Ukraine’s president has used a speech at the Nato summit in Turkey to urge allies to deliver the air defence systems Kyiv urgently needs to protect it from escalating Russian attacks.
“We are capable of doing everything else ourselves, but when it comes to air defence, we need our partners’ determination,” Volodymyr Zelensky said on Tuesday morning.
Zelensky’s call for help rings with extra intensity after Russian missiles rained down on the Ukrainian capital twice in less than a week, crashing into blocks of flats and killing more than 50 civilians.
The summit in Ankara will also be a chance for Zelensky to hold a crucial meeting with Donald Trump and press home his case that Russia’s “brutal” attacks are a show of weakness, not strength, and that Vladimir Putin should be pressured into talks towards a “dignified” peace.
The latest strikes on Ukraine come as it has been stepping up its own long-range drone attacks against Russia, hitting oil refineries and military targets there and causing significant fuel shortages and power cuts.
Underscoring that threat, Moscow’s mayor Sergei Sobyanin said anti-air defences intercepted “most” of the 430 unmanned aerial drones fired by Ukraine towards the capital overnight. The severity of the damage was not immediately clear.
Russian social media accounts are full of videos of people queuing for hours to buy petrol and fighting over what little they’re allowed.
Speaking before the summit, Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte has urged member states to “pull their weight” and ensure Ukraine gets what it needs “to defend its sovereignty”.
He underlined that Kyiv was “changing the dynamic on the battlefield”, referring to efforts to stall Russian ground troops in the east.
Credit: bbc.com
