RUSSIA AND UKRAINE EXCHANGE STRIKES KILLING AT LEAST 13

Russia and Ukraine exchanged overnight strikes that killed civilians and injured many others on both sides, local authorities reported. Ukrainian officials said 13 people were killed and approximately 90 others were injured in Russian attacks over the past 24 hours. Ukrainian drones killed five people and injured two dozen others, including a four-year-old boy, in Russia's border region of Belgorod, according to the regional administration. Russian missiles struck a high-rise apartment block in Kharkiv's Saltivskyi district; accounts of casualties in that strike differ, with one report stating three people were killed and 37 injured, whilst another report cited two people killed and 13 injured. Eight more people were injured in Ukraine's Black Sea port of Odesa after dozens of missiles and drones struck the city and surrounding region, according to local administration head Oleh Kiper. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said four people, including a three-year-old boy and his grandparents, were killed in one strike in the Kyiv capital region, with another death reported in a separate strike on civilian infrastructure.

Large-scale Russian missile strikes on Ukrainian cities have become routine in recent weeks, with Moscow exploiting Ukraine's critical shortage of interceptors for US-made Patriot systems, the sole air defence weapon in Ukraine's arsenal capable of shooting down ballistic missiles. At least six additional deaths were reported in strikes on other frontline cities, including Sumy, Kherson and Donetsk in the eastern Donbas region.

Zelenskyy has lobbied other countries, particularly the United States, for months to send Ukraine additional Patriot systems, which have become scarcer owing to the Iran war. In a post on Telegram, Zelenskyy called for new sanctions against Russia to prevent ballistic missile production and requested anti-ballistic systems, interceptor missiles for Patriot, SAMP/T, NASAMS and HAWK systems, as well as F-16 aircraft.