KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Moscow sent 96 drones and a guided-air missile to Ukraine overnight Sunday, Ukrainian officials said.
According to the Ukrainian Air Force, 66 drones were destroyed along with the missile during the nighttime barrage. Another 27 drones became “lost” over various areas, probably electronically jammed, while one drone flew into Belarusian airspace. No casualties have been reported.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday that Russia had launched about 900 guided aerial bombs, 500 drones and 30 missiles against Ukraine in the past week.
Zelenskyy on Sunday called on Ukraine’s allies to provide “long-range capabilities for our security,” saying these “attacks would have been impossible if we had had enough support from the world.” Kiev is still awaiting word from its Western partners on its repeated requests to use the long-range weapons it supplies to hit targets on Russian territory, including for pre-emptive Ukrainian strikes on camps where North Korean troops are trained.
The Ukrainian president also urged partners to “issue truly effective sanctions to prevent Russia from importing crucial components for the production of drones and missiles.” The call followed a speech on Saturday in which he said more than 2,000 drones and missiles “still using Western components” were launched against Ukraine in October, and underlined the need for stricter export controls to prevent sanctions evasion.
In Russia, the Defense Ministry said that overnight on Sunday, 19 Ukrainian drones were shot down in three regions of Russia: 16 in the Rostov region, two in the Belgorod region and one in the Volgograd region.
A man was killed in a Ukrainian drone strike in the Belgorod region on Sunday, according to regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov.
