Selenskyj calls for weapons again after deadly Russian attack

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for “accelerated” Western arms deliveries on Saturday after Kyiv said a Russian attack in the south had killed seven people, including two children.

“Any delay in decisions in this war means the loss of human lives,” Zelensky said after the attack on the southern city of Vilnius.

This follows an immediately preceding AFP article which stated: “Russian attack on southern Ukraine town leaves seven dead.”

At least seven people were killed in a Russian attack on the southern Ukrainian city of Vilnius, Kiev said. The attack came just hours after Russia said a Ukrainian drone had killed five people in its border village.

Both countries said two children were killed in each attack, marking a deadly day in the war that has been going on for more than two years.

Kyiv also reported that four people were killed in eastern frontline villages in the Donetsk region.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that the death toll in Vilnius, near the regional capital Zaporizhia, could rise.

“A Russian missile attack in the Zaporizhia region killed seven people, including two children,” Zelensky said on social media.

He called on his Western allies to speed up arms deliveries, saying: “Any delay in decisions in this war means loss of life.”

Ukrainian Interior Minister Igor Klimenko said 18 people were injured in Vilnius, including four children.

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He posted pictures of a burnt-out building and blackened cars.

The governor of the Zaporizhia region, Ivan Fedorov, had previously stated that the attack had “damaged a critical infrastructure facility, a shop and residential buildings”.

Vilnius is located 29 kilometers northeast of the city of Zaporizhia, the largest city in the region under Ukrainian control.

The Russian attack on Vilnius came hours after Moscow said a Ukrainian drone had killed five people, including two children, over a house in a Russian border village.

Five dead in Russian village

Moscow said the drone hit a house in the village of Gorodishche, a small village in Russia’s Kursk region, just meters from the border with Ukraine.

“To our deep regret, five people were killed… including two small children. Two other family members are in serious condition,” Kursk Governor Alexei Smirnov said in a post on Telegram.

He added that the attack was carried out using a “copter”-style drone, a small device that can be loaded with grenades or other explosives and dropped over targets.

Both sides have used drones extensively throughout the conflict, which began in February 2022, including larger self-detonating aircraft with ranges of up to hundreds of kilometers.

Ukraine has stepped up its attacks on Russian territory this year, targeting both energy facilities it says supply power to the Russian military and towns and villages just across the border.

Fighting in Ukraine has intensified in several directions as Russia launches offensives from several directions, taking advantage of Kyiv’s military defensive.

Four dead in eastern Ukraine

The Kiev army said on Saturday that Moscow was attacking from several directions and “the total number of enemy attacks along the entire front line has now risen to 90.”

Ukrainian officials reported deadly attacks on Saturday morning that killed four people in villages in the east of the country.

“Russians killed three people in (the village of) Tsaritsyne,” Vadym Filashkin, the governor of the Donetsk region, said on social media.

The Ukrainian Attorney General’s office later said another person, a resident of an eastern village in New York State, “also suffered fatal injuries.”

New York has been under heavy attack since mid-June, while Russian forces are advancing toward the city of Toretsk further north.

In the central Russian city of Dnipro, they say they have found a woman who was killed the day before in an attack in which 13 people were injured.

“Police have identified a woman killed in a rocket attack on the city of Dnipro. She is a 76-year-old resident of a destroyed apartment block,” the Ukrainian National Police said in a statement.

The number of injured in the attack rose to 13, “including a toddler and a pregnant woman.”