Without Patriot interceptors, Ukraine's skies are wide open and people are fully exposed to Russia's missile barrages.

At the Kvitneva railway station near Kyiv, workers lift white body bags from the pockmarked platform and carry them to waiting ambulances. Shoes, glasses and some pieces of clothing mark the spot where eight people were killed during Russia's latest massive aerial attack on Ukraine. Overnight, Moscow fired 115 drones and 24 ballistic missiles. Most of the drones were shot down, but Kyiv's depleted air defences did not intercept any of the missiles. The latest Russian barrage destroyed storage and logistics facilities - from online retailer warehouses to a postal sorting centre. In Kvitneva, it is not clear if the target was the railway itself or the warehouse beside it, which was also hit and was still smouldering hours later. Down the road, another warehouse was still ablaze more than 12 hours after the attack. The attack started just after midnight, with very little warning. It was one of the most intense nights of bombardment Kyiv has endured in recent months. Nearby, Anastasiia Dudley's house was almost totally destroyed but she and her mother survived – shaken but unharmed. Anastasiia has lived through years of war - but Wednesday was her "scariest night" since the start of Russia's full-scale war on Ukraine in February 2022, she says.