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Ukraine urges more air defence systems after attacks

Ukrainian soldiers has been defending against a Russian invasion for almost four years. (AP PHOTO)

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has called for allies to ramp up their support for his country following massive air strikes by Russian forces.

Ukraine is continuing to work with its partners, "to ensure that, in response to these attacks, our defences grow stronger," Zelenskiy wrote on X.

"The priority is clear: more air defence systems and missiles, and more support for our defenders," he added, calling for every agreement to be implemented faster.

Russia again bombarded Ukraine over the weekend with multiple drone and missile strikes.

He said people were killed in Sloviansk in the east and in Chernihiv in the north while damage was reported in seven regions.

According to the Ukrainian Civil Defence, a 50-year-old man was killed in Novhorod-Siverskyi in the Chernihiv region and another person was killed in Sloviansk.

A 15-year-old was also injured in Sloviansk.

Zelenskiy wrote that the Russian military launched more than 240 drones and five ballistic missiles.

Overall this week, he said Russian forces deployed more than 1600 attack drones, about 1200 guided aerial bombs and almost 70 missiles of various types.

"The primary targets of these strikes are infrastructure that keeps everyday life going," he wrote.

Ukraine has been defending itself against a Russian invasion for nearly four years.

A Russian missile strike on a dam in Ukraine's northeastern Kharkiv region disrupted an important supply route for Ukrainian forces, the mayor of the town of Pechenihy, Alexander Gusarov, said on Telegram on Sunday.

The road over the Pechenihy dam that leads to the frontline sections at Vovchansk, Velykyi Burluk and Kupyansk - where Ukrainian forces are under severe pressure, has been closed, Gusarov said.

According to other reports on Ukrainian Telegram channels, a bridge over the water reservoir near the village of Staryi Saltiv has also been destroyed.

The military tried to allay concerns regarding the supply route, with the 16th Army Corps saying that it was prepared for the complete destruction of the dam on the Siverskiy Donets River.

Alternative routes exist and troops on the frontline have sufficient supplies of weapons and ammunition, it said on Facebook.

Efforts are under way to repair the road, the statement said, stressing that attacks on reservoirs, dams or nuclear power plants were prohibited under international law because of their potentially catastrophic consequences.

Many bridges and dams in the region were destroyed in the initial months of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine launched in February 2022.

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