kyiv, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine has received more U.S.-made Patriot air defense systems to help it counter Russia’s daily bombing raids, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, as Russian drones killed a man and wounded five members of his family, including two children, in the latest overnight attack.
Russia’s relentless attack on urban areas behind the front lines following its large-scale invasion of Ukraine almost four years ago has killed thousands of civilians. It has also targeted energy supplies to deprive civilians of heat and running water in winter, as well as to disrupt industrial production of Ukraine’s newly developed drones and missiles.
The sophisticated Patriot systems are the most effective weapon against Russian missiles. Zelenskyy has pleaded with his Western partners to provide more, but production constraints and the need to maintain reserves have slowed their delivery.
“There are now more Patriots in Ukraine and they are getting up and running,” Zelenskyy said on social media Sunday night. “Of course, more systems are needed to protect key infrastructure sites and our cities across our state.”
He thanked Germany and its chancellor Friedrich Merz for the patriots. Germany said three months ago it would deliver two more Patriot air defense systems to Ukraine. He agreed to the move after obtaining assurances that the United States will prioritize delivering new Patriots to Germany to replenish its stockpile. Patriot systems are manufactured only in the USA.
NATO is coordinating regular deliveries of large arms packages to Ukraine. European allies and Canada are purchasing much of the equipment from the United States, which has larger stocks of ready-made military hardware as well as more effective weapons. The Trump administration is not providing weapons to Ukraine, unlike the previous Biden administration.
Russia launched 12 missiles of various types and 138 attack and decoy drones against Ukraine overnight from Sunday to Monday, the Ukrainian air force said. Some nights it has fired hundreds of drones and missiles into Ukraine.
In the Sumy region of northeastern Ukraine, Russian drones struck a house, killing a man and wounding five members of his family, authorities said. Two women were also injured in another attack in Sumy.
“The Russians cynically attacked people, deliberately, at night, while they were sleeping,” regional head Oleh Hryhorov wrote on Telegram in response to the attacks.
Russian missiles caused a fire at a company in the central Dnipro region, injuring one man, regional head Vladyslav Haivanenko said.
Russian drones have also attacked energy infrastructure in the southern Mykolaiv region.
At the same time, Ukraine has been trying to limit the Russian oil industry, a pillar of its economy.
Ukrainian forces attacked the Russian Saratov oil refinery overnight and started a fire, according to the Ukrainian General Staff. It was Ukraine’s fourth attack on the Saratov facility in almost seven weeks.
The refinery, located about 500 kilometers (300 miles) from the Ukrainian border, can process several million metric tons of oil a year.
Zelenskyy claimed last week that long-range attacks on Russian refineries have reduced Moscow’s oil refining capacity by 20%.
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