Sweden is providing Ukraine with additional military support, totaling $7 billion, over three years.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked Sweden in his nightly address for the “long-term support.”
“It will strengthen not only us, not only Ukraine,” the president said, “but the entire European perimeter from the Baltic to the Black Sea.”
Zelenskyy also made a fresh plea on Wednesday for more air defenses.
In his video address, he said Ukraine needed a weapon to counter the guided bombs Russia has used to attack energy and other infrastructure.
"There can be no alternative. Ukraine needs systems and tactics that will allow us to protect our positions, our cities and our communities from these bombs," he said, according to Reuters.
He said that in April alone, Russia sent more than 3,200 such bombs into Ukraine in addition to missiles and drones.
Also on Wednesday, the governor of western Russia’s Belgorod region said falling fragments from a destroyed Ukrainian aerial drone damaged two residential buildings, while Russia’s Defense Ministry said the country’s air defenses shot down a total of three drones and six missiles over the region.
The Defense Ministry also said it destroyed an aerial drone over the Kaluga region. The governor there said there were no reported injuries or damage.
Ukraine’s military said Wednesday it destroyed all 24 Russian drones involved in overnight attacks.
The intercepts took place over the Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Odesa, Sumy and Zaporizhzhia regions.
Ukrainian shelling killed two people and injured four on Wednesday in Lysychansk, the Russian-installed governor said. The city, with a prewar population of nearly 100,000 people, was captured by Russia in 2022.
Meanwhile on Wednesday, the British Defense Ministry intelligence update on Ukraine reported that Ukraine exported 6.6 million tons of grain and oilseed last month, the largest volume since the war against Russia began.
Ukraine’s grain exports are “highly likely vital” for the world’s food security, the ministry reported, comprising nearly 10% of global grain exports.
Some information for this story came from Reuters.
