KYIV: Russian strikes on Kyiv killed five people during the day on Friday, including a 14-year-old boy, local authorities said, as Ukraine’s leader disclosed that Donald Trump had approved licences for Patriot air defence systems.
Volodymyr Zelensky has made repeated calls on Ukraine’s Western allies for better air defence systems to combat the increasingly deadly barrage of drone and missile strikes, with hopes of producing the advanced Patriots under US licence.
With attacks in Kyiv intensifying, blasts again rang out across the capital in the early afternoon, sending some people running for shelter, while others walked by without reacting, a journalist saw. Shortly afterwards, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said four people had been found dead, with dozens more injured.
An earlier attack coinciding with the morning commute killed a 14-year-old boy. Israel’s foreign ministry said the teenager was an Israeli citizen and his mother was among those wounded. Zelensky condemned the strike the latest hitting civilian targets, transport infrastructure, warehouses and residential areas calling it ‘absolutely savage and sickening’ and ‘devoid of any military logic’ Journalists at the scene saw residents gathering around a multi-storey building, with apartments on the ninth and 10th floors left charred by the impact. Russia used to target Kyiv mainly during hours of darkness but now often attacks in broad daylight, with jet-powered drones heard and even seen flying overhead.
Alisa Boyko, who lived in the high-rise struck on Friday morning, said the Kremlin’s objectives were clear. She said Russian forces were seeking to ‘torment’ Kyiv residents, ‘so that everyone is affected, one way or another’.
Moscow has been increasingly firing at the capital with the newly developed jet-powered drones, which have succeeded in bypassing some of the drone interception systems developed by Ukraine.-AFP