Russia fired ballistic missiles and dozens of jet-powered drones at Kyiv this week, keeping Ukraine’s capital under day-and-night bombardment, Ukraine’s air force said.

The new jet-powered drones fly too fast and too high for Ukrainian ground-based air defences to shoot down, the air force said. Ukraine is racing to develop faster interceptor drones, but building and deploying new weapons takes months.

Ukraine said its defences shot down two ballistic missiles overnight, suggesting Kyiv may recently have received more US-made Patriot interceptor missiles. Ukraine is desperately short of Patriots, and stockpiles are low partly because of the war with Iran.

“Russia’s terror against Ukraine is intensifying by the day,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said on X. “This is Russia’s deliberate escalation instead of accepting Ukraine’s offers to cease fire, negotiate and end the war.”

In a separate wave on Wednesday, Russian strikes killed seven civilians and wounded 24 across Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said. Air force spokesman Yurii Ihnat said Russia had already launched 3,177 jet-propelled drones in September, up from 2,850 in August.