KYIV: Kyiv on Tuesday said that Italy would supply Ukraine with another air defence system, weapons that senior Ukrainian officials have been urging allies to send to fend off Russian assaults.
President Volodymyr Zelensky says his country urgently needs at least seven more systems, including two just to defend the eastern Kharkiv region, where Moscow recently launched a fresh ground offensive.
"Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani confirmed that his country will provide Ukraine with a second SAMP/T air defence system," Andriy Yermak, the head of the Ukrainian president's office announced on social media. An Italian government source confirmed the announcement from Yermak, without elaborating.
The news came as regional Ukrainian officials said eight people had been wounded in overnight Russian attacks in the central Dnipropetrovsk region and also in the eastern Kharkiv region.
The head of the southern Kherson region, which the Kremlin claims is part of Russia, separately said that Russian artillery fire had killed an elderly woman in her yard in the village of Veletynske.
State power operator Ukrenergo on Tuesday introduced forced electricity blackouts in several regions, including the capital Kyiv and frontline Donetsk and Kharkiv regions.
Recent Russian missile and drone barrages, including a major attack over the weekend, have stretched Ukraine's air defence capacity.
"The forced power outages are the result of six combined targeted attacks by Russia on the Ukrainian energy system. There is not enough electricity to cover the needs of all consumers," Ukrenergo said in a post on Telegram.
Ukraine has recently warned of more -- and longer -- power outages throughout the country as its generating capacity has been severely hit by Russian attacks.
The Kremlin says it only targets Ukrainian military infrastructure and that the supply of Western weapons to Ukraine will only prolong the war and will not change the conflict's outcome.
Meanwhile, French military instructors training soldiers in Ukraine would be a "legitimate target" for Russian strikes, Moscow's top diplomat said on Tuesday, amid reports France could send trainers to the country. France does not officially have military personnel assisting or training Ukrainian forces in Ukraine at the moment, but Kyiv said last week it was "in talks" with Paris on the issue. — AFP
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