Ukraine braces for combined salvos of up to 200 missiles as overnight attack kills 15 in Kyiv

KYIV, Ukraine — Russia is racing to nearly triple its biggest missile barrage, from 77 missiles fired at once to as many as 200, a salvo built to overwhelm Ukraine’s air defenses in one shot rather than over days, the commander of Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces said last week. Russia has been ramping up both its barrages and the production lines feeding them: it launched a record 351 missiles at Ukraine in July, including 153 cruise and 198 ballistic and hypersonic, while its factories ran at 110% to 120% of monthly production targets – already reaching their annual production goals for Zircon and Oniks missiles by early August, according to Ukraine’s Defence Intelligence . “The enemy currently has the capability to launch more than 70 (77) missiles of various types from different launch systems, ships and aircraft,” Maj. Robert “Magyar” Brovdi wrote in an Aug. 10 Telegram post . “The enemy is working to increase the size of a single simultaneous salvo to as many as 200 missiles.” “Even if they only manage half of that, it will all be flying at us,” Brovdi told the Associated Press the same day. A mixed barrage struck Kyiv shortly after midnight local time on Thursday, with more than a dozen explosions heard across the capital – a fraction of the salvo Brovdi says Moscow is building toward. The strike killed at least 15 people and injured dozens across the capital alone, damaging several residential buildings, a school, a children’s hospital and a kindergarten, according t…