Canada agrees air defence package for Ukraine - Zelensky

Canada will give Ukraine a "very important package of air defence" as well as support for the energy industry, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said, ahead of a meeting with Prime Minister Mark Carney.

Ottawa is one of Ukraine's most vocal defenders.

Canada has committed more than C$25.5 billion (€16bn) in overall aid to Kyiv since Russia's invasion in February 2022, including C$8.5bn (€5bn) in military assistance.

Ukraine is running critically low on US-made Patriot interceptors capable of stopping Russia's ballistic missiles at a time when Moscow is stepping up its attacks.

"This is a very important package of air defence. This is crucial," President Zelensky told reporters.

He did not give more detail, or speak about what Canada would do to back the energy industry.

Mr Carney promised that Canada would offer Ukraine more aid to help it fend off Russian attacks as well as back its efforts to join NATO and the European Union.

On arrival in Canada, President Zelensky had said that support for Ukraine's air defences and winter preparation would be the main focus of his visit.

Russia has struck a petrol station in Ukraine's capital Kyiv and an international agribusiness facility run by Bunge in the southeastern city of Dnipro, authorities said, as it intensifies attacks on logistics and economic targets.

Moscow has escalated its air campaign in recent weeks, launching ballistic missiles and jet-powered drones at warehouses, food suppliers and retail chains.

Kyiv has struggled to repel the attacks amid a shortage of air defence systems.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Sergii Koretskyi said that Russian assaults on businesses and civilian infrastructure were "rapidly growing" and urged the government to "react and act in advance".

Russia denies deliberately targeting civilian sites.

The strike on the Ukrnafta petrol station appeared to be the first jet-powered drone attack on such a facility in Kyiv.

It followed around 300 assaults on petrol stations in or near Ukraine's frontline regions in recent months.

Four people were injured, according to Mayor of Kyiv Vitali Klitschko.

"There is no military objective in such strikes. This is terror and intimidation of the civilian population," said Ukrnafta Chief Executive Bohdan Kukura on Facebook.

In Dnipro, two people were killed in the attack on the Bunge sunflower oil facility, one of Ukraine's largest food plants with a processing capacity of 1,600 tons of oilseeds per day.

It was the second assault on a US-owned business in several weeks, according to Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha.

"This is no coincidence, but part of Moscow's systematic terror campaign against American businesses and economic interests," he wrote on X.

Five people were wounded in the attack, a local official said.

In Pavlohrad, a key transit point in eastern Ukraine leading to frontline areas, a Russian strike killed four people and wounded around 60, regional officials said.

In the northeastern city of Sumy, officials said that a jet-powered drone hit a shopping centre - a day after two people were killed and 20 wounded in a similar attack there.

Moscow and Kyiv have traded escalating strikes in recent weeks on logistics and other economic targets, aimed at damaging each other's war effort.

Ukraine has attacked Russia's largest online retailers and oil refineries, often deep inside the country, as well as energy and fuel logistics in regions of its own territory occupied by Russian forces.

Russia has stepped up strikes on Ukraine's ports, killing four and injuring 19 in the southern city of Mykolaiv overnight, regional officials said.

Meanwhile, One person died and six were injured in Ukrainian drone attacks on Russia's Belgorod region, according to regional authorities.

They said the target was an unnamed facility in the town of Novy Oskol.