President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday (10/11/2022) called on Western powers to help Ukraine build an “anti-aircraft shield” after Russia carried out a fresh volley of bombings in the past few hours.
Zelenskyy said at a telematics summit of the G7 of the world’s most advanced economies that “millions of people will be grateful” for such help, warning that Moscow still has “means to step up its offensive.”
The United States has promised to increase deliveries of anti-aircraft missiles to Ukraine, and Germany has announced that it will deliver a first batch of Iris-T anti-aircraft missiles capable of protecting an entire city.
The G7 summit (US, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, UK and Japan) was convened in full escalation, with bombings Monday in several Ukrainian cities, including the capital Kyiv.
This Tuesday, hours before the start of the western summit, Russia announced new “massive” bombings.
Authorities in Ukraine’s Lviv region (west) said at least three Russian missiles hit energy infrastructure. The mayor of the state capital of the same name claimed that around a third of the city was without electricity.
Russia’s Defense Ministry confirmed the attacks on Tuesday, saying it used long-range, highly accurate weapons and “achieved all targets.”
According to Ukraine’s Defense Ministry, on Monday Russia fired 83 missiles, 52 of which were shot down.
G7 leaders also warned Belarus that its plan to deploy joint forces with Russia represented a new form of “complicity” in the invasion of Ukraine launched by Russian President Vladimir Putin in February.
The G7 added it would do everything it could to hold “Putin and those responsible” accountable for the recent bombings.
Putin claimed the bombings were in response to the “terrorist” attack on the bridge connecting Russian territory with the Crimea peninsula (annexed by Moscow in 2014), which he says was carried out by Ukrainian forces.
According to the UN, Monday’s Russian bombing “could have violated martial law.”
gs (afp, dpa)