Ukraine pushes allies in NATO for anti-ballistic air defense after the latest major Russian attacks kill more than 20 in Kyiv and surrounding area.

Transcript

A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is heading to the NATO summit where he is expected to press allies for air defense interceptors capable of destroying ballistic missiles.

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PRESIDENT VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY: (Speaking Ukrainian).

MARTÍNEZ: Zelenskyy says securing more missile defenses is his top priority. The urgency comes as Russia is launching more high-speed missiles at Ukraine's capital, which the Kremlin says is in retaliation for Ukrainian long-range strikes on Russian oil refineries. NPR's Joanna Kakissis report from Kyiv on the latest Russian attack, which killed more than 20 people.

JOANNA KAKISSIS, BYLINE: For the second time in less than a week, Russian missiles hit apartment buildings early Monday morning as people slept.

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KAKISSIS: A Russian missile crushed several apartments in a nine-story building in north central Kyiv.

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KAKISSIS: Rescue workers use cranes to reach the rubble. A small crowd waits for news of missing loved ones.

IRYNA HOLOVATA: (Speaking Ukrainian).

KAKISSIS: Sixty-one-year-old Iryna Holovata (ph) says she cannot reach a dear childhood friend.

HOLOVATA: (Speaking Ukrainian).

KAKISSIS: She says, "as soon as I heard the explosions, I started calling her." Holovata lives nearby and rushed here with her neighbor, Yelena Zavozina (ph).

YELENA ZAVOZINA: We don't know is she alive or no, where is she. We cannot call.

KAKISSIS: She says she has a message for NATO leaders.

ZAVOZINA: Please, just stop this war. We don't want to die. We are innocent people, you know?

KAKISSIS: Vadym Litvishko (ph) and his family live in the destroyed building. They huddle under a tree.

VADYM LITVISHKO: (Speaking Ukrainian).

KAKISSIS: "I don't know what will happen next," he says. "If our building is deemed unsafe, we might be homeless." His wife, Tetyana Stepanenko (ph), hugs their 10-year-old son.

TETYANA STEPANENKO: (Speaking Ukrainian).

KAKISSIS: "Our children live in fear," she says. "Here we are in the 21st century, the age of the internet and space travel, and we cannot lie down in our beds and sleep peacefully." Rescue workers find another body. They lower the stretcher.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Screaming).

KAKISSIS: And a mother cries out. The body is her missing daughter. Joanna Kakissis, NPR News, Kyiv.

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