Ukraine praises 'highly effective' US, German air defence systems

Despite waves of Russian air attacks that Kyiv claims targeted civilians and residential buildings, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy claimed on Sunday that Ukraine is witnessing “significant results” from American and German air defence systems.

In the third such strike in a week, Russia claimed to have shot down a drone headed for Moscow, while officials on both sides said Ukraine had hit two bridges connecting Crimea to the mainland.

As Ukraine attempts to drive out Russian soldiers who have become entrenched throughout southern and eastern Ukraine since their invasion last year, both nations have increased strikes against each other’s military personnel, equipment, and support systems for the conflict.

The Chonhar bridge, which connects the peninsula that Moscow annexed from Ukraine in 2014, was reportedly damaged by a missile strike, according to the leader of Crimea designated by Moscow.

According to a Moscow-appointed official, one of the three road connections between the Crimea and the Russian-occupied regions of mainland Ukraine was shelled close to the town of Henichesk. A civilian driver was injured.

Zelenskiy stated in his nightly video address on Sunday that modern air defence systems, including as the German IRIS-T and the American Patriot, were “highly effective” and had “already yielded significant results”.

Zelenskiy claimed that Ukraine has successfully shot down a substantial portion of Russia’s recent raids, which included 178 assault drones, including 87 Shaheds, and 65 missiles of various types.

Ukraine’s military said later that Russia had launched 30 missiles and 48 air strikes.

“Unfortunately, there are casualties and wounded among the civilian population. Residential buildings and other civilian infrastructure suffered destruction,” the military said in a statement.

The bombings came after what Zelenskiy claimed was a late-night Saturday bombing of a blood transfusion facility in Kupiansk, around 16 kilometres (10 miles) from the front in the eastern Kharkiv region. He called the attack a war crime. Reuters was unable to quickly confirm the claim.

In its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which has resulted in hundreds of deaths, millions of evictions, and the destruction of cities, Russia denies intentionally targeting civilians or military hospitals.

Moscow’s Vnukovo airport in Russia cancelled all flights on Sunday, blaming unidentified outside factors. Sergei Sobyanin, the mayor of Moscow, reported that a drone had been shot down south of the city.

The western Rivne and Khmelnytskyi areas, as well as the southern Zaporizhzhia region, were the targets of effective attacks on Ukrainian air bases, according to the Russian defence ministry earlier. It claimed that all of the targets in a group strike carried out by its military utilising long-range and sea-based precision weaponry had been neutralised.

One of the objectives, according to Serhiy Tiurin, the Khmelnytskyi region’s deputy governor, was a military airstrip near Starokostiantyniv. He claimed that while the majority of the missiles were shot down, some houses, a cultural centre, and the bus station were damaged by explosions, and a grain silo caught fire.

Ukraine has been engaged in a rigorous counteroffensive for two months in an effort to drive out Russian forces that have taken over nearly 5% of its territory.

The weekend Russian missile assaults, according to Zelenskiy adviser Mykhailo Podoliak, were in retaliation for Ukraine’s outreach to countries in the Global South who had been unwilling to join sides in a conflict that had harmed the world economy.

On Saturday and Sunday, senior officials from over 40 nations, including the United States, China, and India, held discussions regarding the conflict in Saudi Arabia. However, the summit didn’t result in any specific actions beyond a pledge to further discussions.

The meeting was a component of Ukraine’s diplomatic effort to seek support outside of its primary Western backers. Andriy Yermak, the head of staff for Zelenskiy, claimed that the discussions had been really fruitful but he didn’t elaborate.

Russia did not attend. Its deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov, said the meeting reflected the West’s “doomed efforts” to mobilise developing nations behind Zelenskiy.

(With agency inputs)