France vows air defense for Ukraine

KYIV/MOSCOW — France on Saturday promised to deliver new interceptor missiles to Ukraine as a fresh wave of deadly Russian and Ukrainian strikes caused casualties on both sides.

French President Emmanuel Macron said on X that he had spoken with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and that France would strengthen its support for Ukraine, including the delivery of interceptor missiles. "It is crucial to provide Ukraine with all the necessary means to defend its skies," Macron said.

The two sides exchanged missile and drone strikes throughout Saturday. Ukrainian officials said Russian strikes killed at least seven people in Ukraine on Saturday, including two in the Kyiv region and at least four in the Zaporizhzhia region.

Russia's Defense Ministry said one strike near Kyiv hit a locomotive depot and other strikes targeted facilities linked to the Ukrainian military.

Ukraine also carried out drone strikes inside Russia. Authorities in Russia's southern Krasnodar region said three people, including two children, were killed and two adults wounded in a strike on the Yeysk district.

Other Russian officials reported damage to an industrial facility and a logistics center following Ukrainian drone attacks.

The exchanges followed Friday's Russian drone attack on a shopping center in Kryvyi Rih, Zelensky's hometown. Regional authorities said 16 people were killed and more than 100 wounded.

Rescue workers continued searching the damaged site on Saturday, with several people still reported missing. Ukrainian officials said the shopping center was hit in two waves of drone attacks, with the second coming after rescue workers had begun responding to the first.

The latest escalation comes as the United Nations reported that civilian deaths in Ukraine this year have reached their highest level since the first months of the conflict.

Russia's Defense Ministry, in its statement on Saturday's wider strikes, said its forces had hit military and infrastructure targets near Kyiv and in the Odesa region.

Mounting tensions

Meanwhile, Ukraine has stepped up long-range drone strikes against economic targets inside Russia. Ukraine on Sunday hit a warehouse belonging to Russian e-commerce giant Ozon for the second day running, as Kyiv said it would expand its attacks on logistics sites. The campaign also included a Saturday strike on the Novokuibyshevsk oil refinery in the Samara region, about 1,000 kilometers from the front line, Zelensky said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Saturday that Ukraine had "opened Pandora's box" by targeting Russia's economic infrastructure and warned that Russia would respond against Ukraine's "most sensitive economic sectors". He said the strikes had caused economic damage but had not changed the situation on the battlefield.

Putin also reiterated that Russia was open to peace talks, saying negotiations should be based on what he called the "realities on the ground".

Ukraine's allies in the Coalition of the Willing, an initiative led by France and Britain, are due to meet Monday to discuss further measures related to the conflict.

The military exchanges have unfolded alongside a domestic political debate in Ukraine. On Aug 18, ousted Ukrainian defense minister Mykhailo Fedorov called for wartime elections and criticized the country's governance. Ukrainian law prohibits elections while the country is under martial law.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Sunday that wartime elections would currently be too dangerous for Ukraine.

"I believe that in a war like this, elections as such are a huge risk. Elections right now are a tsunami for the country that will split Ukraine," Zelensky said in remarks made public Sunday.

AGENCIES VIA XINHUA