Ukraine has stopped reporting the number of missiles launched by Russia during attacks, while continuing to appeal to its allies for help strengthening its air defense, UNN reports, citing Bloomberg.
Details
The publication notes that although the Air Defense Forces said that 98 of 120 Russian drones had been shot down overnight, they did not provide data on the number of missiles launched. This came several days after they stopped reporting the interception of ballistic missiles following last week’s attack, during which Ukraine failed to stop any of the 28 projectiles.
According to a source familiar with the situation, who wished to remain anonymous because of the sensitivity of the matter, the Air Defense Forces changed the reporting format as a security measure in response to Russian strikes.
The media outlet notes that Ukraine is making every effort to obtain more interceptors from its allies, as it has struggled to counter the Russian air attacks that have intensified in recent weeks. In particular, it needs additional deliveries for the U.S.-made Patriot system, the most effective system for destroying Russian ballistic missiles, amid a sharp rise in global demand caused by the conflict in the Middle East.
A hospital building and businesses were damaged in a missile strike in Kyiv, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Tuesday on the X platform. According to him, the city of Zaporizhzhia was hit by North Korean-made ballistic missiles, as well as Russian Zircon hypersonic cruise missiles.
Deliveries of anti-aircraft missiles to Ukraine from its allies fell threefold in the first half of the year compared with 2025, Zelenskyy said on August 5, after Russian strikes that Kyiv’s forces were unable to repel killed at least 17 people and injured dozens.
According to the Ministry of Defense, Ukraine intercepted 29 of the 195 Russian ballistic missiles launched in July, while another 40 failed to reach their targets.
Additionally
Bloomberg noted that Ukraine is responding by striking oil refineries and logistics warehouses deep inside Russia, including warehouses belonging to e-commerce giant Wildberries, as part of a campaign aimed at causing economic damage and bringing the war closer to ordinary Russians.
"As of August 2026, more than 300 long-range drones are flying against us every night," Iryna Terekh, CEO of Ukrainian drone manufacturer Fire Point, said on X on Tuesday. "Since the beginning of the year, Ukraine has carried out twice as many deep strikes" against Russia as Moscow’s forces have against Ukraine, she added.
Russia’s Ministry of Defense reported that its forces intercepted 396 Ukrainian drones overnight in 14 regions of the country and in Crimea. Russia annexed Ukraine’s Black Sea peninsula in 2014.
Drone strikes caused fires at two warehouses in the southern Voronezh region overnight, the region’s governor, Alexander Gusev, said on Telegram. Wildberries’ press service later said that the fires had been extinguished and that most of the goods were not damaged.
"Russian forces are redirecting production of their long-range strike systems toward those that can more reliably penetrate Ukrainian air defenses," the U.S.-based Institute for the Study of War said in an assessment published on X on Tuesday. "The Kremlin believes it can exploit Ukraine’s shortage of missile interceptors to avoid the need to engage in meaningful negotiations or make concessions on its maximalist demands."
As a reminder
As UNN reported, Russia attacked Ukraine overnight with 120 drones, striking Kyiv and Zaporizhzhia with ballistic and Zircon missiles; 98 drones were shot down or suppressed, Ukraine’s Air Force said on Tuesday, without specifying the number of missiles launched by Russia.