Nato countries to boost Ukraine’s missile defence

Nato countries to boost Ukraine’s missile defence

Nato countries have announced they will deliver advanced air defence weapons to Kyiv following a heavy missile attack from Russia. 

The UK, Canada, France and the Netherlands are the allies who have made the weapons promise, which includes missiles and radars. The US earlier made a similar pledge. And one high-tech system from Germany has already been delivered to Ukraine. 

On Thursday morning, Russian shelling hit the southern city of Mykolaiv on Thursday morning, officials said. 

The city’s mayor Oleksandr Senkevich said the city was “massively shelled” at around 01:00 local time (23:00 GMT).

“A five-storey residential building was hit, the upper two floors were completely destroyed, the rest – under rubble. Rescuers are working on the site,” he said.

It’s been a tough week for Ukraine, on Monday and Tuesday, Russia heavily shelled the country – some of the heaviest bombing in months. More than 100 missiles were launched hitting energy infrastructure and other non-military targets. 

At least 19 people were killed on the first day of the strikes. Russia claims the escalation was due to Ukraine bombing a key bridge that linked Russia and Crimea.