UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT ZELENSKY CALLS FOR MORE WESTERN AIR DEFENCE SYSTEMS TO ‘SAVE LIVES’

Sun 03 March 2024:

At least eight people were killed by a wave of Russian missile, drone, and artillery strikes on Saturday, prompting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to call on the West to provide more air defense systems.

Five were left dead, including a two-year-old child, after an overnight strike on the southern port city of Odesa while separate shelling attacks on the frontline Kharkiv, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions killed three, Ukrainian officials said.

“Russia continues to hit civilians,” Zelensky said in a post on social media.

“We need more air defences from our partners. We need to strengthen the Ukrainian air shield to add more protection for our people from Russian terror. More air defence systems and more missiles for air defence systems save lives,” he said.

Ukraine is currently on the back foot in the two-year war as a crucial $60-billion aid package is held up in the United States congress.

Kyiv has admitted it is heavily outgunned and outnumbered, facing ammunition shortages amid aid delays.

Half of all promised Western ammunition arrives in the country late, the defence minister has said, in what he called critical delays that cost lives and territory.

Russian forces have advanced westwards following last month’s capture of Avdiivka, and have seized several small villages in recent days.

Visiting frontline military posts on Saturday, Ukraine’s new Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrsky said “the situation at the front remains difficult, but controlled”.

Russia also expressed outrage at what appeared to be a leak of confidential German army talks in which officers allegedly discussed missile strikes on the annexed Crimean peninsula.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Saturday promised a full investigation after the head of Russia’s state-run RT outlet posted the alleged leaked recording on social media, in a potentially huge embarrassment for Berlin.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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