Ukraine war briefing: Zelenskiy calls for more air defenses after deadly strike on Kharkiv store | Ukraine

Russia hits crowded hardware store and residential area in Ukrainian city of Kharkiv on Saturday killed at least six people and injured dozens more, local officials said.. Two guided bombs hit a DIY hypermarket in a residential area of ​​the city, regional governor Oleh Syniehubov said on national television. At least two of the dead were store employees. Forty people were injured, including at least three in serious condition. Sixteen people are still missing, Syniehubov said.

Another missile strike early in the evening hit a residential building in the center of this city of 1.3 million, injuring 18 people, Syniehubov said.. The missile left a crater several meters deep in the sidewalk at the foot of the building, which also housed a post office, a beauty salon and a cafe.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in his nightly video address, denounced the strike as “another example of Russian madness.” There is no other way to describe it. Zelenskiy also appealed to Ukraine’s Western allies to help strengthen air defenses to keep the country’s cities safe.. He said: “When we tell world leaders that Ukraine needs sufficient air defenses, when we say we need concrete and decisive measures to enable us to protect our population, so that Russian terrorists cannot not even come close to our border, we’re talking about not allowing strikes like these. let this happen.

French President Emmanuel Macron, write on social media platform denounced store attack as ‘unacceptable’. Moscow denies deliberately targeting civilians, but thousands were killed and injured during its 27-month invasion of Ukraine.

Just across the border, Saturday’s Ukrainian attacks killed four residents in Russia’s southern Belgorod region, regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said.. Gladkov, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said three people were killed in the village of Oktyabrsky in a multi-rocket attack. He indicated that in the village of Dubovoye, an attack killed a woman working in her garden. The Russian Defense Ministry also said air defense units intercepted and destroyed a Ukrainian drone over the adjacent Kursk region. It was not possible to verify the accounts of each side on the battlefield.

Russia announced on Saturday that it had captured another village in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine., while kyiv said Moscow was intensifying its attacks away from the northeastern Kharkiv region.. The Russian Defense Ministry said troops had “taken control of the village of Arkhangelske,” located north of the city of Donetsk. The small frontline village is near the town of Ocheretyne, which Russia said it had captured earlier this month. Ukraine’s General Staff said on Saturday that Russian forces were “particularly active” near the town of Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region. Six exchanges of fire were underway near the villages of Kalynove, Yasnobrodivka and Sokil, south of the village of Arkhangelske.

Ukrainian police say three civilians killed and two injured in Russian attacks on the Donetsk regionwhere there have been more than 1,800 strikes in the past day.

G7 finance ministers spoke of “progress” in finding ways to use profits from frozen Russian assets to help Ukraine as they wrapped up their meeting on Saturday. considering a concrete proposal to present at a leaders’ summit next month. They reiterated in their final statement that Russian assets frozen by the Group of Seven “will remain frozen until Russia pays for the damage it has caused to Ukraine.” But they went further, saying they were “resolved to apply new financial and economic sanctions”, particularly in the energy sector. Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said Moscow would reciprocate if the G7 followed through on its threat.

Meanwhile, Bank of Italy Governor Fabio Panetta said Italian banks should leave Russia. even if it would be complicated and expensive. “Knowing that you have to find a buyer can be difficult, but ultimately you have to get through it because there is also a reputation problem,” he told reporters.

A long-term rearmament of Europe, in which the UK can play the largest possible role, is necessary to defeat Russian imperial ambitions, the Polish foreign minister has said. Radosław Sikorski also called for a majority vote in favor of EU sanctions and a 5,000-strong European mechanized brigade, and said Poland was ready to support a Europe-wide program to incentivize Ukrainian holdouts to return to their country of origin.

US President Joe Biden reiterated on Saturday that he has no plans to send American troops to Ukraine, while praising American leadership around the world – implicitly responding to accusations of weakness made by his Republican rival Donald Trump . “There are no American soldiers at war in Ukraine. I am determined to keep it that way, but we stand strong with Ukraine,” the Democrat said while addressing graduates of the West Point military academy.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy is expected to travel to Portugal on Tuesday, following his planned visit to Spain, CNN Portugal reported on Saturday. Earlier this month, Zelenskiy postponed his trip to Madrid and Lisbon due to intense fighting in the Kharkiv region.