Zelensky presses for Patriot interceptors as Ukraine’s Air Force reports 140 drones and four missiles overnight

Ukraine’s Air Force said Russia attacked overnight into 26 October with 140 Shahed-type drones and four missiles, a day after President Volodymyr Zelensky called for already agreed Patriot interceptor deliveries to be “unblocked” following deadly strikes on the night of 24 to 25 October. The figures below are the Ukrainian side’s own and preliminary.

The overnight attack on 26 October

According to the Air Force’s Telegram report, carried by Ukrinform, the attack began at 18:00 on 25 October. Russia launched one Kh-31P missile, three Kh-59/69 guided air-launched missiles fired from the occupied parts of the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, and 140 Shahed-type attack drones, 70 of them jet-powered, along with Gerbera and Parodiya decoy drones. The Air Force listed launch directions including Oryol, Kursk, Shatalovo and Millerovo in Russia and Hvardiiske in occupied Crimea.

As of 08:00 on 26 October, the Air Force said, 112 drones and the three Kh-59/69 missiles had been shot down or suppressed by aircraft, anti-aircraft missile units, electronic warfare, unmanned systems units and mobile fire groups. It recorded Russian weapons hitting 15 locations, with debris from downed targets falling at four more, and said the attack was still going on, with several drones in Ukrainian airspace. The report mentioned no casualties. No Russian statement on this attack was found.

The previous night and the Patriot appeal

The strikes on the night of 24 to 25 October were heavier in human cost. ABC News reported that the Air Force counted 153 drones plus cruise missiles, with 119 of the drones shot down or suppressed and impacts in 15 locations. Ukrainian officials said at least four people were killed and 22 injured in the Dnipropetrovsk region, with injuries also in Vinnytsia and Kharkiv. Zelensky said the targets included residential buildings, a hypermarket, thermal power plants, substations, coal mines and grain storage, with damage in nine regions.

Zelensky said it was crucial to strengthen air defence while renewed US-led peace efforts continue, and called for deliveries of Patriot interceptors that have already been agreed to be unblocked. ABC News reported that he told the network a week earlier that Ukraine needs about 350 Patriot interceptors a month but has received 24 in the past three months. We covered his earlier requests in Zelensky meets Lockheed Martin in Kyiv: buying Patriot missiles against ballistic threats and servicing F-16s inside Ukraine and Trump calls Ukraine’s refinery strikes a “disgrace”; Zelensky, in Brussels, answers.

Russia’s claim and the diplomatic track

Russia’s defence ministry said, according to ABC News, that it intercepted at least 532 Ukrainian drones overnight over 22 Russian regions, including Moscow, as well as Crimea and the Black Sea. That is a Russian claim, and Ukraine’s General Staff had not confirmed the scale of any such attack in the sources read.

On the diplomatic track, ABC News said US special envoy Steve Witkoff met Zelensky in Oslo and then President Vladimir Putin in St Petersburg, and called the talks constructive. Trilateral talks between the United States, Ukraine and Russia are expected in the United Arab Emirates in November, ABC reported, while Putin’s aide Yuri Ushakov said a possible deal still needs work.