Kyiv, Aug 3: Russian planes dropped eight powerful glide bombs in a span of 90 minutes on residential districts of the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia, killing one person and wounding dozens of others, regional chief Ivan Fedorov said Monday.
Russia has used glide bombs to smash Ukrainian towns and cities since it invaded its neighbour more than four years ago. The weapons are Soviet-era bombs retrofitted with guidance systems and can carry up to 3,000 kilograms (6,600 pounds) of explosives, leaving huge craters. Ukraine has no effective countermeasures against them.
The Sunday evening onslaught on Zaporizhzhia killed a 71-year-old woman and wounded 31 people, including a 16-year-old girl, as the bombs damaged 22 apartment buildings in four districts of the city, Fedorov said.
Other large-scale damage of civilian areas of Ukraine has resulted from Russian ballistic missiles, and late Sunday President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made yet another urgent plea to other countries to send Ukraine more US-made Patriot air defence systems.
Only Patriot interceptors can reliably stop ballistic missiles, but they are in short supply due to the Iran war.
“The world has Patriot missiles. What matters now is for our partners to make the political decision to provide the necessary packages,” Zelenskyy said on social media. “The United States knows what we need. Europe knows what we need. Anti-ballistic missiles must protect people — not sit in stockpiles.”
US President Donald Trump last week appeared to back off from his earlier commitment to give Ukraine a license to make Patriots itself. He said Friday that the licensing matter is still under discussion and said he hasn’t made a final decision.
Zelenskyy has suggested an alternative to Trump whereby Elon Musk allows Ukraine to use Starlink satellites to target ballistic missile launch sites inside Russia. Officials haven’t publicly said whether that is being considered. At this point do we just assume that everyone knows who Elon Musk is? Or does he need a descriptor? Tech entrepreneur or similar?
Russia attacked Ukraine with 181 long-range strike drones overnight from Sunday to Monday, according to the Ukrainian air force. It said air defences jammed and intercepted 163 drones, but 14 caused damage at 13 locations.
The Russian Defence Ministry said its forces struck four bulk carriers carrying cargo for the Ukrainian armed forces, including three in waters of the Black Sea and one in the port of Mykolaiv, but provided no further information.
Meanwhile, three people were killed and two were wounded in Kyiv’s overnight attack on Ukraine’s illegally annexed Crimea, the peninsula’s Russian-installed head Sergei Aksyonov said. He gave no further details.
Ukrainian also drones struck another major warehouse belonging to Wildberries, Russia’s biggest online shopping company, as part of a campaign that has hit more than a dozen of the retailer’s distribution hubs and caused severe disruption to its business.
A Wildberries warehouse in the Vladimir region east of Moscow caught fire in the latest attack, the company said Monday.
Three people were injured, Vladimir Gov Alexander Avdeyev said.
The Russian Defence Ministry on Monday reported that its air defenses overnight intercepted 131 Ukrainian drones over a number of Russian regions, as well as annexed Crimea and the Black Sea. (AP)
