Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday urged Western powers to help Ukraine with an “anti-aircraft shield” after further Russian bombings.
The request was made during a videoconference of the G7 summit, in which he said that “millions of people will be grateful” for such assistance, and warned that Moscow still has “means to intensify its offensive”.
The United States has promised to increase air defense shipments to Ukraine and Germany has announced that it will deliver “in the next few days” a first wave of Iris-T anti-aircraft missiles, capable of protecting an entire city.
The summit was called in full escalation of the war, with bombings on Monday in several Ukrainian cities, including the capital Kiev.
G7 leaders also warned Belarus that its plan to deploy joint troops with Russia constitutes a new form of “complicity” with the invasion of Ukraine launched in February by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The G7 (United States, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, United Kingdom and Japan) added that they will make every effort to ensure that “Putin and those responsible respond” for the latest bombings.
On Tuesday, Russia continued its smaller-scale bombings, mainly against power plants in western Ukraine, far from the front.
“Since this morning, 28 enemy missiles have been launched, 20 of which were shot down. More than 15 drones, mostly Iranian attack drones. Almost all of them were overthrown,” Zelensky declared in his evening speech.
The Ukrainian General Staff reported Russian attacks on more than twenty cities and towns across the country.
Kiev said eight people were killed in Russian bombings in the city of Zaporizhzhia and the surrounding area on Tuesday.
The Russian Defense Ministry confirmed the attacks, explaining that it used high-precision long-range weapons and that “all objectives were achieved”.
Putin indicated on Monday that the bombings were a response to the “terrorist” attack on the bridge that connects Russian territory to Crimea (south) and which, according to the president, was carried out by Ukrainian forces.
According to the UN, these bombings “could have violated” the law of war.
“Just Peace”
On the ground, Ukraine announced the exhumation of the bodies of 78 civilians in Sviatoguirsk and Lyman, two cities in the eastern Donetsk region of the country, recently recovered by Ukrainian forces.
Ukraine also announced the release of 32 of its soldiers and the handing over of the corpse of an Israeli citizen in its latest prisoner exchange with Russia.
Turkey has called for a ceasefire “as soon as possible”, hoping its president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, will meet with Putin on Thursday in Kazakhstan.
In a televised interview, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu also called for a “just peace” based on the integrity of Ukraine’s territory.
French reinforcements
Ukraine’s allies have been publicly united in their support of Kiev and Russia’s many neighboring countries.
NATO has “doubled” its presence in the Baltic and North Seas to “more than 30 ships” following the recent sabotage of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines, alliance secretary general Jens Stoltenberg announced.
France has announced a reinforcement of its military presence on NATO’s eastern flank, with a mobilization in the coming weeks of armored infantry vehicles and Leclerc tanks in Romania.
Paris will deploy Rafale fighter jets in Lithuania and add 100 troops to the 300 concentrated in Estonia, Russia’s neighbor and solid Ukraine support.
The White House said US President Joe Biden spoke to Zelensky to offer him an “advanced air defense system”.
IAEA chief meets with Putin
In St Petersburg, Putin met on Tuesday with the director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, whom he said was “open to dialogue” on the management of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, controlled by the forces. russians.
Grossi reiterated his call for the creation of a “protection zone” around the plant, where the IAEA has had observers since early September.
“We have to do everything in our power to prevent a nuclear accident,” Grossi said in a statement, in which he points to an “increasingly dangerous situation (…) with frequent military attacks that threaten nuclear security”.
The nuclear facilities at Zaporizhzhia have been the target of bombing in recent months, which worries the international community. Ukraine and Russia accused each other of these attacks.
