Deliveries of weapons to Ukraine from the United States haven’t stopped despite the Iran war, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Thursday, saying long-range strikes continue to hammer Russian oil production and manufacturing plants.
“Of course, we are hitting what is painful for Russia and it is very painful,” Zelenskyy said in voice messages to reporters. He said that Russian losses in the strikes have reached tens of billions of dollars.
It wasn’t possible to independently verify Zelenskyy’s comments but Russian officials have reported that attacks have struck infrastructure in regions more than 1,000 kilometres inside Russia.
While Russia presses on with its full-scale invasion which it launched in 2022, Ukraine is using its domestically developed drone and missile technology to strike Russian territory.
The Ukrainian military also uses American-made Patriot air defence systems to stop Russian missile attacks on Ukraine’s territory.
“We see that the Russians do not want to stop — they are hitting our energy sector and our people. We will respond,” Zelenskyy said.
Strikes on Dnipro
Meanwhile, three people were killed and 10 others wounded in a Russian drone attack on the central city of Dnipro, according to Oleksandr Hanzha, the head of the regional military administration.
A 13-story building and an administrative building were damaged in the strike, Hanzha said on the Telegram messaging app.
Russian air defences intercepted 154 Ukrainian drones over Russian regions, the annexed Crimea Peninsula, the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea, the Russian Defence Ministry said.
Authorities in the Krasnodar region on Russia’s Black Sea coast said that 276 firefighters at the Black Sea port of Tuapse were fighting for a third straight day a huge blaze caused by a Ukrainian drone attack earlier this week.
Toxic material from the fire fell with rain, covering several districts of Tuapse with a black layer of dirt, the region’s emergency headquarters reported.
The concentration in the air of chemicals from the fire surpassed admissible levels, officials said, and authorities advised residents to stay indoors.
Prince Harry praises Ukraine’s resistance
And in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, the fight against the Russian invasion drew renewed praise from Prince Harry, who arrived in the city on Thursday for his third visit in a year.
Ukrainians have demonstrated “strength not just in bravery and capability, but in unity, in trust,” he said in a speech to a Kyiv security conference.
Ukraine “continues to hold together and hold together you must,” he said.
The Duke of Sussex stepped off a train in Kyiv’s main station after an overnight journey from Poland, which is the only way to travel to the Ukrainian capital.
It wasn’t clear whether Harry would meet with Zelenskyy, who is in Cyprus to attend a summit of European Union leaders.
Additional sources • AP