-At least one person was injured in overnight drone attacks that also started a fire in a critical infrastructure building in the southern city of Mykolaiv and damaged houses in the Kyiv region, Ukrainian officials said on Sunday.
The Ukrainian military said Russia launched 143 drones but it had shot down 95 of them while 46 did not reach their targets likely due to electronic countermeasures.
The fire in Mykolaiv was quickly extinguished, Vitaliy Kim, governor of the broader Mykolaiv region, said on the Telegram messaging app. It was not clear what infrastructure was hit.
Five apartment buildings and several shop and office spaces were damaged as a result of falling drone debris.
In the Kyiv capital region, several houses were damaged in a drone strike, the State Emergency Service of Ukraine said on Telegram. There were no injuries, they added.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy again urged Western allies to give Ukraine more air defences with Russia now holding 20% of Ukraine and slowly advancing in the east as Moscow’s full-scale invasion nears its third anniversary.
He cited data showing that over the past week Russia had unleashed about 1,220 aerial bombs, over 850 drones and more than 40 missiles into government-controlled areas of Ukraine.
Both sides deny targeting civilians in the war that Russia started with its invasion in Ukraine nearly three years ago.
There was no immediate comment from Russia.
“Europe and the world must be better protected from such evil and prepared to confront it,” Zelenskiy said in a post on the Telegram messenger app.
“This requires a strong, united foreign policy and pressure on Putin, who started this war and is now expanding it globally,” he said.
“Together with Europe, the U.S., and all our partners, we can end this war with a just and lasting peace.”
However, U.S. President Donald Trump shocked European allies and Ukraine this week by calling Putin without consulting them or Kyiv beforehand and declaring an immediate start to peace talks.
Trump’s Ukraine envoy then said Europe won’t have a seat at the table for Ukraine peace talks, after Washington sent a questionnaire to European capitals to ask what they could contribute to security guarantees for Kyiv.
Zelenskiy called on Saturday for the creation of a European army, arguing the continent could no longer be sure of U.S. protection and would only get respect from Washington with a strong military.
This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.