Zelensky pleads for air defence systems to protect civilians

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKY has called on the West to send air defence systems to stop Russia from striking cities far from the front line with long-range missiles.

The Ukrainian president told the Washington Post that while the high mobility artillery rocket systems (Himars) from the West are welcome, his forces need air defence weapons to deter Russian strikes. The US and Germany have pledged to send the equipment but it has not yet arrived.

Mr Zelensky said the number of artillery shells Ukraine fires daily has increased from around 1,000-2,000 to 6,000. He said Russia used to fire 12,000 shells a day, but that number is decreasing amid shortages.

In addition, he revealed that at the peak of fighting Ukraine was losing up to 200 troops a day, but daily fatalities had now fallen to about 30.

He went on to say a ceasefire with Russia which does not allow Ukraine to reclaim occupied territory is unacceptable.

“Freezing the conflict with the Russian Federation means a pause that gives the Russian Federation a break for rest,” he said.

Meanwhile, Russia is using air defence systems to attack ground targets in Ukraine even though they are less accurate, according to British intelligence.

The Ministry of Defence said that the invading forces had increased their use of air-defence missiles in a secondary ground attack mode “because of critical shortages of dedicated ground-attack missiles”. Its claims echoed those made by Vitaliy Kim, the governor of Mykolaiv, who said on Thursday that Russian forces had used seven airdefence missiles to strike targets in his region.

He has previously accused the Russians of firing S-300 missiles for ground attacks. “They put GPS on them to shoot at the ground, it is not accurate because of this,” Mr Kim said on July 8.

Though primarily an air-defence system, the S-300 also has surface-to-surface capabilities that Russia has demonstrated during exercises. However, the MOD said the air defence system had inherent limitations when used to attack ground targets.

“These weapons have relatively small warheads designed to destroy aircraft. They could pose a significant threat against troops in the open and light buildings but are unlikely to penetrate hardened structures,” it said.

Used in such a way, they posed a danger to non-combatants, it continued. “There is a high chance of these weapons missing their intended targets and causing civilian casualties because the missiles are not optimised for this role, and their crews will have [had] little training for such missions.”

Meanwhile, Russia’s defence ministry said that between July 5 and July 20 its forces had destroyed four Us-supplied Himars in Ukraine.

Kyiv rejected the claim – which could not be independently verified – saying it was designed to undermine the West’s support for Ukraine.