UKRAINE: Ukrainian officials said Russia launched a barrage of missiles at Tuesday that killed at least seven people and wounded more than 60 others while damaging numerous residential buildings in Kyiv and Kharkiv.

Ukraine’s air force said Ukrainian air defenses shot down 21 of 41 Russian missiles.

The attacks mainly targeted the capital, Kyiv, as well as the city of Kharkiv in northeastern Ukraine.

Oleh Synehubov, Kharkiv’s regional governor, said three people were killed and 42 wounded.

Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said the Russian strikes damaged 30 apartment buildings.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said the attacks hit several of the capital’s districts, wounding at least 20 people.

One person was also killed in the eastern city of Pavlohrad, in the Dnipropetrovsk region.

Military aid

The United States is convening the latest meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, bringing together partners to discuss support for Ukraine’s military even as U.S. President Joe Biden faces opposition from some Republicans in the U.S. Congress on a new aid package for Ukraine.

Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh said that while the United States is committed to Ukraine, lawmakers need to pass more funding for Kyiv as it battles Russian forces.

“Our partners, our allies continue to do that, despite the fact that we do not have a supplemental [funding bill] that’s been passed by Congress,” Singh told reporters.

Biden has requested $61.4 billion in additional military funding for Ukraine as well as for replenishing U.S. stocks as Ukraine nears the two-year mark of its war with Russia. The funds sought for Ukraine are part of a supplemental funding request that also includes $14.3 billion for Israel and $13.6 billion for U.S. border protection.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will attend the meeting virtually from his house, as the defense chief continues to recover from complications of prostate cancer treatment that led to his secret hospitalization, the Pentagon said Monday.

Lavrov at the U.N.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Monday attended a U.N. Security Council meeting on Ukraine in New York.

At the meeting, requested by Russia, Lavrov focused on U.S. and European arms support to Ukraine, saying the aid was dragging out the conflict. He did not address Western accusations that Moscow has been procuring drones and missiles from Iran and North Korea.

“It is cynicism of the highest order to claim that legitimate and lawful support for Ukraine’s self-defense is prolonging Russia’s war of aggression,” U.S. envoy Robert Wood told the council.

More than 40 ambassadors joined Ukraine’s envoy in the reading of a public statement ahead of the meeting. The statement condemned Russia’s aggression and its procurement of weapons from Iran and North Korea – which is a violation of several U.N. Security Council resolutions.

“The Russian Federation’s actions undermine the credibility of Security Council resolutions, undermine the global non-proliferation regime, exacerbate regional tensions, and endanger us all,” Ukrainian Ambassador to the U.N. Sergiy Kyslytsya read on behalf of the group.

Asked by a reporter if Ukraine can win the war, Kyslytsya said, “Ukraine will win this war. But not only Ukraine, but all the democratic world.”

Next month marks two years since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

VOA