Zelensky seeks Ukraine ‘air shield’ from G7, warns Putin could escalate war
- Ukraine’s president called on Western allies to fund an aerial defence system after 2 days of widespread Russian strikes on cities
- The US is speeding up the shipment of sophisticated National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems, with 2 expected in Ukraine soon and 6 more on the way
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told G7 leaders on Tuesday that Vladimir Putin still had “room for escalation” after two days of widespread aerial strikes on cities across Ukraine, including Kyiv.
“The Russian leader, who is now in the final stage of his reign, still has room for further escalation,” Zelensky said. This is “a threat to all of us”, he said.
He also called on his Western allies to help Ukraine fund an air defence system after dozens of Russian attacks knocked out power facilities across the country.
“I am asking you to strengthen the overall effort to help financially with the creation of an air shield for Ukraine. Millions of people will be grateful to the Group of Seven for such assistance,” he said during the video address to G7 leaders.
.jpg?itok=J9T8V6cj)
03:20
Kyiv cleans up in aftermath of Russian missile strikes
The US is speeding up the shipment of sophisticated NASAMS air defences to Ukraine, White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said later on Tuesday, after a pledge US President Joe Biden made to his Ukraine counterpart the previous day.
The US has approved sending Ukraine a total of eight National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS) so far, with two expected to be delivered soon and six more sent over a longer time frame.
“We think that we’re on track to get those first two over there in the very near future,” Kirby said during a briefing for reporters. “We are certainly interested in expediting the delivery of NASAMS to Ukraine as soon as we can.”
G7 leaders said meanwhile that they would hold Putin responsible for recent strikes.
Russian strikes on Ukraine civilians could amount to war crimes: UN
“We condemn these attacks in the strongest possible terms and recall that indiscriminate attacks on innocent civilian populations constitute a war crime,” the G7 said in a statement after the video conference.
“We will hold President Putin and those responsible to account.”
But he also said those attacks had been augmented with “dozens of different drones”.
Ahead of the G7 emergency meeting, the Kremlin said it expected more “confrontation” with the West.
“The mood ahead of the summit is well understood, it is easily predictable. The confrontation will continue,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, adding that Russia will “achieve its set goals”.
“De facto, the United States is already bogged down in this affair,” he said, adding that the deliveries will make “this conflict longer and more painful for the Ukrainian side”. “But it’s not going to change our goals and the end result,” he added.
‘Journey to hell’: Does Putin have a plan to end war without conceding defeat?
The G7 on Tuesday also reaffirmed that any use of chemical biological or nuclear weapons by Russia would be met with “severe consequences”.
Zelensky also asked the G7 to support an international mission on the Ukraine-Belarus border.
The president, who has called air defence systems his “number 1 priority”, spoke after Russian missiles killed at least 19 people and injured dozens.
Putin, under domestic pressure to ramp up the conflict as his forces have lost ground since the start of September, said he ordered Monday’s strikes as revenge for an explosion that damaged Russia’s bridge to annexed Crimea.
02:17
Putin says Ukraine behind Crimea bridge blast, calling it ‘act of terrorism’
Kyiv and its allies have condemned the attacks, which mainly hit civil infrastructure such as power stations. Missiles also landed in parks, tourist sites and busy rush hour streets.
Russia said it continued to launch long-range air strikes on Ukraine’s energy and military infrastructure on Tuesday, although the attacks did not seem as intense as the day before.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said the main targets were energy facilities.
“They’ve hit many yesterday and they hit the same and new ones today. These are war crimes planned well in advance and aimed at creating unbearable conditions for civilians, Russia’s deliberate strategy since months,” he wrote on Twitter.
Jailed Russian Putin opponent wins human rights prize
The Governor of the southern town of Mykolayiv said Russia seemed to have changed tactics.
“They launch rockets more than once so that our people can wait, and our air defence can work, but at intervals they launch significantly fewer rockets and keep people in shelters. What is this if not terror?” he said on television.
In Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine’s sixth-largest city, apartment blocks have been struck overnight at least three times in the past week, killing civilians while they slept. Moscow has denied intentionally targeting them.
The city remained under Ukrainian control after Russia occupied most of the surrounding province, among four partially occupied regions that Moscow claims to have annexed this month.
As many as 301 settlements in the regions of Kyiv, Lviv, Sumy, Ternopil and Khmelnytsky remained without electricity on Tuesday.
Faced with blackouts, Ukraine has halted electricity exports to neighbouring Moldova and the European Union, when the continent already faces surging power prices.
Meanwhile, G7 leaders also issued a warning to Belarus, Moscow’s closest ally, after Minsk said it was deploying soldiers with Russian forces near Ukraine in response to what it called a threat from Kyiv and its Western allies.
“The announcement of a joint military group with Russia constitutes the most recent example of the Belarusian regime’s complicity with Russia,” they said in a statement, urging the “Lukashenko regime to fully abide by its obligations under international law”.
UN rejects Russia’s call for secret vote on Ukraine
US-led Nato said on Tuesday its member states were boosting security around key installations as Russia escalated its attacks on Ukraine and stepped up its threats against the West.
Since Ukrainian forces broke through Russia’s front lines in September, Putin has announced the annexation of Ukrainian territory, called up hundreds of thousands of reservists and repeatedly threatened to use nuclear weapons.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Tuesday that Russia would not turn down a meeting between Putin and Biden at a coming G20 meeting and would consider such a proposal if it received one.
Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse
