Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Sunday that Ukraine needs to strengthen its air defenses to protect people from Russian attacks. According to Zelensky, Russia launched more than 800 guided aerial bombs, approximately 460 attack drones and more than 20 missiles of various types into Ukraine over the past week. TASR informs about it according to a Reuters report.
“This week, the air strike alarm sounded almost every day in Ukraine,” Zelenskyy wrote on the X network. “Ukraine is not a testing ground for weapons. Ukraine is a sovereign and independent state. But Russia continues its efforts to kill our people, spread fear and panic, weaken us,” said the Ukrainian leader. “Ukraine needs more air defense systems, and we are actively cooperating with our partners on this. Strengthening the protection of our skies is absolutely crucial,” he added.
The Ukrainian military reported on Sunday that it destroyed 50 of 73 Russian drones during nighttime attacks. More than ten drones were aimed at Kyiv. According to the military administration of the capital, there were no casualties and no damage was reported. The head of the Kyiv military administration, Serhiy Popko, said that the air alert in Kyiv lasted for more than three hours.
Recently, Russia has intensified air attacks on Ukrainian cities, in which it mainly deploys unmanned aircraft. Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin announced on Thursday that Russia had hit Ukraine with a new medium-range Oreshnik (Lieska) missile that carried a non-nuclear warhead. He described this “test in combat conditions” as a reaction to the “aggressive actions of NATO countries towards Russia”. He declared that Russia will continue to test this missile.
The attack came just two days after Ukraine launched attacks on Russia using US ATACMS and British Storm Shadow missiles.
