Russia on Saturday launched fresh attacks on Ukraine’s capital Kiev and the southern port city of Odessa.
Ukrainian officials said a combination of ballistic and cruise missiles with drones injured 11 people in Kiev. A Russian missile attack in Odessa this morning killed two people and injured another.
Seven people were injured in a separate Russian attack in the city of Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine.
In a post on Twitter, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that civilian infrastructure in Kiev “was hit even before the airstrike warning was issued.”
“Emergency teams are working at the strike sites – apartment buildings, offices and a religious seminary have been damaged in the capital,” Zelensky said. “Recovery efforts also continue in the Odessa, Sumy, Kharkiv and Chernihiv regions.”
The attacks come as Ukraine faces a shortage of supplies of weapons needed to defend itself against Russian ballistic missiles.
Zelensky urges NATO members to stick to their word
Zelensky urged NATO members to fulfill the promises they made during a summit in the Turkish capital Ankara this week.
In the summit announcement, NATO members pledged “€70 billion (about $80 billion) in military equipment, aid and training to Ukraine and reaffirmed their sovereign commitments to maintain at least equivalent levels in 2027.”
NATO members such as the US, led by President Donald Trump, also expressed support for the Ukrainians to produce their own Patriot missiles.
Ukraine’s targeted drone strikes provoke violent response from Russia
The fighting between Ukraine and Russia has intensified in recent months.
Ukraine has boosted its drone production and increasingly struck Russian energy infrastructure such as oil refineries, causing disruption not only to Russian production but also daily life.
The Ukrainian military said it attacked 21 Russian oil tankers in the Sea of Azov on Saturday, in what could be the largest Ukrainian drone attack on Russian ships since the beginning of the war. Russian officials say at least one person on board the ship died.
Ukraine has also stepped up its drone attacks on the Crimea peninsula, a Ukrainian territory annexed by Russia in 2014, which the Kremlin uses as a logistics hub for its invasion of Ukraine.
In response, Russia has launched renewed attacks on Ukraine, with a massive drone and missile attack in Kiev earlier this month killing at least 30 people.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022.
Edited by: Carl Sexton
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