Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has called on his country’s Western supporters to give the Ukrainian military a free hand to strike back at Russia, given the increasing number of Russian airstrikes on his country.
“The sooner the world helps us to deal with the Russian warplanes dropping these bombs, the sooner we can attack the Russian military infrastructure, the Russian military airfields, the closer we are to peace,” Zelensky said in his regular evening video address on Sunday.
The Ukrainian military has long been demanding permission from the West to attack Russian bases and airbases far behind the front line with heavy weapons.
Until now, Ukraine has only been allowed to use the weapons and ammunition supplied by the West near the front and in the border area with Russia.
For attacks in the Russian hinterland, Ukraine has had to rely on domestically produced drones, which are not as effective as more advanced foreign-supplied missiles or cruise missiles.
Zelensky calls for more air defence
Earlier, Zelensky has complained about ongoing Russian bombing and once again appealed to the West for more help with air defence.
In the past week alone, Russia has dropped 800 glide bombs over Ukraine, Zelensky announced in Kiev on Sunday. He also published a video of the heavy destruction and fires in the Kherson, Dnipro, Odessa and Zaporizhzhya regions, among others.
“Ukraine needs more air defence systems. We need strong help from our partners,” said Zelensky.
Ukraine also needs the means to shoot down the Russian fighter bombers, he said.
On Saturday, seven people were killed in an attack on the city of Vilniansk in the Zaporizhzhya region. According to official figures from Sunday, more than 40 people were injured. Lower figures had initially been reported the previous day.
On Sunday, at least one person was killed in a Russian airstrike on the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv on Sunday and a further eight people, including an eight-month-old baby, were seriously injured in the attack, according to Mayor Oleh Terekhov.
The glide bomb exploded in the middle of the city centre. The military administrator of Kharkiv, Oleh Synjehubov, specified that a post office had been hit in the attack.
The West is supporting Ukraine in its defence campaign against the Russian invasion, which has been going on for more than two years. The country has repeatedly requested more US Patriot air-defence systems to better protect its cities from Russian airstrikes.
Incident on Ukraine’s border with Hungary
On Ukraine’s western border with Hungary, a border guard fatally shot one man and injured another after they tried to attack with a machete on Saturday evening, according to a report from the news website Ukrainska Pravda, citing border guards and authorities.
The incident took place in the western Ukrainian region of Chernivtsi. Authorities did not immediately disclose details about the suspected attackers or any information around what may have led to the attack.
There have been clashes along the border due to efforts by guards to enforce rules forbidding men between the ages of 18 and 60 from leaving the country outside of exceptional circumstances.
In a separate incident, 17 men travelling in a minibus were apprehended along the border with Hungary while allegedly trying to leave Ukraine illegally, the border guards announced
The men came from different regions of Ukraine and were trying to flee to Hungary. Authorities said an initial investigation revealed that the men were supposed to pay between $3,000 and $12,000 to leave the country.
Russian occupiers seize Ukrainian property
The occupying forces in the Russian-annexed Luhansk region in eastern Ukraine are preparing to transfer residential property to military personnel, the Centre of National Resistance in Kiev said on Sunday.
Flats would not only be handed over to Moscow’s occupying forces but also to migrants from Central Asia, the centre said.
The internationally unrecognized leadership in Luhansk is preparing corresponding laws. Many Ukrainians have fled the occupied territories and left their property behind.
Immigrants from Central Asia are mainly used as cheap labour by Russia – not least for the reconstruction of towns and villages destroyed by the war.
According to a statement from the centre, the occupying forces are confiscating homes abandoned during the war and transferring them to homeless people.
Civilians are also being forcibly relocated from areas close to the front. Russian soldiers would then be housed in the civilian buildings, it said.
Russian state employees in Luhansk are being given flats abandoned by Ukrainians in order to carry out administrative tasks in the occupied territory, the centre said. Such flats and houses are offered for sale at low prices.
“The Kremlin is promoting such resettlements because it wants to completely Russify the occupied territories,” the statement said.
The occupiers rejected recognizing the documents on residential property issued in accordance with Ukrainian law. Instead, they demanded that ownership be formalized in accordance with Russian laws. Homeowners would thus be forced to first apply for a Russian passport and then go through Russian legal procedures.
The centre emphasized that the Russian approach was illegal and recommended that Ukrainian citizens keep original documents or certified copies of certificates of ownership. The Ukrainian leadership has repeatedly announced its intention to recapture the annexed territories.
Ukrainian citizens have also been expropriated on the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in 2014. Many homes, including one belonging to the family of President Volodymyr Zelensky, were seized by the Russian state.
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