Kiev [Ukraine], February 3: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made a fresh appeal to the West, urgently requesting more support, after another week when more than 1,400 Russian airstrikes targeted his country.
"Every day, Russia attacks Ukraine with drones, missiles and aerial bombs," he said in statement shared on his Telegram channel on Sunday. Accompanying the statement was a video showing images of death and destruction in Ukrainian cities.
Russia attacked Ukraine with around 50 missiles, nearly 660 drones and more than 760 glide bombs in the past week, he said.
"Russia will not stop on its own. The world must force it to end this brutal and unprovoked aggression," said Zelensky.
"Strengthening our defence is absolutely necessary. We need better protection - air defence systems, long-range weapons and sanctions pressure," he said.
An explosive device, presumably dropped by a Russian drone, has injured five people, including two children, in the southern Ukrainian port city of Kherson, the regional military administrator announced on Telegram on Sunday.
A drone had thrown the explosive device through the open roof of a minibus. The bus caught fire after the explosion, Roman Mrochko wrote.
He reported additional Russian drone attacks in Kherson during the day, including one that hit a multi-storey residential building. A 74-year-old man who was on a balcony at the time suffered serious injuries, he said. When a drone attacked an ambulance, the vehicle was damaged but the occupants were unharmed.
Russian drone attacks on targets in the city of Kherson, which is close to the front line, are commonplace. In most cases, the Russians use smaller drones equipped with smaller explosive devices. These drones are causing fear and terror among the population.
Meanwhile, Commander of the Ukrainian Ground Forces Mykhailo Drapatyi has lamented growing violence against military personnel in the country.
"The killing of military personnel well behind the front lines is a red line that must not be crossed. We do not have the right to silently watch the growing wave of disregard for the defenders of Ukraine," Drapatyi posted on Facebook on Sunday.
He was reacting to the violent deaths of two military personnel on Saturday. He called on the authorities for a strong response and punishment of the perpetrators.
An explosion occurred in a building of the district military recruiting office in the Rivne region on Saturday, resulting in one death and six injuries.
In the Poltava region, a soldier at a conscription office was shot dead on the same day, according to the authorities.
As the head of the Ukrainian ground forces, Drapatyi criticized as "intolerable" the fact that there is no outcry in society over the violence against the country's defenders in the fight against Russia's invasion.
He said there have been other cases of humiliation and aggression against soldiers. "And now we have direct armed assaults," he said. If there is no swift and strong reaction, there will be "even more deaths," he warned.
Ukraine has been defending itself against Russia's full-scale invasion for almost three years.
Source: Qatar Tribune
