Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky issued a new plea to the country’s allies on Sunday to provide US-made Patriot air defense systems following a week of more than 1,000 Russian airstrikes.
“We need strong support from our partners,” Zelensky wrote on his Telegram channel. “Many Patriots in Ukraine mean greater security for life,” he said.
The Russian attack caused many deaths and injuries.
According to Zelensky, Russia attacked Ukraine with more than 660 bombs, about 550 drones and about 60 missiles last week. Ukraine’s air defenses downed 33 missiles, including ballistic variants, and more than 300 drones.
Zelensky published a video showing the destruction of the attacks, for example in Kiev and Zaporizhzhya over the weekend, as well as in the Donbass region in the east of the country.
Zelensky paid for the armed forces, but added: “The task of continuing to protect our airspace remains.” He asked Ukraine’s Western allies to provide additional air defense systems.
Ukraine has been fully defending itself against Russian aggression since February 2022. Over the weekend, the Russian Defense Ministry said that its forces have advanced into eastern Ukraine.
Ukraine is suffering from a shortage of soldiers
Ukraine’s military is suffering from a shortage of troops, commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said on Sunday.
“We have to increase the number of our mechanical soldiers,” he said on the radio. “But the motivation is unfortunately not enough to cover this demand.”
In order to increase frontline forces, Syrskyi said personnel are now being withdrawn from logistics, supply and maintenance “within reasonable limits” to fill vacancies and establish new units.
Syrskyi’s statement was prompted by complaints from the air force that highly trained personnel were being redeployed to the borders.
The military leadership stopped these efforts, said Syrskii. Those soldiers are experienced professionals who are “irreplaceable by anyone.”
Ukraine suffers from a shortage of front-line military personnel, in part because of the age limit for fighters. Although all men must complete basic military service from the age of 18, soldiers must only go to war from the age of 25.
Some of Ukraine’s allies have asked 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 while they were occupying the area.
The residents were found in the basement of an apartment in the village of Russkoye Porechnoye, in Sudzhansky district, the central investigative commission in Moscow said.
The spokeswoman of the commission, Svetlana Petrenko, called this death “an act of terrorism against peaceful people” and said that those involved will face justice.
Russian media have previously published video footage of a basement where Russian soldiers point to the bodies of old women who were apparently tortured and shot and handcuffed.
The slightly blurry video footage could not be independently verified, and there was no initial reaction from the Ukrainian side.
The spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Sakharova, described the massacre as a serious violation of international humanitarian law.
“These atrocities are further evidence of the terrorist and neo-Nazi mentality of the Kiev regime,” he said. He accused those responsible of carrying out the “massacre” out of frustration over the loss of the Ukrainian front.
The West is also responsible for this crime after supplying Kiev with weapons and money, he said.
Ukrainian forces launched a surprise offensive in Russia’s Kursk region in August, capturing dozens of villages.
The aim of the program is to improve the situation in Ukraine ahead of possible talks to end the war, which began almost three years ago.
Kiev has accused the Russian military of hundreds of war crimes during the conflict, including mass killings.
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