Ukraine's Zelensky pledges to strengthen air defences

KYIV: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has pledged to strengthen air defences in the major cities of Odessa and Dnipro following heavy Russian aerial attacks. 'For Dnipro, there will be additional radar systems, electronic jamming equipment and more personnel,' Zelensky said in a video address. He added that solutions were also being implemented for Odesa and that interception rates were already rising.
'But they must be higher,' he said, adding that Russia's frequent and large-scale attacks were aimed at overwhelming Ukraine's air defence systems. The southeastern industrial city of Dnipro has come under repeated missile and drone attacks in recent days. The wider area around the Black Sea port of Odessa is regularly targeted by Russian combat drones. Ukraine has been defending itself against a Russian attack for more than four years. Since then, the country's outdated Soviet-era air defence systems have been increasingly replaced with modern Western equipment.
Meanwhile, a man and a woman were killed, and seven others were injured in a Russian drone attack on a minibus in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, Kherson military governor Oleksandr Prokudin reported on Saturday. Those injured in the early morning attack included six men and a woman who were taken to hospital, Prokudin posted on his Telegram channel. — dpa