As the war enters its 784th day, at least 17 people were killed in the Ukrainian city of Chernihiv after it was struck by three Russian missiles. Emergency services said 60 people, including three children, were injured. About 250,000 people live in Chernihiv, which is 150km north of the capital, Kyiv.
A woman was injured by falling debris after Russian forces brought down a done over the Voronezh region. Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said air defense also destroyed 14 airborne targets over the southern Belgorod region. No injuries were reported.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the Ukrainian military had attacked a large Russian airfield at Dzhankoi in the north of occupied Crimea. A series of explosions were reported at the base. There were no reports of damage.
The BBC reports that the number of Russian soldiers killed in the war in Ukraine has topped 50,000. The data was compiled by BBC Russian, independent media group Mediazona and volunteers.
Illegal chemical warfare ongoing
Colonel Serhii Pakhomov, acting head of the Ukrainian military’s atomic, biological and chemical defense forces, told the Reuters news agency that Kyiv had recorded about 900 uses of riot control agents on the front line by Russia in the past six months. The gases, banned for use on the battlefield by the international Chemical Weapons Convention, are being used to try and clear trenches, Pakhomov said. Some 500 troops had required medical help after exposure to toxic substances on the battlefield, and at least one soldier died after suffocating on tear gas, he added.
Politics and diplomacy
US House Speaker Mike Johnson said the House would hold a long-delayed vote on a $60bn aid package for Ukraine on Saturday. The bill, passed by the Senate in February, has been held up amid objections from far-right members of Johnson’s Republican party. Writing in the Wall Street Journal, US President Joe Biden urged Congress to approve the package, saying the conflict was at a “pivotal moment”.
China said that “a lot of work” would need to be done before a planned peace conference on the Ukraine war could take place in Switzerland. It did not say whether it would attend the meeting, which is expected to take place in June.
Zelensky begs for more weapons
President Zelensky, addressing the European Council by videolink hours after the Chernihiv attack, pleaded for more defense systems. Zelensky said Ukraine should enjoy the same cover from aerial attacks as Israel, which was able to intercept a barrage of drones and missiles fired by Iran last weekend. “Our Ukrainian sky, the sky of our neighbors, deserves the same level of defense,” he said. “All lives are equally valuable.”
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and other senior German officials pressed fellow European Union members to take action as soon as possible to boost Ukraine’s air defenses. On Saturday, Germany announced it was sending an additional Patriot air defense system to Ukraine.
NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said the NATO-Ukraine Council will meet on Friday to discuss ways to provide more air defense systems for Kyiv.
Compiled by Ana Dumbadze
