KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine’s top diplomatic priority is securing allies’ help to buy and build more air defense systems, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Wednesday between meetings with European leaders, as Russia warned that European sites that make drones and other equipment for Ukraine were “potential targets."
Russian strikes hit more than a half-dozen areas of Ukraine behind the front line on Tuesday and Wednesday. An 8-year-old boy was killed
in the central Cherkasy region and a woman was hit in southern Zaporizhzhia, according to Zelenskyy and local officials.
“Every day we need air defense missiles — every day Russia continues its strikes,” Zelenskyy said in a post on the Telegram messaging app.
With no plans announced for further U.S.-mediated talks with Russia, Zelenskyy was visiting three European capitals in 48 hours to try to secure promises of further military and financial support. Germany and Ukraine agreed on a defense package valued at 4 billion euros ($4.7 billion), and Norway has pledged 9 billion euros in assistance, Ukrainian officials said. He visits Italy on Wednesday.
After more than four years of fighting Russia’s full-scale invasion, Ukraine has battle-tested drone interceptor expertise and has developed groundbreaking air defense technology, but it lacks the money to scale up production to levels that would press its advantage.
Zelenskyy said he is asking European countries to keep adding money to a fund that allows the purchase from the United States of American-made weapons for Ukraine, especially the Patriot air defense system that can stop Russian cruise and ballistic missiles.
Between November and March, Russia launched 27,000 Shahed-type drones, nearly 600 cruise missiles and 462 ballistic missiles at Ukraine, Ukrainian Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said.
Zelenskyy is also championing joint weapons production agreements, including for drones and missiles, while pushing for the European Union to move quickly on providing a promised 90 billion euro ($106 billion) loan.
Defense leaders from about 50 nations who regularly gather to coordinate weapons aid for Kyiv held an online meeting Wednesday chaired by German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius and British Defense Secretary John Healey. NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte also attended.
Ahead of the meeting, Britain announced it will send 120,000 drones to Ukraine this year, its biggest delivery of the weapons so far. Officials didn’t say how soon they will be sent.
The Russian Defense Ministry said the European nations' decision to ramp up drone production for Ukraine was a “deliberate step leading to a sharp escalation of the military-political situation across the entire European continent and the creeping transformation of these countries into Ukraine’s strategic rear area.”
The ministry warned that attacks on Russia involving the drones manufactured in Europe for Ukraine are fraught with “unpredictable consequences.”
“Instead of strengthening the security of European states, the actions of European leaders are increasingly drawing these countries into a war with Russia,” it said.
It published a list of branches of Ukrainian drone-producing factories in the U.K., Germany, Denmark, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Poland and the Czech Republic as well as factories producing components in Germany, Spain, Italy, the Czech Republic, Israel and Turkey.
“The European public should not only clearly understand the true causes of the threats to their security but also know the addresses and locations of ‘Ukrainian’ and ‘joint’ enterprises producing drones and components for Ukraine on the territory of their countries,” the ministry said.
Dmitry Medvedev, the hawkish deputy head of Russia's Security Council, followed up with a more explicit threat on social media: “Russian Defense Ministry’s statement must be taken literally: the list of European facilities which make drones and other equipment is a list of potential targets for the Russian armed forces. When strikes become a reality depends on what comes next.”
Ukraine’s war effort has gained momentum in recent weeks, according to Western officials and analysts. Its short-handed troops have disrupted Russia’s spring offensive, thanks in part to drones and ground robots, and its long-range strikes have dented Russian oil exports and some manufacturing output.
Ukraine’s top military commander, Oleksandr Syrskyi, said Wednesday that last month Ukrainian troops recaptured nearly 50 square kilometers (20 square miles) of territory from Russian forces. Also in March, Ukrainian deep strike operations hit 76 Russian targets, including 15 oil refining facilities, he said.
But the Iran war drains stockpiles of advanced air defense missiles that Ukraine needs, and Kyiv’s money is running short.
“We cannot lose sight of Ukraine” amid the Middle East conflict, NATO chief Rutte said.
Russia launched 324 drones and three ballistic missiles at Ukraine overnight, the Ukrainian air force said, in its biggest barrage in almost two weeks. Air defenses intercepted 309 of the drones.
Russia also fired a powerful FAB-1500 glide bomb, weighing 1.5 metric tons, at the central part of Sloviansk before dawn Wednesday, the Sloviansk City Military Administration head Vadym Liakh said. The blast destroyed a children’s sports facility that was a city landmark, he said.
In a strike on the southeastern city of Dnipro, Russian hit two universities overnight, damaging academic buildings, dormitories and nearby homes, Mayor Borys Filatov said. The blast wave shattered more than 1,000 windows in surrounding buildings, he said, adding that there were no military targets in the area.
Ukraine proceeded with its long-range drone attacks, with the Russian Defense Ministry reporting Wednesday that its air defenses intercepted 85 Ukrainian drones overnight.
Ukrainian drones targeted an industrial facility in Sterlitamak, a Russian city about 1,300 kilometers (roughly 800 miles) east of the border with Ukraine, local authorities said.
Radiy Khabirov, governor of the Bashkortostan region where Sterlitamak is located, said in an online statement Wednesday that several drones were shot down over Sterlitamak’s “industrial zone,” and debris fell on one of the facilities there, starting a fire. One person died in the attack, he said.
___
Associated Press writers Jill Lawless in London, Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin and Lorne Cook in Brussels contributed to this report.
___
Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
