Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has urgently called for increased international aid in air defense amid ongoing Russian attacks.
Zelensky reported that Russia dropped 800 cluster bombs over Ukraine just last week, showcasing extensive destruction and fires in cities like Kherson, Dnipro, Odesa, and Zaporizhzhia.
The escalation claimed seven lives in an attack on Velyka Novosilka, Zaporizhzhia, on Saturday, with over 40 reported injuries.
Zelensky emphasized Ukraine’s critical need for additional air defense systems and capabilities to counter Russian airstrikes, including the means to intercept Russian fighter jets.
In Kharkiv, eastern Ukraine, a Russian airstrike killed at least one person and wounded eight others, including an eight-month-old child, according to Kharkiv Mayor Oleh Sinehubov.
On Ukraine’s western border with Hungary, a border guard shot and killed one person and wounded another who attempted an attack on Saturday evening, as reported by “Ukrayinska Pravda” citing border authorities.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s National Resistance Headquarters announced today that Russian occupation forces in the Luhansk region, annexed by Russia in eastern Ukraine, are preparing to allocate residential apartments to military personnel.
The center added that these apartments are not only allocated to Russian occupation forces but also to migrants from Central Asia.
The unrecognized leadership in Luhansk is enacting relevant laws, with many Ukrainians fleeing the occupied territories, leaving their properties behind.
Russia primarily utilizes Central Asian migrants as cheap labor, including in the reconstruction efforts of war-ravaged towns and villages.
According to the center’s statement, Russian forces are seizing abandoned homes during the conflict and relocating them to the displaced.
Civilians are also forcibly relocated from areas near the frontlines, with Russian soldiers expected to reside in civilian buildings.
The center further stated that apartments vacated by Ukrainians are being offered for sale at low prices to Russian state employees for administrative tasks in the occupied territories, part of the Kremlin’s broader strategy to fully integrate the occupied lands.
