Ukraine pleads for Patriot missiles as Russian attacks kill at least 24 overnight (updated)
A Russian missile and drone attack has killed at least 24 people across Ukraine, 16 in Dnipro and eight in the capital Kyiv, according to the local authorities.
The aftermath of Russian attack on DniproDozens were also injured, including several children, after the overnight air strikes hit apartment blocks, with emergency crews racing to find people feared trapped beneath rubble in Kyiv.
Oleksandr Hanzha, head of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Military Administration, reported that rescuers have recovered the bodies of a woman and an 8-year-old boy from the rubble of a destroyed building in Dnipro, bringing the death toll from the Russian strike to 11. Another 37 Ukrainians were injured. 22 of them remain in hospitals.
The aftermath of Russian attack on Dnipro“They have shrapnel wounds, fractures, lacerated and incised wounds, mine-explosive injuries, and acoustic barotrauma,” Hanzha stated.
Russia’s defence ministry stated that the strikes were a response to previous Ukrainian attacks and added that the “strike objectives” had all been achieved.
Aftermath of Russian strikes in KyivMoscow last week warned it would launch “systematic strikes” after accusing Kyiv of a deadly attack on a student dormitory in an occupied part of eastern Ukraine, while Kyiv said it targeted a Russian drone command facility.
The attack caused fires near a petrol station, a construction site, several apartment blocks, and two houses, the capital’s Mayor Vitali Klitschko said. Blackouts were also reported across the city. According to Klitschko, the number of people injured had risen to 90, including three children aged 3, 11 and 17.
Update: Vsevolod Zelenin, a lecturer at the Mykhailo Drahomanov Ukrainian State University, reported on 8 June that the death toll from the Russian strike on Kyiv on the night of June 2 has risen after one of the injured victims, Iryna Zabudko, died in the hospital.
Iryna ZabudkoUkraine’s Ministry of Health stated that Russian shelling damaged or destroyed five medical facilities in Kyiv. These include two specialised medical institutions and primary healthcare centres in the Podilskyi, Sviatoshynskyi, and Holosiivskyi Districts. The latter was hit the hardest, with its second and third floors completely destroyed.
Russians also destroyed the official Zeekr electric vehicle dealership in Kyiv’s Podil District. The company temporarily suspended operations.
Elsewhere, Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov stated that Russians injured 10 people, including a child, in overnight drone and missile strikes on the north-eastern city, while an industrial facility was also attacked further south in Zaporizhzhia.
In the Poltava Oblast, an enterprise, residential buildings, and outbuildings were damaged, leaving one person injured.
In the Chernihiv Oblast, an injured teenager was reported following an overnight strike, while in the Sumy region, two civilians suffered acute stress reactions.
“We urgently need help from the United States in supplying missiles for Patriot systems”, Zelenskyy stated, referring to interception hardware used to intercept Russian missiles. Patriot missiles have been in short supply, exacerbated by the U.S. and Israeli war against Iran.
The president also reiterated to countries in his evening address that no type of Russian missile or drone can be manufactured without foreign components. In light of this, he once again emphasised the critical need to block the supply chains that deliver these components and technologies to Russia for the production of strike weapons.
“This means that in every such strike there is – perhaps not always conscious, but still real – complicity of those who work for Russia, who supply Russia with money, who help it bypass sanctions and find not just one or two, but thousands of components without which Russian military production would simply come to a halt,” the president said.
Zelenskyy elaborated that five Kalibr missiles contain 145 such components. Thirty-three Iskander missiles contain 1,122 components. Six hundred and fifty strike drones of various types contain more than 17,000 components, without which they could not be produced.
“These are large-scale schemes designed to bypass sanctions, and this is absolutely real complicity in the killings,” he added.
Ukrainian experts point out that countries, including China, the United States of America, North Korea, Hungary, Slovakia, Iran, and Brazil, assist Moscow in killing Ukrainians in its war against Ukraine by funding the Russian budget through trade.
You may also want to read: European, Japanese, and U.S. parts helped Russia build missiles that killed 24, including three children, in Kyiv – Zelenskyy
Cover photo: Vladyslav Musiienko
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