President Volodymyr Zelensky is expected to ask the leaders of the G7 group of nations to urgently supply Ukraine with weapons to defend itself from Russian missiles.

The leaders said this a day after Moscow launched retaliatory strikes that killed 19 people. U.S. President Joe Biden and other Group of Seven leaders will convene virtually later on Tuesday to discuss what more they can do to support Ukraine and to listen to Mr Zelensky, who has called air defence systems his “number 1 priority,’’ something Mr Biden already promised to provide.

Russian missiles crashed across Ukraine early on Monday in the most widespread wave of air strikes away from the front lines since the war began.

The air strikes hit the power-generating facilities and non-strategic targets such as parks and tourist sites, leaving devastation, terror, and power cuts in their wake.

At least 19 people were killed and 105 wounded, emergency services officials said, in an attack that President Vladimir Putin framed as retaliation for what he said was the Ukrainian bombing on Saturday of the Kerch Bridge, which links Russia to annexed Crimea.

Kyiv has not publicly taken responsibility for what Mr Putin called a “terrorist act’’ that killed at least three civilians and destroyed parts of the bridge’s road segment which have been used to supply occupying Russian forces in Ukraine.

Ukrainian officials reported more strikes on Tuesday, including one on the southeastern town of Zaporizhzhia, which killed at least one person.

Mr Zelensky, in a late Monday address, said, “We will do everything to strengthen our armed forces. We will make the battlefield more painful for the enemy.”

(Reuters/NAN)