Russian attacks prompts Ukraine’s Zelenskiy to ask allies for more resolve

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(Reuters) – A string of Russian attacks killed and injured civilians in widely separated parts of Ukraine, prompting President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to issue a new call to Kyiv’s allies on Saturday to intensify pressure on Moscow.

Rescue teams in the central city of Dnipro completed operations on Friday after Russian missile attacks that killed five people, including a child, and injured more than 20.

A Russian glide bomb killed one person and injured three on Saturday in Kostiantynivka, near the front line in Donetsk region, the regional governor said.

Russian shelling killed two people in a small town west of the Ukrainian-held southern city of Kherson.

And in Kyiv, a drone struck a high-rise apartment building on Friday west of the city centre, killing a teenage girl.

Zelenskiy, in his nightly video address, said the assaults showed Russia was “determined to continue its aggression”.

“These are conditions in which the lack of stronger decisions from partners to support Ukraine only encourages (Russian President Vladimir) Putin to invest further in terror,” Zelenskiy said.

“The world can stop the escalation of war. Abstractions and words are not enough for this. Concrete steps are needed.”

Zelenskiy has repeatedly called on Ukraine’s Western allies in recent weeks to step up shipments of long-range weaponry and air defence systems to protect the country’s cities.

Ukraine has also sought permission from allies to use weapons with long-range capability against targets deep inside Russian territory.

(Reporting by Ron Popeski and Oleksandr Kozhukhar; editing by Diane Craft)