By Associated Press

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Russian forces bombarded the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia with rockets overnight, killing a man, injuring at least 18 and triggering a number of fires, officials said on Tuesday, as President Volodymyr Zelensky urged European leaders to make the continent safe by building an ambitious air defence umbrella.
With the war grinding on since Russia’s full-scale invasion of its neighbour began in February 2022, there has been no let-up in strikes on civilian areas of Ukraine and Moscow’s army push on the roughly 1,000km (620-mile) front line.
A peace settlement appears to be no closer despite months of US-led peace efforts. US President Donald Trump’s ultimatums and deadlines for Russian President Vladimir Putin to engage with proposals to stop the fighting have passed without obvious consequences.
Just over the past two weeks, Zelensky said on Telegram, Russia has launched more than 3,500 drones, more than 2,500 powerful glide bombs and almost 200 missiles at targets inside Ukraine.

Russian glide bombs, usually dropped by jets at high altitude and far behind the front line, and drone swarms are a major challenge for Ukrainian defences. Glide bombs are not very accurate but they leave big craters, and Ukraine has no effective countermeasure against them.
Russian drones also recently landed on Polish soil, prompting Nato to strengthen the alliance’s European air defences as tension with Moscow mounted.
“Now is the time to implement the joint protection of our European skies with a multilayered air defence system. All the technologies for this are available,” Zelensky said on Telegram. “We need investments and desire, we need strong actions and decisions from all our partners.”

In Zaporizhzhia, the Russian barrage struck over 20 apartment buildings, starting fires, regional head Ivan Fedorov said on national television.
He said that two children were among the injured. Pictures posted by the governor online showed firefighters battling blazes in private homes and other buildings.
“We hadn’t yet recovered from enemy strikes on August 30. We are currently repairing those buildings, those windows, but now the enemy has added more work for our municipal workers,” Fedorov said.
Additional reporting by Reuters