Ukraine could run out of air defence missiles if Russia keeps up its intense long-range bombing campaign, Volodymyr Zelensky warned.
The Ukrainian leader’s warning follows weeks of Russian strikes on the energy infrastructure, towns and cities using a vast arsenal of missiles and drones.
“If they keep hitting [Ukraine] every day the way they have for the last month, we might run out of missiles, and the partners know it,” Zelenskiy said on Ukrainian television.
It comes as a Ukrainian commander claimed their positions have been coming under daily attacks by drones dropping tear gas and other chemicals.
The use of such gas, known as CS and commonly used by riot police, is banned during wartime under the Chemical Weapons Convention.
Ihor, the commander of a Ukrainian reconnaissance team who is deployed near the front-line city of Chasiv Yar, Donetsk Oblast, told the Daily Telegraph: “Nearly every position in our area of the front was getting one or two gas grenades dropped on them a day.”
Pro-Russian candidate wins Slovakia presidential election
Pro-Russian candidate Peter Pellegrini has been elected as Slovakia’s new president.
Mr Pellegrini’s election cements pro-Russian prime minister Robert Fico’s hold over the country.
Mr Fico’s coalition, which includes a party headed by Mr Pellegrini, has already halted Slovak official shipments of weapons for Ukraine.
The prime minister has also spoken about western influence in the war leading to Slavic nations killing each other.
However, Mr Pellegrini has held a more moderate stance than the prime minister.
“I will be a president who will support the government in its efforts for improving people’s lives. I will do everything for Slovakia to forever remain on the side of peace and not the side of war,” he said.
More on the presidential election results here
Vishwam Sankaran7 April 2024 08:00
Russia and West join forces to tackle trade in ‘blood diamonds’ despite feud over Moscow’s diamonds
Alexander Butler7 April 2024 07:30
In Ukraine if Black Tulip can’t bring the bodies of loved ones home, no one can
Alexander Butler7 April 2024 06:30
Russia’s use of prohibited chemical weapons is now ‘systemic,’ Ukraine says
Ukraine says Russia’s use of weapons with prohibited chemicals has become “systemic.”
The command of Ukraine’s Support Forces has recorded 371 uses of munitions containing prohibited chemicals over the past month, many of which included grenades delivered via drones.
The Support Forces’ report noted that Russian troops used weapons banned by the Chemical Weapons Convention 1412 times over the past year.
“Such actions on the part of the Russian Federation are taking on systemic pattern, and this tendency only grows,” the report noted.
Alexander Butler7 April 2024 04:30
Thousands in Russia’s Orenburg forced to evacuate as ‘critical’ flooding causes dam burst
Alexander Butler7 April 2024 03:30
Ukrainian forces still control eastern town of Chasiv Yar, top general says
Ukrainian forces are still in control of the town of Chasiv Yar in eastern Ukraine despite attempts by Russian troops to break through their defences, Commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said on Saturday.
Russia‘s RIA news agency on Friday cited an official as saying Russian forces had entered the suburbs of the town, which Moscow sees as an important staging point for Kyiv’s troops. Ukrainian military said the report was untrue. “Chasiv Yar remains under our control, and all enemy attempts to break through to the settlement have failed,” Syrskyi said on the Telegram messaging app on Saturday.
A rapid Russian advance on Chasiv Yar, a heavily fortified town with a pre-war population of 12,200 situated west of the ruined Russian-occupied city of Bakhmut, would be a grim setback for Kyiv.
Russian forces are inching forward in eastern Ukraine after capturing the bastion town of Avdiivka in February. Kyiv’s soldiers are trying to dig in, facing long-term shortages of artillery shells with U.S. aid stuck in Congress.
Finland to keep border with Russia closed until further notice
Alexander Butler7 April 2024 01:30
Russian officials again try to link the Moscow concert attack with Ukraine despite Kyiv’s denials
Alexander Butler7 April 2024 00:30
UK needs wartime defence spending in face of most dangerous time since Cold War, ex-civil service chief warns
Alexander Butler6 April 2024 23:30