War in Ukraine, day 786 | NATO must prove to Kyiv that it is its “ally”, urges Zelensky

(Kyiv) NATO must prove to Ukraine that it is its “ally” in the war against Russia, by accelerating its deliveries of arms and ammunition “as quickly as possible,” President Volodymyr urged on Friday Zelensky to members of the Alliance.

His videoconference speech to NATO came on the eve of a key vote in the American Congress on a $61 billion aid package, which Kyiv had been waiting for several months.

Russian President Vladimir “Putin must be brought back to earth and our skies must become safe again,” said the Ukrainian head of state, whose remarks were reported by his services.

“And it depends entirely on your choice,” he insisted. “The choice to determine if we are truly allies.”

On the ground, Ukraine is facing ammunition shortages and difficulties in protecting all of its cities and energy infrastructure, which have been regularly targeted by the Russian army for several weeks.

However, Kyiv is constantly asking its partners for more ammunition and anti-aircraft defense systems to counter these Russian strikes, while divisions in Europe and especially in Washington have slowed down deliveries in the military field.

“This year we can no longer wait for decisions to be made. I ask you to consider our requests as quickly as possible,” Mr. Zelensky said urgently.

The vote in the US Congress scheduled for Saturday is of “vital importance” for Ukraine, he said.

The president also called for, among other things, seven additional modern Patriot anti-aircraft systems, “a minimum number” according to him, and criticized the slow delivery of shells. “They must finally arrive at the front,” he said.

On Friday, Volodymyr Zelensky also recognized “the limits” of his army, which defended itself “bravely” against the more numerous Russian troops.

“It is obvious that now, while Russia has the advantage in the air and can rely on the terror caused by drones and rockets, our capabilities on the ground are unfortunately limited,” he admitted, after the failure of Kyiv’s counter-offensive in the summer of 2023.

The Ukrainian president finally clarified that Ukraine had been the target of “nearly 1,200 Russian rockets” and “more than 1,500” Shahed-type explosive drones since the start of the year.

Eight dead in strikes

At least eight people, including children, were killed in nighttime strikes in Ukraine, in the Dnipropetrovsk region (center-east), Ukrainian authorities announced on Friday, who claimed to have shot down a Russian strategic bomber for the first time.

At the same time, the foreign ministers of the G7 states made a “commitment” to “strengthen” Ukraine’s anti-aircraft defense assets, following their meeting in southern Italy. They also expressed their “strong concern” about transfers of Chinese equipment benefiting, according to them, Russian military production.

For its part, Moscow reported the death of a crew member in the crash of a Tupolev-22M plane following a “technical failure”, without mentioning Ukrainian involvement. The two countries seem to be talking about the same device.

In Ukraine’s Synelnykove district, southeast of Dnipro, the capital of the Dnipropetrovsk region, “more than ten houses were damaged” and “six people died”, Ukrainian Interior Minister Igor Klymenko said on Telegram.

In the city of Dnipro, where a four-story apartment building and other “civil infrastructure” were hit, two people died, he added, warning that the toll was likely to rise.

At least 25 people were injured, according to the local governor.

The head of Ukrainian diplomacy Dmytro Kouleba specified that “two children”, aged fourteen and eight, were among the dead and that a third, a six-year-old boy, had been injured. Different officials had previously made contradictory statements on the number of miners killed and their ages.

“Children should not be killed by airstrikes in modern Europe,” Kouleba said.

Railways affected

The Ukrainian public railway company Ukrzaliznytsia denounced on Friday “a massive bombardment” of its infrastructure in Dnipro and its region, reporting one employee killed and seven injured.

Russia bombs Ukrainian towns daily and Kyiv says it has an acute lack of ammunition to repel these attacks, while Western aid is reduced or arrives late.

In total, Russia fired 22 missiles and 14 explosive drones into Ukrainian territory during the night from Thursday to Friday, the Ukrainian Air Force said in the morning, claiming to have shot down 29 of these devices.

Volodymyr Zelensky said he visited soldiers in the Donetsk region in the east, where the Russian army is increasing its pressure.

The president explained that he had inspected “the construction of fortifications”, one of Ukraine’s current priorities in order to curb Moscow’s troops.

“Down” in combat mission

Ukrainian Air Force Commander Mykola Oleshchuk said Friday that his forces had, “for the first time,” “destroyed a long-range Tu-22M strategic bomber, carrying X-22 cruise missiles.”

Ukraine had already claimed responsibility for the destruction of a device of this type in August but it was on the ground and not in the air.

According to Ukrainian military intelligence (GUR), this time it is a plane which took part in the night bombings and “was shot down following a special operation”.

The GUR ensures that this aircraft, which was carrying out a “combat mission”, fell in the Stavropol region, in south-west Russia.

In Moscow, the Russian Defense Ministry did not confirm that Ukrainian fire had targeted a Russian military plane but an army source told state news agency TASS that a supersonic bomber Tupolev-22m³ had “crashed in the Stavropol region after a combat mission, while returning to its base”.

The aircraft had no weapons on board, this source assured.

The governor of the Stavropol region, for his part, announced that a Tupolev-22M had crashed in this area after a “technical” incident and that at least one member of its crew had lost his life.

“A plane fell in the fields in the Krasnogvardeisky district,” Vladimir Vladimirov wrote on Telegram.

“According to preliminary data, a technical failure was the cause of the accident,” he added, without giving further details.

Two other members of the plane’s crew were found alive and emergency services are still looking for the fourth, he said.

The Krasnogvardeisky district is located some 300 km from the Ukrainian border.