(Kyiv) Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday reiterated a call to his Western allies to provide Kyiv with more air defense systems, and more quickly, after Russian attacks which left at least six dead, according to Kyiv .
Attacks targeting the Black Sea port city of Odessa overnight Friday led to the deaths of four people, including a young child, and the destruction of a nine-story building, officials said Ukrainian officials.
Eight people were injured in the attack, according to Ukrainian rescuers.
PHOTO OLEKSANDR GIMANOV, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Rescue workers work at the site of a building heavily damaged in a Russian drone attack in Odessa on March 2.
Images posted on social media showed several floors of a completely collapsed building.
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 need more air defense from our partners. 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 save lives,” he demanded.
PHOTO ADNAN BECI, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky
After more than two years of war, in recent days, the Ukrainian leader has repeatedly urged his Western allies to deliver military assistance more quickly, calling in particular for ammunition, more air defense systems and combat aircraft. .
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, whose support is essential for Kyiv, but who have been reluctant in recent months to validate new budgetary envelopes for this purpose.
Hard situation ”
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, Kyiv’s forces reportedly carried out their own drone attack overnight from Friday to Saturday, which damaged a residential building in St. Petersburg, Russia’s second-largest city located about 1,000 kilometers from the border with Ukraine.
REUTERS PHOTO
This residential building in Saint Petersburg was hit by a Ukrainian drone on March 2.
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 showed what appeared to be a drone falling from the sky into the building and setting off an explosion, while residents reported blown out windows and small fires caused by a drone.
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.
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.