Russia's overnight missile-and-drone attack on Kyiv and surrounding communities has become the lead pressure point before this week's NATO summit because it exposed the part of Ukraine's defense network that is hardest to improvise: protection against ballistic missiles.
Associated Press reported that at least 21 people were killed, most of them in Kyiv, after Russia fired hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles. Ukrainian officials said the strike package included ballistic missiles that air defenses did not stop, while drones and some other missiles were intercepted. The precise battlefield effect is still being assessed, but the civilian consequences are already clear in damaged apartment blocks, emergency searches, and renewed calls for Patriot interceptors.
The diplomatic timing matters. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is expected to press NATO leaders for more air-defense commitments, while allied governments are also debating spending targets, industrial capacity, and the long-term shape of Ukraine's security relationship with Europe and the United States. The Guardian separately reported Ukrainian efforts to turn wartime drone expertise into defense agreements with NATO members, a sign that Kyiv is trying to be treated not only as an aid recipient but also as a defense producer.
The policy problem is that Ukraine's most urgent requirement is not simply more weapons in the abstract. Drone warfare, cruise-missile interception, and ballistic-missile defense draw on different stockpiles, radars, launchers, and supply chains. If the summit produces broad statements without near-term interceptor commitments, Moscow's incentive to keep testing Kyiv's defenses will remain high. If it produces concrete pledges, the next test will be delivery speed rather than communique language.