Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky renewed his plea for Western air defenses following a deadly overnight Russian attack, which saw only one of 27 ballistic missiles shot down.
The attack is the second major Russian aerial assault in two days, with the Kremlin apparently seeking to expose Kyiv’s shortages of key defense systems as it struggles to make advances along the vast front line.
At least nine people were killed and 30 wounded in the latest attack on Ukraine, including four children, with strikes targeting the capital Kyiv and surrounding regions, according to the city’s mayor Vitali Klitschko.
The Ukrainian president has often appealed to Western nations to provide much-needed air defense systems to protect Ukraine’s cities and critical infrastructure from aerial attacks. The country is facing a shortage of US-made Patriot defense interceptor missiles.
Yet the situation has become more desperate in recent weeks, with massive Russian assaults claiming the lives of civilians. Earlier this week, Ukrainian authorities said a ballistic missile slammed into a house in the rural village of Radushne, in the Dnipro Region, killing at least six family members, including four children.
