Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky issued a renewed appeal to the country’s allies on Sunday to provide more US-made Patriot air defence systems following a week with more than 1,000 Russian air attacks.
“We need the strong support of our partners,” Zelensky posted on his Telegram channel. “More Patriots for Ukraine mean greater protection for life,” he said.
The Russian attacks caused multiple deaths and injuries.
According to Zelensky, Russia attacked Ukraine with more than 660 glide bombs, around 550 drones and almost 60 missiles over the past week. Ukrainian air defences downed 33 missiles, including ballistic variants, and more than 300 drones.
Zelensky published a video showing the devastation from the attacks, for example in Kiev and Zaporizhzhya over the weekend, and also in the Donbass region in the east of the country.
Zelensky paid tribute to the armed forces, but added: “The task of continuing to protect our airspace remains.” He called for Ukraine’s Western allies to provide more air defence systems.
Ukraine has been defending itself against a Russian full-scale invasion since February 2022. Over the weekend, the Russian Defence Ministry said its forces had taken further ground in eastern Ukraine.
Ukraine suffering from shortage of soldiers
The Ukrainian military is suffering from a shortage of soldiers, commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said on Sunday.
“We need to increase the number of our mechanized brigades,” he said on the radio. “But the mobilization capacity is unfortunately not sufficient to cover this need.”
In order to boost the front-line forces, Syrskyi said that personnel are now being withdrawn from logistics, supply and maintenance “within reasonable limits” in order to fill gaps and set up new units.
Syrskyi’s statement was prompted by complaints from air force units that highly qualified personnel were being re-deployed on the fronts.
Army leadership had put a stop to these efforts, said Syrskyi. Those soldiers are experienced specialists “who cannot be replaced by anyone.”
Ukraine is suffering from a lack of personnel for the frontline troops, partly due to the age limit for reservists. Although all men must complete basic military service from the age of 18, soldiers only have to go into combat from the age of 25.
Some of Ukraine’s allies have called on Kiev to lower the age limit.
Moscow accuses Ukraine of killing civilians
Also on Sunday, Moscow accused Ukrainian forces of killing at least seven civilians in the Kursk region of southern Russia during their occupation of the area.
The civilians were found in the basement of an apartment block in the village of Russkoye Porechnoye, which lies in the Sudzhansky district, the central investigation commission said in Moscow.
Commission spokeswoman Svetlana Petrenko termed the deaths “an act of terrorism against the peaceful population” and said that those responsible would face justice.
Russian state media earlier published video images of a basement in which Russian soldiers pointed to the bodies of elderly victims who had apparently been tortured and then shot with their hands tied.
The partially blurred video material could not be independently verified, and there was no initial reaction from the Ukrainian side.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Sakharova described the killings as a gross violation of international humanitarian law.
“These atrocities are further evidence of the terrorist and neo-Nazi attitudes of the Kiev regime,” she said. She accused those responsible of carrying out a “cannibalistic massacre” in frustration at Ukrainian losses on the front.
The West is also responsible for the crime after providing Kiev with arms and money, she said.
Ukrainian forces launched a surprise counteroffensive in the Russian region of Kursk in August, occupying dozens of village.
The aim of the operation is to improve the Ukrainian position ahead of possible negotiations to end the war, which began almost three years ago.
Kiev has accused the Russian armed forces of hundreds of war crimes during the conflict, including the mass murder of civilians.
