KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine has received more U.S.-made Patriot air defense systems to help it counter Russia’s daily barrages, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, as Russian drones killed a man and injured five of his family members, including two children, in the latest nighttime attack.
Russia’s relentless pounding of urban areas behind the front line following its full-scale invasion of Ukraine nearly four years ago has killed thousands of civilians. It has also targeted the energy supply to deny civilians heat and running water in winter, as well as 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 Western partners to provide more of them, but production limitations and the need to maintain stockpiles have slowed their delivery.
“More Patriots are now in Ukraine and being put into operation,” Zelenskyy said on social media late Sunday. “Of course, more systems are needed to protect key infrastructure sites and our cities across the entire territory of our state.”
He thanked Germany and its Chancellor Friedrich Merz for the Patriots. Germany said three months ago it would deliver two more U.S.-made Patriot air defense systems to Ukraine. It agreed to the move after securing assurances that the U.S. will prioritize the delivery of new Patriots to Germany to backfill its stocks.
Germany has given to Ukraine more Patriot systems from its own armed forces than any other country, the German Defense Ministry said Monday. Germany has also supplied shorter range air defense systems, such as IRIS-T and Skynex.
NATO is coordinating regular deliveries of large weapons packages to Ukraine. European allies and Canada are buying much of the equipment from the United States. The Trump administration is not giving any arms to Ukraine, unlike the previous Biden administration.
Speaking at a briefing, Zelenskyy said he discussed additional support for Ukraine’s energy sector in Monday's call with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. “We are working to cover the amount needed for gas imports,” he said, adding that von der Leyen promised additional assistance.
Speaking about the battlefield situation, Zelenskyy said that the Ukrainian military was fighting several hundred Russian troops who entered the eastern stronghold of Pokrovsk and another 60 Russian soldiers who have infiltrated into Kupiansk. Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed that Moscow's forces have blockaded both Pokrovsk and Kupiansk — allegations dismissed by Kyiv.
Zelenskyy noted that Ukraine was ramping up production of interceptor drones to counter Russian aerial attacks and voiced hope that the daily output will reach 600-800 of them a day by the end of the month. He added that Ukraine already makes twice as many sea drones as it uses and has the capacity to export some of them.
Russia launched 12 missiles of various types and 138 strike and decoy drones at Ukraine overnight from Sunday to Monday, Ukraine’s air force said. On some nights it has fired many hundreds of drones and missiles at Ukraine.
In Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy region, Russian drones hit a house where they killed a man and injured five members of his family, authorities said. Two women were also injured in a separate Sumy attack.
“The Russians cynically targeted people — deliberately, at night, while they were sleeping,” regional head Oleh Hryhorov said in response to the attacks.
Russian missiles started a fire at a business in the central city of Dnipro, injuring one man, and also struck energy infrastructure in the southern Mykolaiv region.
At the same time, Ukraine has been trying to constrain Russia's oil industry, a mainstay of its economy.
Ukrainian forces struck Russia’s Saratov oil refinery overnight and started a fire, according to Ukraine’s general staff. It was Ukraine’s fourth attack on the Saratov installation in almost seven weeks.
The refinery, located some 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 strikes on Russian refineries have reduced Moscow’s oil refining capacity by 20%.
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Stefanie Dazio in Berlin contributed to this report.
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Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine