Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called for more air defence and missile systems during a phone call with French President Emmanuel Macron, warning that Russia is exploiting “internal” crises in other countries to attack Ukraine.
Speaking on his Facebook page, Zelenskyy said, “I talked with President Emmanuel Macron [...] I informed him of our priority needs – first and foremost, air defence systems and missiles.”
He argued that “Russia is taking advantage of the current situation, as the Middle East and internal problems in each country are drawing maximum attention.”
Zelenskyy condemned what he described as increasingly “despicable” Russian strikes and said he had discussed with Macron how to counter them. Macron is currently grappling with a domestic political crisis.
Russia has recently intensified nighttime attacks using drones and missiles, particularly targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure as winter approaches. On Friday, one of the largest Russian assaults on the energy grid left much of Kyiv and nine other regions in darkness.
Over the past week, Russia has deployed “more than 3,100 drones, 92 missiles, and around 1,360 glide bombs against Ukraine,” Zelenskyy claimed in a separate Facebook post on Sunday.
On Saturday, he urged former US President Donald Trump to help negotiate peace in Ukraine, following an agreement on Gaza. “If a war can be stopped in one region, then other wars, including Russia’s war, can also certainly be stopped,” Zelenskyy emphasised in a phone call.
According to United Nations data, September was particularly deadly for Ukrainian civilians, underlining what it called “a disturbing trend of intense violence” against the population.
