Zelenskyy says deadly strike ‘wouldn’t have happened’ if West gave Ukraine more air defenses

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said lives could have been saved if Kyiv had received sufficient Western military aid ahead of a Russian airstrike which killed 13 people on Wednesday.

“This would not have happened if Ukraine had received a sufficient number of air defense systems and if the world’s determination to counter Russian terror had been sufficient,” Zelenskyy said frustratedly in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

The attack saw Vladimir Putin’s Russian forces fire several missiles at local infrastructure and civilian houses while people were headed to work in the northern city of Chernihiv, Oleksandr Lomako, the city’s acting mayor, said in a statement. Sixty people were wounded, Ukraine’s Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said in a post on the social media app Telegram.

A search-and-rescue operation is underway to save people still trapped under the rubble of destroyed buildings, Klymenko said. Zelenskyy said the death toll could rise.

Russia has in recent months intensified its shelling of civilian infrastructure, and Ukraine is running out of air defense missiles to stop them. Kyiv has been unable to replenish its stock, as $60 billion worth of American aid has been held up in Congress due to partisan gridlock. In a recent interview with American broadcaster PBS, Zelenskyy said that Ukraine has no chance of winning the war if the U.S. aid does not come.

“Determination matters. Support matters. The Ukrainian determination is sufficient. There must be an equally sufficient determination from our partners and, as a result, sufficient support,” Zelenskyy said in his post on X.