Russia has hit cities across Ukraine with sustained missile attacks, causing a nine-story residential building in the central city of Dnipro to partially collapse.
Ukrainian officials said at least 12 people were killed and dozens wounded in the attack in the industrial city of more than 1 million people.
Dozens of missile attacks were reported in cities across Ukraine, including the capital Kyiv, Kharkiv in the east, as well as the regions of Odesa in the south and Lviv in the west.
Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of the administration of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said 28 residential buildings in the Kyiv region were damaged but there were no casualties.
German Galushchenko, Ukraine’s energy minister, said the electricity infrastructure has been damaged in six provinces, triggering new power outages.
Russia began to target Ukraine’s power infrastructure in the autumn after its invading forces pushed out of a large part of the eastern and southern regions of the country and has resulted in rolling electricity and heat blackouts.
In an evening address to the nation, Zelenskyy called on Kyiv’s western supporters to increase their weapons stockpile saying “we must do everything to stop ‘Russia’ the same way the free world stopped Nazism.”
“I want to be heard by those – not only political leaders – who still doubt whether it is worth providing Ukraine with weapons that will help us defeat the terrorist state this year,” Zelenskyy said.
Andriy Yermak, Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, wrote on Twitter: “Dnipro. A residential building was hit. Russia continues to attack civilians, destroying the lives and future of Ukrainians.
“Russia is a terrorist state,” Yermak added.
Ukrainian officials said on Saturday that the battle for the eastern town of Soledar was continuing, denying Russian claims that its forces had captured it within days.
Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine’s foreign minister, urged Ukraine’s allies to expand sanctions against Russia and provide more modern NATO-class weaponry.
“Each missile launch further destroys Russia’s stocks. However, they can still produce new ones. We can and must kill the missile and drone industry with massive sanctions strikes! Kuleba tweeted.
Ukraine’s air force command said 25 of the 38 Russian missiles fired on Saturday were intercepted.
Ukraine’s air defense systems have intercepted the majority of incoming Russian kamikaze missiles and drones in recent months, including during large-scale attacks that included 80 or more missiles fired in one day.
But Ukraine has called on the US and European countries to provide modern air defenses as its stockpile of Soviet-era S300 and Buk surface-to-air missiles is rapidly disappearing.
Kyiv recently received several Nasam systems from the US and Norway, as well as one Iris-T unit from Germany. The U.S. announced late last year that it would provide a longer-range Patriot system capable of intercepting ballistic missiles, a capability Ukraine currently lacks.
In a call to Zelenskyy on Friday, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak repeated the country’s promise made earlier this year to provide Ukraine with Challenger 2 tanks.
Officials from Poland and Finland recently announced that they intend to supply Ukraine with German-made Leopard tanks. But Berlin has not yet signed an agreement for such supplies from third parties.