Kiev [Ukraine], January 20: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky issued a renewed appeal to the country's allies on Sunday to provide more US-made Patriot air defence systems following a week with more than 1,000 Russian air attacks.
"We need the strong support of our partners," Zelensky posted on his Telegram channel."More Patriots for Ukraine mean greater protection for life," he said. The Russian attacks caused multiple deaths and injuries.
According to Zelensky, Russia attacked Ukraine with more than 660 glide bombs, around 550 drones and almost 60 missiles over the past week. Ukrainian air defences downed 33 missiles, including ballistic variants, and more than 300 drones.
Zelensky published a video showing the devastation from the attacks, for example in Kiev and Zaporizhzhya over the weekend, and also in the Donbass region in the east of the country. Zelensky paid tribute to the armed forces, but added: "The task of continuing to protect our airspace remains." He called for Ukraine's Western allies to provide more air defence systems.
Three people have been killed in a Russian air strike on Kiev overnight, Ukrainian officials said, on Saturday.
Residents in the city first heard two loud explosions and only then the wail of the air raid siren, around 06:00 (04:00 GMT). The missiles had already hit by the time the ballistic threat warning was issued, urging residents to head for shelter.
The main destruction occurred in the central Shevchenkivskyi district, where there is now a deep crater in the road outside a business centre.
A military factory in the neighbourhood has been targeted repeatedly by Russia, but the damage we saw was to civilian buildings. An official said a couple had been killed on the street inside theirvehicle.
Officials earlier reported four people had died in the attack.
The metro station, nearby restaurants and businesses are also very badly damaged, and emergency workers are removing the burned wreckage of cars from the scene.
lready damaged in previous attacks on this area, the business centre's tall glass tower and main building are now a shell after being hit by either a second missile or very large fragment. It was empty when the missile struck.
Beside the main crater, a Ukrainian forensics expert examined fragments of missile collected into a heap of twisted grey metal on the pavement.
Andriy Kulchytskyy, the head of the Military Research Laboratory of the Kiev Institute of Scientific Expertise, told the BBC the crater was from a direct hit with an Iskander-M ballistic missile, based on markings on the missile fragments.
"This specific site shows one impact," he explained. "There are additional strikes, and we have collected debris. Here, the missile directly hit the road." Kulchytskyy said the projectile landed before the warning sirens sounded because ballistic missiles travel so quickly that the sirens cannot react in time.
Ukraine has been defending itself against a Russian full-scale invasion since February 2022. Over the weekend, the Russian Defence Ministry said its forces had taken further ground in eastern Ukraine.
Source: Qatar Tribune