Call for military aid

UKRAINE'S prime minister has appealed for Patriot missile batteries and other hi-tech air defence systems to counter counter Russian attacks, as more shelling was reported yesterday in eastern regions where Moscow is trying to make battlefield gains.

Denys Shmyhal told French broadcaster LCI that Russia wants to swamp Europe with a new wave of Ukrainian refugees by targeting infrastructure that has caused power cuts and water shortages for millions during freezing winter weather.

The provision of Patriot surface-to-air missiles to Ukraine would mark a major advance in the kinds of air defence systems the West is sending to help the war-torn country defend itself from Russian aerial attack.

So far no country has offered them, although Germany has provided Patriot missiles to neighbouring Poland, its Nato ally.