Ukrainian president says Russia “defeated” civilian targets

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said Russia "defeated" civilian targets by striking non-military infrastructure across the country on July 13.

In a post on his Telegram channel, he noted that the attacks hit passenger buses in Odesa, residential buildings in Zaporizhzhia and a hospital in the Kharkiv region, Caliber.Az reports.

"Today, the Russians once again 'defeated' completely civilian targets — ordinary passenger buses in Odesa, ordinary residential buildings in Zaporizhzhia, and an ordinary hospital in the Kharkiv region. Every day of this Russian war against life only proves the correctness of supporting Ukraine from every perspective: defence, political and simply human," he wrote.

Zelenskyy stressed that everyone in the world sees this — they see that Ukraine needs more air defence, more protection for human life, and that the Russian leadership has gone mad because of the war and is absolutely irrationally refusing to end it.

In his view, increased pressure on Moscow was necessary to change the situation.

"But pressure on Russia must work. New sanctions against Russia, new support packages for Ukraine, new projects — such as our European anti-ballistic project FREYJA — all of this must work. Thank you to everyone who helps. In the near future, meetings and negotiations will take place that should strengthen our defence," he added.

By Bakhtiyar Abbasov