Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday reiterated a call to his Western allies to provide Kiev with more air defense systems, and more quickly, after Russian attacks which left at least seven dead, according to Kiev.
Attacks targeting the Black Sea port city of Odessa overnight from Friday to Saturday resulted in the deaths of five people, including a young child, and the destruction of a nine-story building, authorities say regional.
Eight people were also injured in the attack, including a child, according to a new report released by Ukrainian rescuers.
Images posted on social media showed several floors of a building completely collapsed.
At the same time, bombings killed a 76-year-old man in the Kharkiv region, near the Russian border, and another person in the southern Kherson region, according to regional authorities.
“Russia continues to strike civilians,” President Zelensky lamented on social media.
“We must strengthen Ukraine’s air shield to better protect our people from Russian terrorism. More air defense systems and more missiles for air defense systems to save lives,” he demanded.
After more than two years of war, the Ukrainian leader daily urges his Western allies to deliver military assistance more quickly, calling in particular for ammunition, more air defense systems and fighter planes.
However, American aid is still blocked in Congress due to the opposition between Republicans and Democrats, and the Europeans, whose production capacities are limited, are slow to deliver the shells promised in recent months.
Victory against Russia “depends on you,” Volodymyr Zelensky warned his Western allies a few days ago.
In this context of strong pressure, Germany promised an investigation on Saturday after the broadcast in Russia of alleged exchanges between several German officers on arms deliveries to Ukraine, “a very serious matter” according to Chancellor Olaf Scholz .
A member of the government coalition quickly estimated that Moscow, by broadcasting its recordings, was seeking to “intimidate” Berlin into continuing to refuse to deliver long-range Taurus missiles to kyiv.
Drone in Russia
According to Ukrainian Defense Minister Roustem Oumerov, half of the Western weapons promised to kyiv are being delivered late.
This problem adds to the fatigue of the soldiers engaged on the front, marked by two years of a grueling war, facing a larger Russian army.
The Ukrainian Air Force said on Sunday that it had intercepted 14 of the 17 “Shahed” explosive drones launched by Russia.
For its part, Kiev forces reportedly carried out their own drone attack overnight Friday and Saturday, which damaged a residential building in St. Petersburg, Russia’s second city located about 1 000 kilometers from the border with Ukraine.
The Russian National Guard indicated that “the crash of a drone” was the “probable” cause of the incident, which prompted the evacuation of “around a hundred people”.
Municipal authorities had earlier assured that no victims had been recorded.
Videos posted on Russian social media show what appears to be a drone falling from the sky into the building and setting off an explosion.
According to Ukrainian media, Russian air defenses shot down a drone that was targeting an oil depot less than a kilometer away.
In recent months, the Ukrainian army has struck several Russian oil depots using explosive drones, depriving Moscow’s forces of significant resources.
The Russian Investigative Committee, for its part, stated in a press release that one of its teams working in the Bryansk border region had been attacked by Ukrainian drones, causing one injury.
On the front, Russian forces have been gaining ground in recent days, seizing several small villages in Donbass (east) and forcing the Ukrainians to reorganize their defense lines in the area.
“The situation on the front remains difficult, but controlled,” judged the Ukrainian commander-in-chief, Oleksandr Syrsky, on Saturday following a visit to the troops engaged on the front.