KYIV, Ukraine: Russia has dropped more than 900 glide bombs on Ukraine this week, along with 400 Shahed drones and nearly 30 missiles, Zelensky said on Sunday.
One barrage on Friday injured at least 15 people in Kharkiv, including children, while on Saturday bombs hit apartment buildings in the city, wounding 21, including an eight-year-old child.
Ukrainian officials said that KAB-type aerial glide bombs – highly-destructive free-fall bombs that have been laying waste to eastern Ukraine – were used in both attacks.
For months Kyiv has struggled to counter the bombs, which are a relatively new development, cheap but devastating.
The weapons, which weigh up to 3,300 pounds, are built by retrofitting old Soviet bombs with fold-out wings and satellite navigation.
Russia has used them to target Ukraine’s frontline defences and nearby cities, gaining a significant aerial advantage. Zelensky said that 3,000 glide bombs hit targets in March.
“There are no words to describe the aftermath of a glide bomb attack,” Vovchansk police chief Oleksii Kharkivsky said in May. “You arrive to see people who are lying there, torn apart.”
The 900-figure comes amid repeated calls from Ukraine for restrictions to be lifted on firing Western-supplied long-range missiles into Russia.