Zelenskyy Says More Air Defenses Needed Against ‘Russian Terror’ As Vilnyansk Casualty Toll Tops 40

(RFE/RL) — Ukraine’s State Emergency Service on June 30 raised the number of injured to more than 35 in an apparent Russian rocket attack the previous night that killed seven people in the city of Vilnyansk, in the southern Zaporizhzhya region.

It reported that building and car fires had been put out at the scene, where Governor Ivan Fedorov said three children were believed to be among the dead and nine more children among the dozens of injured.

Initial reports had put the number of injured at around 10.

“How can we be expected to live?” a resident of Vilnyansk said in comments to RFE/RL.

“There is a burned corpse there,” she said, pointing to rescue workers wrapping the body of a blast victim.

“This is a very popular area. There is an ATB [supermarket]. There are benches. People are walking. Children are walking. Some people were driving by from work. They just disappeared [in the blast] and we cannot find them.”

The attack in Vilnyansk came with Russian forces putting heavy pressure on Ukrainian defenders along the 1,000-kilometer front line and with increased air strikes in the 28-month-old full-scale invasion.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in his June 30 video address, urged Ukraine’s Western allies to allow the country’s forces more freedom to conduct attacks inside Russia.

“The sooner the world helps us to deal with the Russian warplanes dropping these bombs, the sooner we can attack the Russian military infrastructure, the Russian military airfields, the closer we are to peace,” Zelenskiy said

On June 30, local leaders in Kyiv and Kharkiv — Ukraine’s two largest cities — reported attacks on residential and civilian areas.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said fragments of a Russian-launched missile caused a fire in the Obolon district of the capital. There was no initial report of casualties, but authorities said emergency crews were at the site.

Separately, Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekho said Russia had fired guided bombs into a residential area of Ukraine’s second-largest city, causing casualties.

“Unfortunately, we already have information that one person has been killed. Inspection of the site of arrival continues,” he said.

Also on June 30, Ukraine’s military released video it said was filmed from a drone that showed what appears to be bodies in a civilian area in Toretsk, claiming that Russia had used powerful “glide bombs” on the mining town in the Donetsk region.

Highly destructive Soviet-era glide bombs are launched from warplanes that are out of the range of air-defense systems.

Johan Norberg, a senior analyst and expert on Russia’s military at the Swedish Defense Research Agency FOI, has said jet-dropped glide bombs have been used to a devastating effect and have been key to allowing Russia to make gains in recent months.

Late on June 29, Zelenskiy cited a huge Russian strike that gutted four floors of an apartment building in the central city of Dnipro on June 28 as further evidence that his country needs more air-defense systems from its allies.

“There are ways to overcome the daily Russian terror from which Ukrainian cities and communities suffer,” Zelenskiy said. “For this, it is necessary to destroy Russian terrorists and launchers where they are, as well as increase the number of modern air-defense systems in Ukraine.”

The previous night, Kyiv had reported thwarting 10 aerial drone attacks, and said Russian forces had dropped anti-tank missiles on the city of Derhachi, in the central Kharkiv region.

Russia has stepped up air strikes this year in a bid to drain Ukraine’s resources, often targeting energy facilities and other vital infrastructure, and deal psychological blows to the population.

Ukrainian officials have said that half of the nation’s power system has been damaged by Russian strikes.

Russia said that Ukraine launched attacks on Sevastopol in Crimea as well as Kursk on June 29.

The Ukrainian General Staff said late on June 29 that the “hottest” combat situation continued to be in the area of Pokrovsk, in the eastern Donetsk region.

Russia’s Emergency Situations Ministry meanwhile said four of its employees had been injured in what it said was Ukrainian shelling in Donetsk.

Russia said on June 29 that it had captured Shumy, a settlement located about 7 kilometers southeast of Toretsk.

RFE/RL cannot confirm claims by either side in areas of the heaviest fighting.