Issued on: 21/07/2024 – 21:32Altered: 21/07/2024 – 21:29

2 minutes

Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky welcomed the arrival of a Patriot air defense system from Germany, while both sides announced more deaths from rocket attacks.

Earlier on Sunday, Russia said it had deployed fighter jets to prevent two US strategic bombers from crossing the border via the Barents Sea in the Arctic.

The two villages that Russia claims to have captured are less than 20 kilometers (12 miles) apart, on a stretch of the front line where Moscow has made major advances in recent weeks.

Russian army units have “liberated” the settlements of Andriivka and Pishchane and “also occupied more favorable lines and positions,” the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement.

Andriivka, a village with fewer than 20 inhabitants, was one of the last settlements in the eastern Luhansk region still under Kiev control and was a key target for Moscow.

According to the Institute for the Study of War, the Kremlin also has Pishchane in its sights because its capture would give Russia access to the Oskil River, which is about 10 kilometers away.

Moscow claims to have captured a series of villages and settlements in recent weeks, many of which consist of no more than a few streets and a handful of abandoned buildings.

Neither side has managed to achieve a decisive breakthrough and both Moscow and Kiev say they are inflicting heavy losses on the other, nearly two and a half years after Russia launched its offensive.

‘Patriot’ system reaches Ukraine

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his speech on Sunday evening that the country’s air defense systems have been strengthened.

“The German ‘Patriot’ system has arrived in Ukraine and I want to thank Germany and the United States for this step,” he said. “We will be able to do more in the air.”

Zelensky has been pushing for the delivery of the “Patriot” air defense system for months.

Germany and Romania have already announced that they will send their two Patriots, and the Dutch have said they are working on assembling one to help Kiev. Italy is also providing a separate missile system.

Sunday’s attacks killed at least five civilians on both sides of the front line, Russian and Ukrainian authorities said.

According to Russian-installed officials, four people were killed in three separate Ukrainian artillery attacks in parts of the country now under Moscow’s control.

In an area controlled by Kiev, a 37-year-old man was killed and his assistant wounded in a Russian attack on a combine harvester, the Ukrainian Prosecutor’s Office said.

Earlier on Sunday, the Russian Defense Ministry said its fighter jets had intercepted “two US Air Force B-52H strategic bombers.”

The US military regularly conducts flights over international waters, claiming that these flights comply with international law.

Moscow has responded more aggressively to the exercises in recent months, saying the two U.S. bombers turned away from the border as Russian fighters approached.

© 2024 AFP