A Patriot missile-defense system donated by NATO member Romania has arrived in Ukraine, the two neighbors announced on October 3, as the military alliance's secretary-general, Mark Rutte, made a surprise visit to Kyiv just two days after taking office.
Russian drones and missiles rained down on Kyiv and other Ukrainian regions in the early hours of October 3, and as Rutte met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy later in the day, air-raid sirens twice blared throughout the capital, underscoring the situation faced by residents of the capital and other regions of the country.
"I thank every country that helps us with air defense. A special thanks to Romania for the 'Patriot' systems. Together, we can achieve even greater efficiency -- we can put an end to Russian terror by jointly taking down 'Shaheds' and missiles," Zelenskiy said on X, while Romania's Defense Ministry confirmed to RFE/RL that the Patriot system had been delivered.
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Speaking after his meeting with Zelenskiy, Rutte vowed to help build and maintain Western support for Ukraine as it battles to repel Russia's full-scale invasion, launched by the Kremlin in February 2022.
"Ukraine is closer to NATO than ever before," he said, noting recent steps taken by the alliance that are helping to "build a bridge to NATO membership."
Highlighting the risk to NATO members such as Romania that border on Ukraine, Russian drones again struck the critically important Ukrainian port of Izmayil just across the Danube, prompting Bucharest to scramble F-16 fighter jets to monitor the situation late on October 2.
"We confirm that the Patriot system has arrived in Ukraine," Constantin Spinu, a spokesman for Romania's Defense Ministry, told RFE/RL on October 3, after the government in Bucharest last month passed a bill needed for the transfer of the system to Kyiv.
Under the bill, Romania grants Ukraine the right of free use of the system.
Kyiv has been desperately urging its Western allies to supply more modern weapons and air-defense systems that would help it on the one hand to protect its skies and on the other hand allow it to strike military targets deeper inside Russia to prevent Moscow's forces from launching attacks on Ukraine from a safe distance.
Early on October 3, Ukrainian air defenses shot down 78 Russian drones over 15 regions -- Kyiv, Cherkasy, Vinnytsya, Khmelnytskiy, Kirovohrad, Zhytomyr, Poltava, Chernihiv, Kherson, Odesa, Kharkiv, Sumy, Dnipropetrovsk, Rivne, and Ivano-Frankivsk -- the air force reported.
The head of the Ukrainian capital's military administration said on Telegram that 15 drones were downed over Kyiv. Drone debris fell on the capital's Desnyanskiy district without causing injuries or damage during the attack, which lasted for more than five hours, Serhiy Popko said.
Separately, a source in Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) told RFE/RL that Ukrainian drones overnight attacked the Borisoglebsk military airfield in Russia's Voronezh region. The airfield, some 240 kilometers from the border, has been used by Russia to launch missile attacks on Ukraine.
The source, who spoke under the condition of anonymity, said that satellite monitoring showed that four fires were burning on the airfield's perimeter.
Russia's Defense Ministry, meanwhile, said 113 Ukrainian drones were shot down overnight over the Belgorod, Voronezh, Kursk, and Bryansk regions. The highest number of drones, 73, were intercepted over Belgorod, the ministry said.
Ukraine, whose civilian and energy infrastructure has been battered by relentless Russian drone and missile strikes since the start of Moscow's unprovoked invasion in February 2022, has in turn begun to launch its own drone strikes on military facilities deeper inside Russia.