Toll from Ukrainian shelling of Russian-held town climbs to 16 – Ukraine war live

Two people were killed by Ukrainian strikes in a Russian-held area of Ukraine’s Kherson, the region’s top official said on Sunday.

One person was wounded, Vladimir Saldo wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

Germany will supply a US-made Patriot air defence system and air defence missiles to Ukraine at a “critical time” as Kyiv struggles to defend its energy system from Russian bombardment, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said.

More than two years into its full-scale invasion, Russia has staged three massive airstrikes on power stations and substations in recent weeks, prompting Kyiv to issue desperate appeals for supplies of high-end air defences.

“Germany will deliver an additional Patriot air defence system to Ukraine,” Germany’s chancellor Olaf Scholz said on X, a reminder that Germany is now a key backer of Ukraine with US assistance stuck in Congress.

“We stand steadfast on the side of Ukraine,” Mr Scholz said, adding that Mr Zelensky had informed him in a telephone call on Saturday about “massive Russian air attacks on civilian energy infrastructure”.

Germany’s ambassador to Ukraine, Martin Jaeger, said on X: “Other international partners must follow quickly now.”

Mr Zelensky said on the Telegram messaging app that he was grateful to Mr Scholz for the decision to supply another, additional Patriot system, and missiles for existing air defence systems.

Later in his nightly video address, Mr Zelensky indicated talks were underway about expanding German transfers of another air defence system, though German officials did not reference this in their remarks.

“We are also working with Germany on an additional IRIS-T system, which is also a strong air defence system, and on missiles for our existing air defence systems,” Mr Zelensky said in his video address.

Ukraine’s air force today said its air defence systems destroyed all 10 attack drones that Russia had launched at the country.

The air force said on Telegram that Russia also attacked Ukraine with four missiles but did not say what happened to them.

Russia’s defence ministry today said its air defense systems destroyed 10 Ukrainian drones over the Krasnodar region in southern Russia and five drones over the Black Sea.

The ministry, in a statement on the Telegram messaging app, did not say whether there was any damage from the attacks.

A local official in Ukraine’s southern Zaporizhzhia region today said that the death toll from the Ukrainian military’s shelling of the town of Tokmak had risen to 16.

Yevgeny Balitsky, the top official in the region appointed by Moscow, said on Telegram that 20 people had been wounded in the shelling on Friday night, with 12 in serious condition.

There has been no comment from Ukraine on the alleged attack.

Zaporizhzhia is one of four Ukrainian regions that have been partially occupied by Russian forces and which Moscow moved to annex after launching its invasion on Ukraine in February 2022.

Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene laid into Speaker of the House Mike Johnson on Friday, criticising his support for a legislative package that includes funding for Ukraine and accusing him of bothering Donald Trump by meeting with him.

“The American people are the ones writing the cheque and I absolutely hate everybody here doing this,” Ms Greene said. “I mean I seriously hate them for doing this for the American people and paying for the murder and slaughter of the people in Ukraine.”

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It cannot have been a great surprise to the foreign secretary, David Cameron, that Donald Trump showed such little interest in supporting Ukraine’s war of resistance. Had Mr Trump wanted to see Ukraine receive the military assistance that Kyiv has been begging for, and which remains stalled in the House of Representatives, he’d have given it the nod months ago, and the Republican caucus would have responded with alacrity.

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Ukrainian commander Odin’s lower leg was blown off in a mine explosion last year. He’s now back in the trenches.

“I had offers to go back to my local academy as a teacher or to work at a draft office in Odesa,” the 32-year-old from the 28th Separate Mechanised Brigade said from a cramped bunker on the front line in the eastern region of Donetsk.

“I said I’m not interested in these positions.”

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Ukraine’s army chief said on Saturday the situation on the eastern front had worsened in recent days as Russia has intensified its armoured assaults and battles rage for control of a village west of the devastated city of Bakhmut.

The statement by Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi more than two years since Russia’s invasion reflected the grim mood in Kyiv as vital US military aid that Kyiv expected to receive months ago remains stuck in Congress.

“The situation on the eastern front in recent days has grown considerably more tense. This is linked primarily to the significant activisation of offensive action by the enemy after the presidential elections in Russia,” he wrote on the Telegram app.

Since President Vladimir Putin won a new term in a stage-managed mid-March election, Russia has stepped up its attacks on Ukraine and unleashed three massive aerial strikes on its energy system, pounding power plants and substations.

The slowdown in military assistance from the West has left Ukraine more exposed to aerial attacks and heavily outgunned on the battlefield. Kyiv has made increasingly desperate appeals for supplies of air defence missiles in recent weeks.

China has surged sales to Russia of machine tools, microelectronics and other technology that Moscow in turn is using to produce missiles, tanks, aircraft and other weaponry for use in its war against Ukraine, according to a U.S. assessment.

Two senior Biden administration officials, who discussed the sensitive findings Friday on the condition of anonymity, said that in 2023 about 90% of Russia’s microelectronics came from China, which Russia has used to make missiles, tanks and aircraft.

Nearly 70% of Russia’s approximately $900 million in machine tool imports in the last quarter of 2023 came from China.

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