Ukraine hopes to expedite supply of air defence systems agreed with its partners – Zelenskyy
DENYS KARLOVSKYI – SUNDAY, 26 JUNE 2022, 23:04
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine said that the Ukrainian government has made a series of agreements with its Western partners regarding the supply of modern air defence systems, but hopes that the delivery of these systems can be expedited.
Source: Zelenskyy in his nightly video address
Quote from Zelesnkyy: "We need powerful air defence systems – contemporary and totally effective. Systems that can ensure our total protection from missiles. We discuss this with our partners every day. We have already reached certain agreements. Our partners have to move faster, if they are to be real partners rather than passive observers.
Delays in supplying our state with weapons, any kind of limitations – it’s just an invitation for Russia to strike us again and again. We have to come at the occupiers – these terrorists – with all our might, so that they give up their belief that they can continue applying pressure and that they will outsmart everyone else.
What’s the meaning of these missiles? What’s the meaning of yesterday’s 62 missiles – that’s just in one day, on Saturday. They embody Russia’s signature move: to escalate each time there is an international event. At the same time, they can serve as an impetus to decisive action. For example, the G7 leaders who gathered for a summit in Germany, today have enough resources between all of them to stop Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, as well as against Europe as a whole. It can be done.
But it can only be done if we receive everything we ask for, when we ask for it: weapons, financial aid, sanctions against Russia. This war has voided all other options. Because it’s here – in the sky over Kyiv, the sea near Odesa, the land of Kharkiv Oblast and of Donbas, in Kherson and in Zaporizhzhia Oblast – that’s where the future of Europe is decided. Here, in Ukraine, and nowhere else.
Of course, the Russian arsenal of missiles pales in significance compared to our confidence in our ability and our strength. But only the most powerful weapons can stop Russian weapons."
Details: President Zelenskyy said that a 37-year-old man was killed in the Russian missile strike on Kyiv on the morning of 26 June. Zhenia, his 7-year-old daughter underwent surgery at Okhmatdyt [children’s hospital in Kyiv - ed.].
Zelenskyy said that the girl’s mother is a citizen of Russia. She would have been completely safe in Ukraine if it wasn’t for Russian missiles, which have destroyed her family and her home.
Background:
- Around 06:30 on Sunday, 26 June a Russian missile hit a nine-storey apartment building and a kindergarten in the Shevchenkivskyi district of Kyiv. Ukrainian air defence intercepted another missile in the sky over Kyiv.
- Rescuers extracted a seven-year-old girl, then unconscious, from under the rubble; later, they were also able to rescue her mother, who was trapped under a concrete slab. The girl’s father was killed in the attack. Around 16:00, Vitalii Klychko, the mayor of Kyiv, confirmed the death of the man and said that the number of casualties had risen to 6.
- Around 11:30, Russian forces conducted missile strikes on Cherkasy and Chernihiv oblasts. An infrastructure target was damaged in Cherkasy Oblast; one person was killed, and another five civilians were wounded.
- Dmytro Kuleba, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, addressed the Western countries, emphasising that Ukraine needs more weapons and stricter sanctions against Russia in order for these war crimes to stop.
Western leaders, including the US President Joe Biden and Boris Johnson, prime minister of the UK, responded to the missile attacks on Kyiv by condemning them as "barbaric" and a "conscious escalation" against the backdrop of the G7 summit in Germany.
