KIEV, UKRAINE (AP) December,12 – Ukrainian Prime Minister said on Monday that more Russian artillery fire was reported in the eastern regions of Ukraine where Moscow is trying to establish battlefield gains, and the Patriot missile battery to counter the Russian attacks. and other high-tech air defense systems.
Prime Minister Denis Shmichal told French broadcaster LCI that Russia wants to target Ukrainian infrastructure to send a new wave of Ukrainian refugees to Europe.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met with US President Joe Biden on Sunday. The White House said Biden would “strengthen Ukrainian air defenses through security assistance, including the December 9 announcement of $275 million in additional ammunition and equipment support systems to counter Russia’s deployment of unmanned aerial vehicles.” “He emphasized how the United States is prioritizing efforts to strengthen,” the White House said. Last weekend, a Russian drone was attacked near the Black Sea port of Odessa, destroying several power plants and leaving all customers without power except hospitals, maternity hospitals, boiler plants and pumping stations.
International Committee of the Red Cross President Mirjana Spolialyk completed a four-day visit to Ukraine, including Odessa, on Monday.
To defend against further attacks, Shmyhal repeated an earlier Ukrainian call for Patriot surface-to-air missiles. He also asked for the addition of German and French air defense systems, which these countries already supply.
The delivery of Patriot missiles to Ukraine represents a major advance in the type of air defense system the West is sending to protect the country from Russian airstrikes. So far, no country has provided them, and such a move would likely mean escalation with Russia.
Ukraine needs a lot of ammunition to do the same against Russian artillery, Schmichal said. Russia fires between 50,000 and 70,000 shells at Ukrainian targets every day, and “we need at least a third of that amount every day,” he added.
Organizers of the conference in France expect the participation of more than 45 countries and 20 international organizations. The focus of the conference will be rapid assistance to Ukraine to meet its water, energy, food, health and transportation needs during the harsh winter. Meanwhile, European Union foreign ministers also met in Brussels on Monday to discuss new sanctions to further punish Russia’s aggression in Ukraine.
Recent fighting has been particularly concentrated in eastern Donbass, which consists of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions around the city of Bakhmut.
The region’s Ukrainian governor, Serhiy Haidai, said hundreds of Russians had died in strikes in Kazyovka on Sunday. Local officials in Moscow-backed Luhansk confirmed that the Ukrainian military strike had destroyed the Kadivka hotel building, but claimed the building was not in use.
Ivan Fedorov, the mayor of Melitopol, a city in southeastern Ukraine, reported that Ukraine also attacked a hotel that reportedly hosts a team of analysts from Russia’s top security agency, the FSB. Moscow has not commented on this allegation and was unable to independently confirm the report.
Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office said on Monday that two civilians were killed and 10 wounded in a Russian shelling of the town of Kilnik in the Donetsk region.
