(AFP) – Ukraine urged the West on Wednesday to speed up and increase deliveries of artillery shells after a new Russian missile attack on Kyiv and other regions killed four in the capital and wounded more than 40.
Securing the shells has been a priority for Kyiv, which is burning through its reserves as Russia throws more manpower and resources at the frontlines almost two years into its invasion.
“We will respond to every missile, every Shahed (drone),” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his daily address, sending condolences to the families of the victims.
“And our task this year is not only to maximise our air shield and long-range capabilities of Ukraine, but also to inflict maximum systemic losses on Russia,” he said, after meeting with EU’s top diplomat Josep Borrell.
Ukraine’s commander-in-chief Valery Zaluzhny said Russia used drones, cruise, ballistic and anti-aircraft missiles in the barrage.
He said Russia fired 20 drones and 44 missiles in the morning attack — with Ukraine shooting down 15 drones and 29 missiles.
– ‘Covered with shrapnel’-
The strike on an 18-storey residential building in Kyiv’s southern Golosiivsky district blew out windows across several floors, and sent dark smoke cascading into the sky from the destroyed facade.
Resident Dmytro, 31, told AFP he feared his wife had been killed in the attack. After first bringing their child down to safety after the strike, the building had filled with smoke and emergency workers stopped him from trying to go back up to collect her.
“Where there is the hole, my apartment is to the left. I was covered with shrapnel … she had many injuries,” he said.
Almost 30,000 people were temporarily left without power in Kyiv, the energy ministry said.
Officials said that one person was also killed in the southern Mykolaiv region on Wednesday.
Mykolaiv Mayor Oleksandr Senkevich said the attack stripped roofs off 20 houses and damaged gas and water pipes in the port city, where one person was killed.
Russia later said it had launched an aerial attack against Ukrainian “military industrial” facilities and reported it hit all its targets.
Moscow has repeatedly denied targeting civilian areas in Ukraine, despite several documented strikes on residential buildings and the United Nations saying at least 10,000 civilians — likely many more — have been killed since Russia invaded in February 2022.
– European defence ‘was not ready’ –
The strikes came as the EU’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, visited Kyiv and had to descend into a bomb shelter during the attack.
Meeting with Borrell, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba mounted pressure for more military aid.
“If you ask a soldier at the front what he needs most now, the answer will be shells,” Kuleba told Borrell, calling for “urgent steps” to increase deliveries.
“The scale of the war and Russia’s use of artillery reached a level for which, let’s be honest, the European defence industry was not ready,” he added.
Kuleba also said Ukraine found infighting in the US Congress over the future of American aid “confusing”, days after Republican lawmakers resisted new support for the war-torn country.
US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told a news conference in Brussels alongside NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg that the United States “can and will” deliver the needed aid. Stoltenberg said such a move was “vital”.
– ‘Whatever it takes’ –
Ukraine has been worrying that its Western allies have grown tired of the war. Borrell insisted Western countries should keep helping Ukraine battle off Russian forces.
“We need to support you not only ‘as long as it takes’ but should provide ‘whatever it takes’,” the EU diplomat said.
He also met with Zelensky, and discussed European weapons delivery and the seizure of Russian assets.
And Ukraine has also been trying to replenish its armed forces, almost two years into the war. Ukraine’s parliament also tentatively backed a bill Wednesday aimed at drafting more soldiers into the army — a deeply divisive proposal in a nation exhausted by fighting.
Kyiv’s military had for months been asking the government to draft more soldiers, to boost its dwindling ranks and reprieve its fatigued frontline troops.
After refusing outright to debate the bill last month, 243 lawmakers approved the measure in its first reading on Wednesday. The process of making it law could take weeks.
Zelensky said in December the military wanted to mobilise up to half a million people to battle the Russians forces deployed in Ukraine. – Anna MALPAS
