Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has accused Western allies of showing "no real reaction" to Russia's escalating air raids against his country after an hours-long attack killed at least six civilians on Sunday.
Over 500 drones and 50 missiles, including cruise and ballistic missiles and Shaheed drones pounded Ukrainian cities for five hours. Over 18 people were injured in the attacks on strikes on Lviv, Zaporizhzhia, Odesa, Kherson, Sumy, Kharkiv and Chernihiv.
“There is no worthy, strong reaction from the world to everything that is happening. To the constant increase in the scale and audacity of the strikes. That is why Putin is doing this: he is simply laughing at the west, at its silence and lack of strong action in response," Zelenskiy said in a video address on Sunday evening. The Ukrainian leader stressed that the air raid deliberately targeted the civilian infrastructure to disable the country's oil and gas system ahead of winter months, the tactic consistently used by Moscow in the run up to winter in the past three years. Furthermore, Zelenskiy revealed that the missiles and drones fired at Ukraine included components from Western countries, including the US and the UK, urging stronger export controls. Earlier, Zelenskiy said the Russian bombardment campaign was a deliberate "terror" attack.
Among Sunday's victims was a 15-year-old girl and three members of her family who died as their houses was levelled to the ground in Russian attack on Lapaivka village in Lviv. One more person died in an air raid on south-eastern Zaporizhzhia region and two others were killed on Russian strike on a train station in north-eastern Sumy region on the same day. Ukrainian officials said the attack on the train station was deliberate and aimed at depopulating the regions bordering Russia.
The western city of Lviv, which has been relatively safe to this date, was subjected to the most serious bombardment since the start of Russia's full-fledged invasion in February 2022. The attack triggered activation of air defence system in neighbouring Poland, which is located just 70 kilometers from Lviv. Recently, Russia has scaled up attack on Ukraine's energy grid. In turn, Ukraine has been launching long-strike attacks on Russian energy facilities, knocking off the 40% of the country's refining capacity.
