russians try to exhaust our air defenses with drones and then fire ballistic missiles.
MYRE: But with these missiles, which travel thousands of miles an hour, there's no reliable alternative to the Patriot, first introduced by the U.S. in the 1980s. The U.S. has shared this system with nearly 20 other countries in Europe, the Middle East and Asia. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is pleading with these countries to send some of their missiles to Ukraine. He says they shouldn't be stockpiled for, quote, "hypothetical scenarios" but used here and now to contain and stop the Russian war. The U.S. has the largest arsenal. However, President Trump has cut off nearly all military assistance to Ukraine and the U.S. burned through much of its Patriot's stockpile in the Iran war.
Mark Montgomery is a retired U.S. Navy rear admiral who comes to Ukraine to help train the military. He says one possible approach in the short term is for Ukraine to use its U.S. F-16 fighter jets to attack the sites where Russia launches the missiles. Instead of trying to defend against every single incoming missile, he says go after the Russian teams firing them.
MARK MONTGOMERY: I think there's a great opportunity here to help the Ukrainians strike the ballistic missiles before they launch.
MYRE: He says this would require modifications to the F-16s, but believes it could be done in weeks.
MONTGOMERY: If we can kill their operators, we're going to reduce the number of launches.
MYRE: Meanwhile, Ukraine is gaining momentum in the war with punishing drone strikes deep inside Russia. But the problem with Russian missiles cannot be ignored, says Rob Lee.
LEE: This is going to be, you know, enduring challenge to Ukraine, where they've - you know, a number of good trends, positive trends of the war right now, but this is certainly one of those trends that is still very difficult.
(SOUNDBITE OF GLASS BEING SWEPT)
MYRE: Back at the damaged apartment building, workers cut plywood to cover missing windows. A backhoe loads rubble into a dump truck. A steamroller levels fresh asphalt to repair the damaged street. Ukrainians are briskly efficient in cleaning up after attacks, but what they really want is a defense that keeps these strikes from ever happening.
Greg Myre, NPR News, Kyiv. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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