Ukraine is seeing “vital outcomes” from U.S. and German air defence methods, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy mentioned on Sunday, regardless of waves of Russian air strikes that Kyiv says focused civilians and residential buildings.
Russia reported it had shot down a drone heading for Moscow within the third such assault in every week, whereas officers on either side mentioned Ukraine had struck two bridges linking Crimea to the mainland.
Each international locations have stepped up assaults on one another’s troops, weaponry and infrastructure supporting the warfare as Ukraine seeks to dislodge Russian forces which have dug in throughout southern and japanese Ukraine since their invasion final yr.
The Moscow-appointed head of Crimea mentioned the Chonhar bridge to the peninsula, which was annexed from Ukraine by Moscow in 2014, had been broken by a missile strike. One other of the three highway hyperlinks between Crimea and Russian-occupied elements of mainland Ukraine, close to the city of Henichesk, was shelled and a civilian driver wounded, a Moscow-appointed official mentioned.
In his nightly video tackle on Sunday, Zelenskiy mentioned superior air defence methods, together with the U.S.-built Patriot and Germany’s IRIS-T, have been proving “extremely efficient” and had “already yielded vital outcomes.”
Zelenskiy mentioned Ukraine had shot down a big a part of Russia’s assaults over the previous week, which included 65 missiles of varied sorts and 178 assault drones, together with 87 Shaheds.
Ukraine’s army mentioned later that Russia had launched 30 missiles and 48 air strikes.
“Sadly, there are casualties and wounded among the many civilian inhabitants. Residential buildings and different civilian infrastructure suffered destruction,” the army mentioned in an announcement.
The assaults adopted what Zelenskiy mentioned was a bomb assault late on Saturday on a blood transfusion centre within the city of Kupiansk, round 16 km (10 miles) from the entrance within the japanese Kharkiv area. He described the strike as a warfare crime. Reuters couldn’t instantly confirm the report.
Russia denies intentionally concentrating on civilians or army hospitals in its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which has killed hundreds of individuals, uprooted tens of millions and destroyed cities.
MASSIVE CASUALTIES
In Russia, Moscow’s Vnukovo airport suspended flights on Sunday, citing unspecified causes outdoors its management. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin mentioned a drone had been shot down south of the capital.
Russia’s defence ministry mentioned earlier it had carried out profitable strikes on Ukrainian air bases within the western Rivne and Khmelnytskyi areas and southern Zaporizhzhia area. It mentioned its army launched a bunch strike utilizing long-range and sea-based precision weapons and all of the targets had been neutralized.
The deputy governor of the Khmelnytskyi area, Serhiy Tiurin, mentioned a army airfield in Starokostiantyniv was among the many targets. He mentioned many of the missiles have been shot down, however explosions had broken a number of homes, a cultural establishment and the bus station, and a hearth had damaged out at a grain silo.
Ukraine is 2 months right into a gruelling counteroffensive to attempt to push out Russian forces occupying nearly a fifth of its territory.
Zelenskiy aide Mykhailo Podoliak characterised the weekend Russian missile assaults as a response to Ukraine’s overtures to World South international locations which have been reluctant to take sides in a battle that has harm the worldwide financial system.
Senior officers from some 40 international locations together with the US, China and India held talks concerning the battle in Saudi Arabia on Saturday and Sunday, however the assembly ended with no concrete motion past a dedication to additional consultations.
The assembly was a part of a diplomatic push by Ukraine to construct help past its core Western backers. Zelenskiy’s chief of workers, Andriy Yermak, mentioned the discussions had been very productive, however didn’t give particulars.
Russia didn’t attend. Its deputy overseas minister, Sergei Ryabkov, mentioned the assembly mirrored the West’s “doomed efforts” to mobilise creating nations behind Zelenskiy.
SOURCE: REUTERS
