The Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky He asked his allies again on Saturday to protect his country’s airspace, just hours after Russian bombings killed four people and wounded 20 others overnight.
The day before, Zelensky and his allies They met in London to discuss the supply of long-range weapons and air protection systems to kyiv.
“Our partners have the necessary systems and can help defend Ukraine” against the Russian ballistic missiles used in “almost all of its attacks,” the Ukrainian leader explained on social networks.
Zelensky said that “special attention must be paid to the Patriot systems,” the expensive American-designed anti-aircraft batteries, effective against these missiles.
In the early hours of Saturday, Russia fired on Ukraine “nine Iskander-M ballistic missiles” and “64 attack drones,” among others, according to the Ukrainian Air Force, which claimed to have destroyed 50 drones and four missiles.
The attack killed two people and injured 12 others in kyiv, according to its mayor, Vitali Klitschko, on social networks.
Around four in the morning, AFP journalists in kyiv heard the characteristic whistle of the missiles, as well as powerful detonations.
They also observed firefighters fighting the flames that were devouring a warehouse, while major fires broke out in two neighborhoods of the capital, according to municipal sources.
In the center-east of the country, “one rescuer died and another was injured after a missile attack against the community of Petropavlivska, in the Dnipropetrovsk region,” the Interior Ministry reported on social networks.
In the same region, “a woman also died and seven people were injured,” the ministry said, explaining that “fire trucks, residential buildings and shops were damaged.”
For its part, the Russian Ministry of Defense claimed to have attacked “companies of the Ukrainian military-industrial complexas well as energy infrastructures that allow its operation.”
As temperatures drop, Russia is multiplying attacks against Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, raising fears of a harsh winter for Ukrainians.
Zelensky declared on Saturday that, since the beginning of the year, Russia has launched against Ukraine “around 770 ballistic missiles” and more than “50 hypersonic Kinjal missiles”, difficult for air defense to intercept.
