Sawt Falasteen - Ukraine calls for 'urgent' military help after fresh Russian strikes

Securing the shells has been a priority for Kyiv, which is burning through its reserves as Russia throws more manpower and resources at the frontlines almost two years into its invasion.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky denounced "another massive attack" by Russia, which targeted a residential high-rise building in Kyiv, where four people were killed, as well as the south and west of the country.

The strikes came as the EU's top diplomat, Josep Borrell, visited Kyiv and had to descend into a bomb shelter during the attack.

His Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba appeared to mount pressure for more military aid.

"If you ask a soldier at the front what he needs most now, the answer will be shells," Kuleba told Borrell, calling for "urgent steps" to increase deliveries.

"The scale of the war and Russia's use of artillery reached a level for which, let's be honest, the European defence industry was not ready," he added.

Kuleba also said Ukraine found infighting in the US Congress over the future of American aid "confusing", days after Republican lawmakers resisted new support for the war-torn country.

US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told a news conference in Brussels alongside NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg that the United States "can and will" deliver the needed aid. Stoltenberg said such a move was "vital".

Ukraine has been running out of reserves for weeks, worrying that its Western allies have grown tired of the war.

Borrell insisted Western countries should keep helping Ukraine battle off Russian forces.

"We need to support you not only 'as long as it takes' but should provide 'whatever it takes'," the EU diplomat said.

- Over three dozen missiles -

Officials said that one person was also killed in the southern Mykolaiv region in Wednesday's attacks.

And missile and drone strikes were recorded in the western Lviv region, hundreds of kilometres from the frontline.

At least 40 people were wounded in the capital, Ukraine said, with another three suffering injuries in the surrounding Kyiv region and two in the northeastern city of Kharkiv.

Ukraine's commander-in-chief Valery Zaluzhny said Russia used drones, cruise, ballistic and anti-aircraft missiles in the barrage.

He said Russia fired a total 20 drones and 44 missiles in the morning attack -- with Ukraine shooting down 15 drones and 29 missiles.

Russia later said it had launched an aerial attack against Ukrainian "military industrial" facilities and reported it hit all its targets.

Moscow has repeatedly denied targeting civilian areas in Ukraine, despite several documented strikes on residential buildings and the United Nations saying at least 10,000 civilians -- likely many more -- have been killed since Russia invaded in February 2022.

- 'Under the rubble' -

The strike on an 18-storey residential building in Kyiv's southern Golosiivskyi district blew out windows across several floors, and sent dark smoke cascading into the sky from the destroyed facade.

Some 60 people were evacuated, Interior Minister Igor Klymenko said.

Ambulances and fire engines battled the blaze in the morning.

"There are probably dead people under the rubble," Klymenko had warned earlier.

Resident Dmytro, 31, told AFP he feared his wife had been killed in the attack.

After first bringing their child down to safety after the strike, the building had filled with smoke and emergency workers stopped him from trying to go back up to collect her.

"Where there is the hole, my apartment is to the left. I was covered with shrapnel ... she had many injuries," he said.

- Mobilisation bill -

Almost 30,000 people were temporarily left without power in Kyiv, the energy ministry said.

Zelensky said Ukraine would "certainly respond" to the strikes.

In the southern Mykolaiv region, Mayor Oleksandr Senkevich said the attack stripped roofs off 20 houses and damaged gas and water pipes in the port city, where one person was killed.

Ukraine's parliament also tentatively backed a bill Wednesday aimed at drafting more soldiers into the army -- a deeply divisive proposal in a nation exhausted by fighting.

Kyiv's military had for months been asking the government to draft more soldiers, to boost its dwindling ranks and reprieve its fatigued frontline troops.

Zelensky said in December the military wanted to mobilise up to half a million people to battle the 600,000 or so Russians deployed in Ukraine.

M.AlAhmad--SF-PST