Reuters :
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that he expects a positive response on Wednesday from Western allies in Brussels to his requests for a rapid increase in military aid as the country’s cities faced more Russian missile strikes.
After intense Russian missile attacks, Zelensky appealed to the leaders of the Group of Seven nations on Tuesday for more air defense capabilities as the G7 vowed to support Kyiv for “as long as it takes.”
A US-led coalition of some 50 countries known as the Ukraine Defence Contact Group will meet in Brussels on Wednesday on the sidelines of a NATO defense ministers meeting.
“I am anticipating from our partners progress on matters of anti-aircraft and anti-missile defenses and agreements on new supplies of different weapons and ammunition vital for us,” Zelensky said in an evening address on Tuesday.
The Ukrainian military, which has recaptured significant territory from Russian forces in the past month, said on Tuesday night that Russian missile strikes had damaged more than 10 cities, including Lviv, Bakhmut, Avdiivka and Zaporizhzhia. Air raid sirens wailed earlier across the country for a second day.
“Over the past 24 hours, the occupiers have again resorted to mass missile strikes — more than 30 cruise missiles, seven air strikes and 25 instances of shelling,” Ukraine’s armed forces said.
The Ukrainian command said its forces killed more than 100 Russian troops in the southern Kherson region. Reuters could not independently verify the battlefield reports.
The activity on Tuesday was less intense than the day before when dozens of strikes killed 19 people, wounded more than 100 and knocked out power across the country in Moscow’s biggest aerial offensive since the start of its invasion on February 24.
More missile strikes on Tuesday killed seven people in the southeastern Ukrainian town of Zaporizhzhia, a presidential aide said, and left part of the western city of Lviv without power, according to local officials.
Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov celebrated the arrival from the United States of what he said were four additional High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) launchers, whose accuracy and longer range have allowed Ukraine to reduce Russia’s artillery advantage and fueled the country’s recent counter-offensive.
“HIMARS time,” he wrote on Twitter, was a “good time for Ukrainians and bad time for the occupiers.”
Ukraine on Tuesday received the first of four IRIS-T air defense systems Germany promised to supply, a German defense ministry source said. The United States said it was speeding up the shipment of sophisticated NASAMS air defenses to Ukraine. Washington has already provided more than $16.8 billion worth of security aid to Ukraine during the war.
Ukraine to press allies for more military aid at Brussels meeting
