The air-raid sirens over Kyiv now sound after the explosions, not before. Russia has moved its ballistic-missile launchers close enough to cut the flight time to the capital to roughly three minutes β too fast for the city to be warned in time.
Even so, Ukraine’s air force said Tuesday it shot down five of them overnight, the first time in nearly two weeks it has stopped the hard-to-intercept weapons.
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Others still broke through, sparking fires at two warehouses and damaging a school. Russia’s Defense Ministry said it had targeted plants producing long-range missiles and drones.
The barrage lands as Ukraine races to rebuild its air-defense shield before winter, when Russian strikes on the power grid make the cold months nearly unlivable.
Zelenskyy, in France for Bastille Day, announced a 10-nation coalition to build a shared ballistic-missile shield for Europe, with a low-cost, mass-produced system possible within a year.
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President Donald Trump said last week the U.S. will license Ukraine to build its own Patriot systems, though those are costly, scarce and slow to produce.
Ukraine kept up its own long-range campaign, striking Russian oil refineries and shadow-fleet tankers. “This war must be brought to an end, and all reasonable diplomatic proposals are on the table,” Zelenskyy said.
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