Ukraine awaits US missile system after latest Russian strike

The death toll from Russian missile strikes on eastern Ukraine’s city of Sloviansk has risen to 11 as rescue crews try to reach people trapped in the rubble of an apartment building, Ukrainian authorities said.

Ukraine’s air force said the country will soon have weapons with which to try to prevent attacks like the one on Friday.

The delivery of the Patriot air defence system promised by the US is expected in Ukraine sometime after Easter, Ukrainian air force spokesman Yuriy Ihnat said.

The primarily Orthodox Christian country is preparing to observe Easter on Sunday.

Speaking on Saturday on Ukrainian state TV, Mr Ihnat declined to give a precise timeline for the arrival of the defensive missile system but said the public will know “as soon as the first Russian aircraft is shot down”.

A group of 65 Ukrainian soldiers completed their training at Oklahoma’s Fort Still Army Post last month and returned to Europe to learn more about using the defensive missile system to track and shoot down enemy aircraft.

Officials said at the time that the Ukrainians would then go back to their country with a Patriot missile battery, which typically includes six mobile launchers, a mobile radar, power generator and an engagement control centre.

Germany and the Netherlands have also pledged to provide a Patriot system each to Ukraine.

In addition, a SAMP/T anti-missile system pledged by France and Italy “should enter Ukraine in the near future,” Mr Ihnat said this week.

The Ukrainian military is looking to beef up its ability to intercept missiles as it prepares for an expected spring counter-offensive to retake Russian-occupied areas of the country.

Bakhmut and Sloviansk are about 28 miles apart in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk province.

Rescue teams in Sloviansk recovered the bodies of two people from under the rubble of a house hit in Friday’s missile strikes, according to the State Emergency Service.

They also searched on Saturday for five people who remained in the wreckage of the apartment building, as well as the residents of three units who were reported missing, Vadym Liakh, the head of the local government, said.

A new law signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday allowing military offices to send draft notices electronically instead of delivering them in person is part of Russia’s preparation for a protracted war in Ukraine, the UK’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) said in a Saturday morning assessment.

According to British intelligence, a “unified registry of individuals eligible for military service” will be digitally linked to other government services, allowing Russian authorities to “punish draft-dodgers by automatically limiting employment rights and restricting foreign travel”.

Meanwhile, 52,000 young Russian men have already received draft orders as part of the country’s regular spring call-up, and 21,000 of them qualified for military service, Colonel Andrey Biryukov, who is in charge of mobilisation, said on Saturday.

Mr Biryukov addressed concerns that the new electronic conscription law presaged a broader mobilisation of reservists, like one Mr Putin ordered in September.

“I’d like to stress that all army deferrals for citizens will still be valid. And e-draft orders will not be mailed in bulk,” Mr Biryukov said.