UKRAINE/RUSSIA: Ukraine is observing “significant results” from American and German air defence systems, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy stated on Sunday, despite Russian airstrikes that Kyiv claims targeted civilians and residential buildings.
Russia reported it had downed a drone headed for Moscow in the third such strike in a week, while officials on both sides said Ukraine had struck two bridges connecting Crimea to the mainland.
Recently, both countries have escalated their attacks on each other’s troops, weaponry, and infrastructure, backing the conflict as Ukraine tries to push back Russian troops that have been occupying these areas since their invasion last year.
The Moscow-appointed head of Crimea reported that a missile strike damaged the Chonhar bridge connecting the peninsula to Ukraine, which Moscow annexed in 2014. Additionally, one of the three road links between Crimea and Russian-occupied mainland Ukraine, near Henichesk, was shelled, resulting in a civilian driver being wounded, as reported by a Moscow-appointed official.
In his nightly video broadcast on Sunday, Zelenskiy claimed that contemporary air defence systems, such as the German IRIS-T and the American Patriot, were “highly effective” and had “already yielded significant results.”
According to Zelenskiy, Ukraine has effectively shot down a significant number of the recent Russian incursions, which included 178 assault drones, 87 Shaheds, and 65 different types of missiles.
Later, the Ukrainian military claimed that Russia had carried out 48 airstrikes and launched 30 missiles.
Unfortunately, there are casualties and wounded among the civilian population. Residential buildings and other civilian infrastructure suffered destruction, according to the military.
The attacks came after what Zelenskiy claimed was a late-night Saturday bombing of a blood transfusion facility in Kupiansk, around 16 kilometres (10 miles) from the front in the eastern Kharkiv region. He called the attack a war crime.
Russia denies that it intentionally targeted civilians or military hospitals during its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which resulted in thousands of deaths, millions of evictions, and the destruction of cities.
Moscow’s Vnukovo airport in Russia halted flights on Sunday due to unidentified circumstances beyond its control. A drone was shot down south of the capital, according to Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin.
Earlier, the Russian defence ministry said that it had successfully attacked Ukrainian air bases in the western Rivne and Khmelnytskyi districts as well as the southern Zaporizhzhia region. It claimed that all of the targets were neutralised after its military launched a collective strike employing long-range and sea-based precision weapons.
The deputy governor of the Khmelnytskyi region, Serhiy Tiurin, stated that a military airfield in Starokostiantyniv was one of the targets. He mentioned that most of the missiles were intercepted, but explosions caused damage to several houses, a cultural institution, and the bus station. Additionally, a fire broke out at a grain silo.
Ukraine is currently in the second month of a demanding counteroffensive to remove Russian forces occupying nearly one-fifth of its territory. Mykhailo Podoliak, an aide to Zelenskiy, characterised the recent Russian missile attacks as a response to Ukraine’s efforts to build relations with Global South countries that have been hesitant to take sides in the conflict, which has had significant impacts on the global economy.
Senior officials from approximately 40 nations, including the US, China, and India, discussed the issue in Saudi Arabia on Saturday and Sunday, but the summit didn’t produce any clear results beyond a commitment to further discussions.
The conference was part of Ukraine’s diplomatic effort to win support from countries other than its main Western backers. Andriy Yermak, the head of staff for Zelenskiy, claimed the meetings had been highly fruitful but did not provide further information.
Russia did not participate in the meeting. The summit, according to Sergei Ryabkov, the country’s deputy foreign minister, represented the West’s “doomed efforts” to rally poor countries behind Zelenskiy.
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