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Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday accused Russia of “taking advantage” of the purported shift of attention away from the war in Ukraine to intensify the bombing. He also lobbied his allies, such as France and the US, for more air defence systems to counter the increased bombardment.
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“Russia is now taking advantage of the moment — the fact that the Middle East and domestic issues in every country are getting maximum attention,” Zelensky said in a readout of his call with French President Emmanuel Macron.
Zelensky requested Macron for more missiles and help strengthen his country’s “long-range capabilities”.
He gave a similar request to US President Donald Trump in a second call in a span of two days. “We agreed with President Trump that our teams, our military, would handle everything we discussed,” Zelensky said, without elaborating.
Russia bombards Ukraine
Russia has renewed its campaign of air strikes against Ukraine’s energy grid, cutting power to hundreds of thousands of people ahead of winter.
Moscow launched a fresh volley of strikes on Ukraine early on Sunday, killing one person and wounding more than a dozen others in at least four separate regions, according to regional officials.
Volodymyr Zelensky told Emmanuel Macron that Moscow’s strikes had become “even more vile”.
Zelensky has in recent weeks lobbied Washington to supply Kyiv with long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles, a request that the White House says it is considering.
Russia says that supplying the missiles to Ukraine would risk rupturing its ties with the United States and cause a new round of escalation.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov renewed that warning on Sunday, warning Moscow could treat any launches of the missile as though they were carrying nuclear warheads.
“Just imagine, a long-range missile takes off and flies, and we know it could be nuclear-armed. What is the Russian Federation to think?” Peskov told a reporter from state television.
Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, describing it as a “special military operation” to demilitarise the country and prevent the expansion of NATO.
Diplomatic efforts to end Russia’s three-and-a-half-year invasion of Ukraine have stalled in recent months. Trump met Russian President Vladimir Putin for talks in August but failed to extract any kind of peace deal.
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