Zelenskyy’s announcement came as Russian missile and drone attacks in Ukraine on Saturday killed eight people, including a child, and wounded dozens more, officials said. Two glide bombs hit a crowded area in the northern city of Sumy, a frequent Russian target, killing five people and injuring 30.In a border district of Sumy region, where the Kremlin wants to expand a buffer zone, an official said a man was killed after stepping on an explosive device. Glide bombs also injured 10 in the south-eastern city of Zaporizhzhia, the regional governor said. Two people were killed and another wounded earlier in the day by a missile strike on the southern port city of Odesa.
The injury toll from Saturday’s strikes on the capital Kyiv rose to 12, including two children, according to the city’s mayor. Zelenskyy said Russia launched more than 120 drones and 12 missiles during the night, half of them ballistic. “Civilian infrastructure was hit even before the air raid alert was issued,” he added. He posted videos of emergency teams working in the smoke and rubble of ruined buildings. Apartment buildings, offices and a theological school were damaged in Kyiv, while recovery efforts were under way in other regions, he added. Zelenskyy said air defences “managed to shoot down most of the targets – but not the ballistic ones”. He repeated his plea for allies to send more military aid to help it fight off the Russian invasion, now well into its fifth year. Russia has stepped up attacks on the capital in recent weeks. So far this month, strikes on Kyiv and the surrounding region have killed more than 60 people.
Saturday’s strike on Kyiv marked the second time in less than a week that missiles hit before an air alert was issued. Sergiy Sternenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s defence minister, said the strike happened before the sirens could indicate Russian S-400 anti-aircraft missiles were incoming. “During ground attacks, these missiles are more difficult to detect by radar,” he said. “There is no military logic to such attacks. It is simply terrorism for the sake of terrorism.” Russia, which denies targeting civilians, said it had struck “military-industrial facilities in Kyiv and seaport infrastructure in Odesa”.
Zelenskyy also said on Saturday that diplomacy should focus on getting Kyiv’s allies to follow through more quickly on arms-supply agreements. “I am preparing changes in Ukraine’s diplomatic efforts. We need a new level of cooperation with our partners to ensure that agreements on arms supplies are fulfilled,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address. “Agreements reached by national leaders must be implemented much more quickly and completely,” he said, saying this applied to cooperation with the United States on licensing for the production of Patriot air defence systems.
Ukraine’s drone forces chief Robert Brovdi said his units had struck 21 fuel tanker vessels in the Sea of Azov overnight, as well as seven other cargo and support ships, bringing the total number of vessels struck this week to 76. Zelenskyy has said the aim of the drone campaign is to bring Russia to the negotiating table, although Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, has not yet shown any willingness to soften his position.
One person was killed in a drone attack on four vessels, including a tanker carrying methanol, in Taganrog Bay on the Sea of Azov, Russian authorities said on Saturday. “A seaman on a technical support vessel has lost his life. I offer my condolences to the family and loved ones of the deceased. No one else was injured,” Yuri Slyusar, governor of the southern Rostov region, wrote on Telegram. He said the vessels sustained various degrees of damage, but “there is no risk of a methanol spill or leak.”
Russian troops took control of the settlement of Bachivsk in Ukraine’s Sumy region, the defence ministry said on Saturday. The battlefield report could not be immediately independently verified.
Authorities in Russia’s Novosibirsk region have urged residents to work remotely and limit travel by car, amid a deepening fuel crisis triggered by Ukrainian strikes on oil refineries. The region, home to almost three million people, is one of the largest in Siberia by population and a major economic and manufacturing hub. The announcement comes after Ukraine struck an oil refinery in the neighbouring region of Omsk earlier this week, knocking out one of Russia’s largest oil processing facilities by capacity.