Ukraine battles deadly Russian strikes, seeks more NATO support

KYIV: Russian strikes killed three people and wounded at least eight across Ukraine on Friday, as the country struggled to counter intensifying Russian bombardments that have killed more than 50 people over the past three days.

One man was killed and five people, including a child, were wounded in Russian strikes on Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia region in the morning, said Mykhailo Semikin, head of the regional military administration. The attacks hit residential areas, he added.

Another man was killed in Ivano-Frankivsk in western Ukraine, Svitlana Onyshchuk, head of the regional military administration, said.


A woman was also killed in a Russian attack on warehouse facilities in the Bucha district of the Kyiv region, Ukraine's Interior Ministry said on Telegram. Her body was found while emergency crews were clearing rubble and battling a fire at the site, Tymur Tkachenko, head of the regional military administration, said. Three people were wounded in the attack. Russia and Ukraine remain locked in a long-range aerial war, while their armies are largely deadlocked along the front line, more than four-and-a-half years after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion.

Zelenskyy appeals for NATO support

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has warned that Moscow is likely to intensify its daily attacks as winter approaches, increasing pressure on Ukraine as it prepares for colder weather and threatening infrastructure vital to its war-battered economy.

Recent Russian targets have included energy systems, key industries, railways, post offices, shopping centres, telecommunications networks, petrol stations and grain exports.

Zelenskyy met military officials and government members on Friday to discuss the country's energy infrastructure and air defence requirements.

"Unfortunately, there is a lot of damage to the power grid and electricity transmission facilities," he wrote on Telegram. "Repairs are going on around the clock."

On Thursday, Zelenskyy appealed to NATO countries for additional defence assistance, saying that verbal assurances must translate into concrete support.

"It is important that support in words takes concrete form in new packages for Ukraine's defence," he wrote in a post. "Supplies of anti-ballistic capabilities, ammunition for our combat aircraft and investments in interceptors - all of this is directly helping save lives every day," he said.

Ukraine's ability to intercept Russian ballistic missiles depends on ammunition supplies for its US-made Patriot air defence systems. The country is also racing to develop a new generation of interceptors capable of countering Russia's high-flying, jet-powered drones.