GEOFF BENNETT: Russian airstrikes across Ukraine overnight killed at least 17 civilians and injured more than 40 others.

Ukraine's air force says Russia launched several missiles and an estimated 168 drones, the latest large-scale aerial assault in a war raging for more than 4.5 years.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is calling on the allies to replenish the country's stockpile of Patriot interceptors.

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, Ukrainian President (through translator): We need missiles for Patriots, and only our partners can provide them.

At all levels, we convey to them both what we need and the fact that we know our partners are capable of needing this need.

We aren't talking about gifts.

Ukraine is ready to buy the weapons.

GEOFF BENNETT: For perspective, we turn again to retired U.S.

Army colonel Robert Hamilton, who joins us now from Kyiv.

Thank you for being with us.

COL.

ROBERT HAMILTON (RET.

), Delphi Global Research Center: Thank you for having me.

Good to be here.

GEOFF BENNETT: And you were in Kyiv during this massive Russian strike overnight.

Take us inside that experience.

What happened?

COL.

ROBERT HAMILTON (RET.

): The Russians are able to do this about once or twice a week, where they sort of husband or marshal their ballistic and cruise missiles, because they don't have enough to do this every night in the numbers that they did last night.

So Ukraine through its own intelligence and certainly through intelligence sharing from the United States is almost always able to get early warning.

And this is hours early warning.

When Russia starts to do things that indicate that a large ballistic missile attack may be in the offing, then Ukrainians are able to be warned.

They have -- there's a messaging app that's widely used here called Telegram.

There are multiple Telegram channels that start to broadcast warning.

Early or late afternoon yesterday, we started to get warnings that there were movements under way in Russia that indicated a large attack was likely.

And so people are able to take precautions and get to shelters before the attack happens.

GEOFF BENNETT: And you have been traveling to Ukraine throughout this war.

You have said that people there have grown now accustomed to these attacks, even though they're tired and they're weary, understandably so.

What does that fatigue look like after years of war?

COL.

ROBERT HAMILTON (RET.

): Yes, they're tired, and especially now, over the last month or so, where their Patriot interceptor stocks have dwindled down dangerously low, not zero, probably, because they're probably holding on to some to protect very critical targets, very critical infrastructure.

But what it means is, they're not able to protect against a large-scale attack like happened last night.

And so Ukrainians know this is going to happen.

They have grown accustomed to sleeping in shelters, but you never, I guess, actually get accustomed to that.

But they're still resolved.

The polls indicate that people don't want to give up territory, at least give up territory legally, in other words, cede formally territory to the Russian Federation to stop the war.

Yes, they want the war to end, but they don't want it to come at the permanent cost of their territorial integrity.

GEOFF BENNETT: You're also studying how American weapons and U.S.

military training are performing in this war.

What are you learning?

COL.

ROBERT HAMILTON (RET.

): Well, we're increasingly learning that what we call security assistance or security cooperation in the United States, which is this idea that the U.S.

provides military assistance, so training, equipment, education, advising to its foreign partners, here in Ukraine is much more a two-way street than in many places.

In other words, the U.S.

is learning as much from Ukraine as it's teaching Ukraine, and Ukrainians are sometimes adapting and innovating with U.S.

equipment because of the exigencies of the war.

The war - - the character of war is changing here.

Something that worked six months ago may not work now.

A piece of equipment that could be used in one way a year ago has to be used in a different way now.

So we're here studying that, trying to learn from that and trying to understand it.

GEOFF BENNETT: And this war has become in many ways a laboratory for drone warfare.

There are reports that the U.S.

Army is moving to disband a specialized drone battalion.

Given what you're seeing in Ukraine, how much does that concern you?

COL.

ROBERT HAMILTON (RET.

): What's concerning about that to me is that institutions and organizations matter, right?

So having a dedicated unit -- both Russia and Ukraine have dedicated units for drone warfare.

They have units that their only purpose in being is to understand adapt, and innovate in the drone war.

And that's why you have seen such rapid adaptation and innovation on both sides in the drone war here.

What would concern me about the Army's decision is, when you take away the unit, the organization, the institution whose sole mission it is to understand and integrate these lessons, it's possible that they won't be understood and integrated at the level they should be.

GEOFF BENNETT: After spending so much time in Ukraine and with Ukrainians who are fighting this war, what do you think Americans misunderstand most about where this war stands right now?

COL.

ROBERT HAMILTON (RET.

): Well, I think the narrative is slow to shift.

The narrative all through 2025, at least in the West, was inexorable territorial gains that would result in inevitable Russian victory, right?

And if you're not following the war on a day-to-day basis, you're going to miss the fact that that's no longer what's happening on the ground here.

So the Ukrainians have stabilized the situation at the tactical level.

Throughout this year, 2026, Russia has in many months lost more territory than it's gained.

And so the front lines are stabilized.

Territory is not changing hands at a rapid rate.

It never really was.

Russia's gains were at the tactical level, not operationally or strategically significant.

And then, at the strategic level, I think what we're seeing, and last night was an example of it, is a modern form of a strategic bombing campaign, where both sides now have the ability to reach deep into the other side's territory and hit targets of strategic significance.

So Ukraine is striking Russian energy infrastructure, the Russian military industry, Russian strategic logistics, Russia striking the Ukrainian energy grid, Ukrainian logistics and also, frankly, civilian targets.

And Russian strikes on civilian targets are not an accident.

These aren't these aren't mistakes.

There's so many of them.

They happen so often, to include last night, that it's hard not to conclude that the commission of war crimes is part of Russia's military strategy here.

GEOFF BENNETT: Retired Army Colonel Robert Hamilton, thanks again for your time this evening.

COL.

ROBERT HAMILTON (RET.

): Thank you.