KYIV
\nResidents of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv were urged to head to air raid shelters early on Friday as sirens wailed across the city, a day after Russia carried out one of the biggest aerial assaults since it started the war in February.
\nShortly after 2.00 am Kyiv\u2019s city government issued an alert on its Telegram messaging app channel about the air raid sirens and called on residents to proceed to shelters.
\nOlekskiy Kuleba, governor of Kyiv region, said on Telegram that an \u201cattack by drones\u201d was under way.
\nA Reuters witness 20 km (12 miles) south of Kyiv heard several explosions and the sound of anti-aircraft fire.
\nUkraine\u2019s military said 16 Iranian-made Shahed drones were launched and all destroyed. Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko said 7 were aimed at city and that one administration building was partly destroyed.
\nKyiv says Iran is supplying Moscow with drones for its air attacks, but Tehran says it last sent drones to Russia before the war started.
\nThe General Staff of Ukraine\u2019s Armed Forces Friday morning report said Russia had launched 85 missile strikes, 35 air strikes, and 63 strikes from multiple rocket launch systems in the past 24 hours.
\nIt said Moscow\u2019s forces also shelled 20 settlements around the bombed out town of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine, where some of the fiercest fighting is being waged, and more than 25 settlements in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions.
\nReuters could not immediately verify the battlefield reports.
\nUkrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said most regions hit in Thursday\u2019s massive air attack suffered power outages.
\nThe areas where loss of power was \u201cespecially difficult\u201d included the capital Kyiv, Odesa and Kherson in the south and surrounding regions, and around Lviv near the western border with Poland, Zelenskiy said.
\n\u201cBut this is nothing compared with what could have happened if it were not for our heroic anti-aircraft gunners and air defence,\u201d Zelenskiy said.
\nWaves of Russian air strikes in recent months targeting energy infrastructure have left millions of people without power and heating in often freezing temperatures.
\nCall for more weapons
\nNATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg called on NATO member states to supply more weapons to Ukraine, according to an interview published on Friday.
\n\u201cI call on allies to do more. It is in all our security interests to make sure Ukraine prevails and (Russian President Vladimir) Putin does not win,\u201d Stoltenberg told German news agency DPA.
\nStoltenberg told DPA that military support for Ukraine was the fastest way to peace.
\n\u201cWe know that most wars end at the negotiating table \u2014 probably this war too \u2014 but we know that what Ukraine can achieve in these negotiations depends inextricably on the military situation,\u201d he said.
\nThe United States last week announced nearly $2 billion in additional military aid, including the Patriot Air Defense System, which offers protection against aircraft, cruise and ballistic missiles.
\nBritain said on Friday it has given Ukraine more than 1,000 metal detectors and 100 kits to deactivate bombs and to help clear minefields.
\n\u201cRussia\u2019s use of landmines and targeting of civilian infrastructure underline the shocking cruelty of Putin\u2019s invasion,\u201d British defence minister Ben Wallace said in a statement.
\n\u201cThis latest package of UK support will help Ukraine safely clear land and buildings as it reclaims its rightful territory.\u201d
\nThe metal detectors, made by German firm Vallon, can help troops clear safe routes on roads and paths by helping to remove explosive hazards, the defence ministry said, while the kits can de-arm the fuse from unexploded bombs.
\nWallace said on Thursday Britain would allocate 2.3 billion pounds ($2.77 billion) to Ukraine in military aid in 2023, matching the amount it has provided this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
KYIV Residents of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv were urged to head to air raid shelters early on Friday as sirens wailed across the city, a day after Russia carried out one of the biggest aerial assaults since it started the war in February. Shortly after 2.00 am Kyiv\u2019s city government issued an alert on its […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":304507,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-304468","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n