Zelensky Asks G7 To Help Ukraine With "Air Shield" After Russian Attacks

Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky called on Tuesday for wealthy Western nations to help Kyiv create an "air shield" after a rash of deadly Russian aerial attacks.

Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday called on wealthy Western nations to help Kyiv create an "air shield" after a series of deadly Russian air attacks.

Zelensky, who told the G7 rich nations club "millions of people would be grateful" for help fending off attacks from the sky,

He warned that Russia "still has room for further escalation" after Monday's deadly missile launches through Ukraine.

In the wake of the attacks, Washington pledged to increase shipments of air defenses to Ukraine, while Germany promised to deliver "in the coming days" the first Iris-T missile shield said to be able to protect a city.

In a week of marked escalation in the war, G7 leaders said Belarus' plan to deploy joint forces with Russia constituted a new example of "collusion" with Moscow, warning Minsk not to "stop" the Russian invasion.

After conversations with Zelensky,

The G7 leaders said they would hold Russian President Vladimir Putin to account for the attacks, but did not say how.

And before the G7 meeting, the Kremlin had already said it expected the "confrontation" with the West to continue.

Russia followed up the missile launches at the start of the week with more air attacks on Tuesday.

At least three Russian missiles fired on Tuesday targeted energy infrastructure, officials in Ukraine's western Lviv region said, forcing Kyiv to demand that people cut off electricity use and turn off appliances at night.

The Russian Defense Ministry confirmed the renewed attacks on Tuesday, saying it had carried out extensive strikes using-

The range and weapons are highly accurate and all identified targets have been hit.

'severe' response

In Lviv, the largest city in the region of the same name, the mayor said that a third of homes were without electricity.

Monday's attacks saw Russian missiles fall on the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, for the first time in months.

On Monday, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said that Russia had fired 83 missiles at Ukraine, 52 of which were shot down by its air defenses, including 43 cruise missiles.

Ukraine said 19 people were killed and more than 100 wounded in the strikes, while the United Nations said the Russian bombing may have violated the laws of war.

Residents of Ukraine expressed shock and anger after the attack.

Among those targeted was the Kyiv suburb of Ksenia Ryazantseva, a city of three million that has largely escaped violence on Ukraine's southern and eastern fronts.

“We were sleeping and heard the first explosion” at the crossroads Language teacher

39 years old, told AFP.

"We got up and went to check, and then the second explosion happened."

Monday's barrage of mass strikes appeared to be in response to an explosion over the weekend that damaged a major bridge linking Russia to Crimea, a peninsula that Moscow annexed from Ukraine in 2014.

Putin blamed Ukraine for the bridge bombing and warned of "severe" responses to any further attacks.

'just peace'

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said the strikes showed Moscow was "desperate" after a series of embarrassing military setbacks, a sentiment echoed by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg who said it was a "sign of weakness".

Ukraine's allies were united in their public pledges of unwavering support to Kiev in the wake of the strikes.

US President Joe Biden told CNN on Tuesday that Putin "bigly miscalculated" Russia's ability to occupy Ukraine.

He also left the door open to the possibility of holding talks with Putin on the sidelines of the November meeting of the Group of Twenty countries.

Although it was clear that there were no plans to hold talks on Ukraine.

"Look, I have no intention of meeting him," Biden said.

But he added, "If he comes to me in the G-20 and says 'I want to talk about the release of [imprisoned basketball star Britney] Greiner,' I'll meet him. I mean, it depends."

Turkey called on Tuesday for a viable ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine "as soon as possible," with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan expected to meet Putin in Kazakhstan this week.

In a televised speech, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu called for a "just peace" based on Ukraine's territorial integrity.

Turkey won praise for brokering deals between the two sides, including a grain deal and a prisoner swap.

Ukraine's presidency said on Tuesday that another prisoner exchange saw the release of 32 Ukrainian soldiers and the exhumation of the body of an Israeli citizen.

Ukrainian officials also announced the return of the remains of dozens of civilians found in mass graves in two towns in the eastern Donetsk region recently recovered from Moscow forces.

The bad weather is exacerbating the misery of the population in the confrontation areas in the area, which have been subjected to shelling fire and electricity and water cuts for months, with a scarcity of basic commodities and fuelwood.

“We can't do anything.

And these outbursts, we can't stand them. When does it end?" said Oleksandra Belenko, 67,

Who remained in the town of Bakhmut on the front line.

The fighting around the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in southern Ukraine for months has raised fears of a nuclear accident.

On Tuesday, Putin told the head of the UN nuclear energy agency, Rafael Grossi, that he was "open to dialogue" about the future of the facility.

BY
ProBuzzFeed