Zelensky pursues further arms deals with Ukraine’s allies

Ukraine’s top diplomatic priority is securing its allies’ help to buy and build more air defence systems, President Volodymyr Zelensky has said between meetings with European leaders, as Russia kept up its deadly attacks.

Russian strikes hit more than a half a dozen areas of Ukraine behind the front line from Tuesday to Wednesday, killing an eight-year-old boy in the central Cherkasy region and a woman who was in a kiosk near a bus stop that was hit in southern Zaporizhzhia, according to Mr Zelensky and local officials.

“Every day we need air defence missiles — every day Russia continues its strikes,” Mr Zelensky said in a post on the Telegram messaging app.

With no plans announced for further US-mediated talks with Russia, Mr Zelensky was visiting three European capitals in 48 hours, securing promises of further military and financial support from Germany and Norway ahead of his trip to Italy on Wednesday.

Germany and Ukraine agreed a defence package valued at four billion euros (£3.4 billion), and Norway has pledged nine billion euros (£7.8 billion) in assistance, Ukrainian officials said.

After more than four years of fighting Russia’s full-scale invasion, Ukraine possesses battle-tested drone interceptor expertise and has developed groundbreaking air defence technology, but it lacks the money to scale up production to levels that would press its advantage.

Mr Zelensky said he is asking European countries to keep adding money to a fund that allows the purchase from the US of American-made weapons for Ukraine, especially the Patriot air defence system that can stop the Russian cruise and ballistic missiles hitting civilian areas.

He is also championing joint weapons production agreements, including for drones and missiles, while pushing for the European Union to move quickly on providing a promised 90-billion-euro (£78 billion) loan.

Between November and March, Russia launched 27,000 Shahed-type drones, nearly 600 cruise missiles and 462 ballistic missiles at Ukraine, Ukrainian Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said.

Defence leaders from the 50-plus partner nations who regularly gather to co-ordinate weapons aid for Kyiv were to hold an online meeting on Wednesday, chaired by German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius and UK Defence Secretary John Healey. Nato secretary-general Mark Rutte also attended.

Ahead of the meeting, Britain announced it will send 120,000 drones to Ukraine this year, its biggest delivery of the weapons so far. The package includes long-range strike drones, intelligence and reconnaissance drones, logistics drones and maritime capabilities.

The Russian Defence Ministry said the European nations’ decision to ramp up drone production for Ukraine was a “deliberate step leading to a sharp escalation of the military-political situation across the entire European continent and the creeping transformation of these countries into Ukraine’s strategic rear area”.

The ministry warned that attacks on Russia involving the drones manufactured in Europe for Ukraine are fraught with “unpredictable consequences”.

“Instead of strengthening the security of European states, the actions of European leaders are increasingly drawing these countries into a war with Russia,” it said.

It published a list of branches of Ukrainian drone producing factories in the UK, Germany, Denmark, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Poland, the Czech Republic as well as factories producing components in Germany, Spain, Italy, the Czech Republic, Israel and Turkey.

“The European public should not only clearly understand the true causes of the threats to their security but also know the addresses and locations of “Ukrainian” and “joint” enterprises producing drones and components for Ukraine on the territory of their countries,” the ministry said.

Ukraine’s war effort has gained momentum in recent weeks, according to Western officials and analysts. Its troops have disrupted Russia’s spring offensive, thanks in part to drones and ground robots, and its long-range strikes have dented Russian oil exports and some manufacturing output.

Ukraine’s top military commander Oleksandr Syrskyi said that last month Ukrainian troops recaptured nearly 50 square kilometres (20 square miles) of territory from Russian forces. Also in March, Ukrainian deep strike operations hit 76 Russian targets, including 15 oil refining facilities, he said.

But clouds have also gathered, as the Iran war drains stockpiles of advanced air defense missiles that Ukraine needs, and Kyiv’s money is running short.

“We cannot lose sight of Ukraine” amid the Middle East conflict, NATO chief Rutte said.

Russia launched 324 drones and three ballistic missiles at Ukraine overnight, the Ukrainian air force said, in its biggest barrage in almost two weeks. Air defences intercepted 309 of the drones.

Russia also fired a powerful FAB-1500 glide bomb, weighing 1.5 metric tons, at the central part of Sloviansk before dawn on Wednesday, the Sloviansk City Military Administration head Vadym Liakh said.

The blast destroyed a children’s sports facility that was a city landmark, he said.

In a night-time strike on the southeastern city of Dnipro, Russian forces struck two universities overnight, damaging academic buildings, dormitories and nearby homes, Mayor Borys Filatov said.

The blast wave shattered more than 1,000 windows in surrounding buildings, he said, adding that there were no military targets in the area.

Meanwhile, Ukraine proceeded with its long-range drone attacks on Russia, with the Russian Defence Ministry reporting on Wednesday that its air defences intercepted 85 Ukrainian drones overnight over several Russian regions, the annexed Crimean peninsula and the waters of the Black and the Azov seas.

Ukrainian drones targeted an industrial facility in Sterlitamak, a Russian city about 1,300 kilometres (800 miles) east of the border with Ukraine, local authorities said.

Radiy Khabirov, governor of the Bashkortostan region where Sterlitamak is located, said in an online statement on Wednesday that several drones were shot down over Sterlitamak’s “industrial zone”, and debris fell on one of the facilities there, sparking a fire. He did not provide further details.