Russian attack with dozens of drones on Kiev and the Ukrainian army shoots down 53 aircraft

Russia launched a drone attack on Kyiv overnight, Ukrainian military officials said on Telegram, adding that air defense units repelled the attack.

Ukraine’s air force said Monday it had shot down 53 of 56 suicide drones launched by Russia in an attack on 10 regions overnight, pointing out that the attack focused on the Kyiv region.

For his part, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an interview with CNN broadcast on Sunday that Ukrainian forces are suffering heavy losses due to the very slow arrival of Western weapons needed to properly equip the armed forces.

Russia is advancing in eastern Ukraine, including around Pokrovsk.

The Russian forces capture of this important transport hub could open up new lines of attack.

In the interview CNN conducted on Friday, Zelensky said the situation in the east was very difficult, adding that half of Ukraine’s brigades there were ill-equipped.

“So you lose a lot of people,” he added, speaking in English… “You lose people because they aren’t in armed vehicles… they don’t have artillery, they don’t have artillery shells”.

Zelensky explained that the arms aid packages promised by the United States and European countries are arriving very slowly, adding, “We need to equip 14 brigades… So far… we haven’t equipped even four brigades with these packages”.

US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said on Saturday that Washington is preparing a new and significant aid package for Ukraine.

Zelensky is scheduled to meet with US President Joe Biden this month and will present him with a plan to end the war.

The Ukrainian president said the only thing his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin feared was the Russian reaction if the cost of war made them suffer.

“Make Ukraine strong and you will see that he will sit down and negotiate,” he added.

Zelensky will renew demands to Biden that Ukraine be allowed to use long-range US weapons to strike military targets deep inside Russia.

The Ukrainian president told CNN that Kyiv needed this permission because Russian aircraft hitting infrastructure had begun operating from a distance of up to 500 kilometers from the front lines, compared to a distance of 150 kilometers previously.