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Ukraine Gets Anti-Aircraft Systems To Counter Russian Missile Strikes

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

KYIV/BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – Kyiv said Friday that the United States and Germany have agreed to deliver sophisticated anti-aircraft systems to Ukraine to counter attacks by Russian missiles and kamikaze drones. It comes as Russia steps up attacks after losses on the battlefields.

Speaking on local television, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said the United States would deliver more sophisticated anti-aircraft systems in October. “There is a US decision to supply us with a very well-known NASAMS system: the first few batches. Our specialists are already being trained. And they will be delivered this month,” he explained.

He said Ukraine would also receive this month the IRIS-II air defense system from Germany, which had long been reluctant to provide more weapons citing its controversial role in World War Two.

The anti-aircraft defense systems come after Russia fired some 100 missiles on civilian targets and critical power and water infrastructures across the country.

Critics say the missile strikes show that Moscow has become more desperate as Ukrainian forces recaptured thousands of square kilometers or miles. Footage emerged of clashes in the southern Kherson region, one of four territories Russia recently annexed from Ukraine.

As Ukrainian troops approached, Moscow-backed authorities in Kherson ordered civilians to evacuate. “We suggested that all residents of the Kherson region, if they wish, to protect themselves from the consequences of missile strikes … go to other regions,” Russian-installed Kherson administration chief Vladimir Saldo said in a video message. People should “leave with their children.”

But Ukrainian officials warned it could amount to “forced deportation.” “We understand that there can be no evacuation; this is nothing more than deportation that Saldo calls for,” said Kyiv-backed

Serhiy Khlan, a member of Kherson’s regional council. “We understand that there can be no evacuation; this is nothing more than deportation that Saldo calls for. This ‘evacuation’ announced by Saldo is an evacuation for collaborators and traitors in the region … they want to take these collaborators to Russia,” the official added.

“The occupiers understand that they will not be able to hold on for long, especially on the right bank [of the Dnieper River] and in the city of Kherson,” Khlan stressed.

EVACUEES ARRIVING

Ukrainian authorities urged residents in the occupied regional city of Kherson to go to Ukrainian-controlled territory if they could.

However, as fighting continued, evacuees from the Kherson region were due to begin arriving in Russia on Friday after a Moscow-installed official suggested residents should leave for safety.

Amid the ongoing clashes, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) responded to Kyiv’s criticism of “immediate and unimpeded access” to all prisoners of war.

It comes after Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky accused the ICRC of inaction in upholding the rights of Ukrainian prisoners. He urged it to visit Olenivka, a notorious camp in eastern Ukraine where dozens of Ukrainian prisoners of war died in an explosion and fire in July.

The ICRC said it shared Kyiv’s frustration and urged access to all prisoners of war held in what it called “the international armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine.”

Since Russia’s February 24 invasion of Ukraine, the war is believed to have killed tens of thousands of civilians and soldiers while uprooting millions.