Ukraine to strengthen armed forces, US says will provide air defence

Attacks across Ukrainian cities during Monday rush hour

— Fourteen dead and 97 injured, says Ukraine

— Zelenskiy after Biden call: Air defence is number 1 priority

Ukraine vowed to strengthen its armed forces after Russia launched its biggest aerial assaults on cities since the beginning of the war, forcing thousands to flee to bomb shelters and prompting Kyiv to halt electricity exports to Europe.

Missiles hit targets across Ukraine on Monday morning, killing 14 people and injuring scores, as they tore into intersections, parks and tourist sites.

Explosions were reported in Kyiv, Lviv, Ternopil and Zhytomyr in western Ukraine, Dnipro and Kremenchuk in the centre, Zaporizhzhia in the south and Kharkiv in the east, Ukrainian officials said.

The barrage of dozens of cruise missiles fired from air, land and sea was the most widespread wave of air strikes to hit away from the front line, at least since the initial volleys on the war’s first day, February 24.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said he ordered “massive” long-range strikes after accusing Ukraine of an attack on a bridge linking Russia to annexed Crimea on Saturday, but the United States said the scale of the attacks meant they had likely been planned for longer.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy spoke to US President Joe Biden on Monday and wrote on Telegram afterwards that air defence was the “number 1 priority in our defence cooperation.”

“We will do everything to strengthen our armed forces,” he said in a Monday night address. “We will make the battlefield more painful for the enemy.”

Biden told Zelenskiy the United States will provide advanced air defence systems. The Pentagon said on September 27 it would start delivering the National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System over the next two months or so.

A total of 14 people were killed and 97 were injured, the State Emergency Service of Ukraine reported. The rush-hour attacks were deliberately timed to kill people and knock out Ukraine’s power grid, according to Zelenskiy.