Ukraine is pressing the United States and Europe to provide Patriot missile interceptors after an overnight Russian missile and drone barrage on Kyiv killed at least 10 people and wounded dozens, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said. The appeal came as Ukrainian authorities widened an investigation into bomb shelters that residents say are often locked, flooded, or too far away to reach in time.
«The world has Patriot missiles,» Zelenskyy said in a video message. «What matters now is for our partners to make the political decision to provide the necessary packages. The United States knows what we need. Europe knows what we need.» He added: «Anti-ballistic missiles must protect people, not sit in stockpiles.»
Former Ukrainian government spokesperson Yulia Mendel said the civilian protection crisis extends far beyond air defenses. «It's not possible to keep begging for missiles all the time. This is not how one protects the population,» she said. Mendel accused Zelenskyy of shifting responsibility for inadequate protection onto Western partners, saying that «scandalous situations keep arising» where people have no chance to take cover. «Many still lack shelters close enough to reach quickly every time danger strikes,» she added.
Kyiv is auditing how shelter funds were spent. Mayor Vitali Klitschko said the city allocated more than 1.1 billion hryvnias, or about $26 million, for shelter repairs in 2026, after spending roughly 7 billion hryvnias from 2022 through 2025. On July 10 he ordered an audit of how district administrations used the money. Ukrainian officials ordered a nationwide shelter inspection on July 30 after reports that some residents could not get into shelters during a major Russian attack.
The problems are widespread. Ukraine's human rights commissioner, Dmytro Lubinets, said in June that inspections of 1,066 shelters across the country found deficiencies in 93 percent of them. Some were locked, flooded, or otherwise unusable, while others were inaccessible to people with disabilities. Residents have described hiding in bathrooms and corridors, moving to basements at risk of being buried under rubble, being denied entry to a shelter because of a dog, renting a hotel room to access its shelter, and sleeping in underground parking garages.
Ukraine and Finland have launched the Civil Protection Shelter Coalition to help implement Ukraine's civilian defense strategy through 2034. At its inaugural meeting, members pledged more than 22 million euros, about $25 million, to support shelter construction and modernization.
Mendel said the failures reflect the absence of a comprehensive civilian defense system, not only a shortage of interceptors. «Thousands of shelters fail to meet basic standards, and mandatory evacuations from dozens of villages and towns in the front-line regions are being announced on a regular basis as Russia expands its fire control,» she said. «Ukraine's civilian population is largely unprotected, not solely because of shortages of missiles, but because of the absence of any comprehensive system that would give people reliable places to shelter and the means to survive.»
Zelenskyy has asked President Donald Trump for an emergency shipment of about 300 Patriot interceptors ahead of winter, saying Ukraine «needed the Patriots yesterday» and that producing them domestically could take one to five years. Mendel questioned whether more missiles alone would change the situation. «I'm not sure that 300 Patriot missiles would be helpful,» she said. «Russia has also intensified its use of guided aerial bombs across the front-line regions, from northern Sumy to southern Kherson, expanding its fire control. No missile system can stop that.»
Zelenskyy has also said in a televised interview that Trump agreed to give Ukraine licenses to manufacture the interceptors domestically. Trump later said no agreement had been reached and that the administration was still discussing the proposal. «I don't think this would ever happen, but, you know, there's people that, you give that technology, they can someday turn on you,» Trump told reporters at Camp David on July 31. «So we have to be very careful.»
Mendel warned that without a broad overhaul of the civilian defense system, Ukraine faces an increasingly dire humanitarian situation. «Zelenskyy and his government are already warning that the winter will be even harsher than the last one, preparing the public for a humanitarian catastrophe,» she said. «But Ukraine has not designed a system that would be able to protect its population. Zelenskyy will continue demanding more support and missiles while shifting responsibility.»
