Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has written to U.S. President Donald Trump and Congress asking for more American-made air defense ammunition to counter intensifying Russian ballistic missile attacks, Kyiv said Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Russian lawmakers have backed a draft bill to have bank employees join the fight against Ukraine's long-range drones that strike deep inside Russia — with trained bank staff shooting down the unmanned aircraft.
The steps came after a recent escalation in aerial attacks by both sides in the more than four-year war that followed Russia's all-out invasion of its neighbor. Neither side has been able to make much progress on the 1,250-kilometer (780-mile) front line.
WATCH: NATO's Baltic flank in crossfire between Ukrainian drones and Russian targets
Also on Wednesday, Anne Keast-Butler, head of U.K.'s intelligence agency GCHQ, asserted that Russian President Vladimir "Putin is going backwards on the battlefield." New data shows that "almost half a million Russian soldiers have now been killed since the conflict began," she added.
