NATO countries have agreed to give Ukraine more air defences after desperate pleas for advanced systems to shoot down Russian attacks, alliance chief Jens Stoltenberg has said.
"NATO defence ministers have agreed to step up and provide further military support, including more air defence," Mr Stoltenberg said after virtual talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
"NATO has mapped out existing capabilities across the alliance and there are systems that can be made available to Ukraine," he said.
"So I expect new announcements on air defence capabilities for Ukraine soon."
Ukraine has been urgently calling on its Western backers to send more air defences as it has struggled to fend off a surge in Russian attacks on its infrastructure in recent weeks.
The Ukrainian government has above all been calling for more US-designed Patriot systems that are capable of shooting down Russian hypersonic missiles.
Mr Stoltenberg said there were Patriot and also Franco-Italian SAMP/T systems available in stocks of NATO countries that can be given to Ukraine.
However he could not say whether NATO defence ministers had made concrete commitments during the meeting.
Earlier this week Germany announced it was giving Ukraine an additional Patriot system, on top of two already supplied.
Officials say that the United States, Germany, Netherlands, Spain, Greece, Romania and Poland are the NATO countries with Patriot systems.
US politicians will vote tomorrow on a long-stalled $61-billion aid package for Ukraine that allies hope will reopen a stream of support from the United States.
"I count on the bill to pass without further delay," Mr Stoltenberg said.
The hold-up in support from Washington and struggles by Europe to find enough weaponry have left outgunned Ukrainian forces struggling to hold back Russian troops.
Mr Stoltenberg said that ministers also discussed Kyiv's "many other pressing needs", including artillery shells, longer range missiles and drones.
"Each NATO ally will decide what to provide. Several allies made concrete commitments during the meeting and are finalising contributions that I expect will be announced soon," he said.
CIA warns Ukraine could lose war this year without fresh aid
It comes after Russian strikes on Ukraine in the early hours of this morning killed at least eight people, including two children, as Ukraine said it shot down a Russian strategic bomber for the first time.
Russia said a military plane had crashed over the south of the country while returning to base from a combat mission after suffering a technical malfunction.
The downing of a Russian bomber used to fire cruise missiles at Ukraine would be a highly symbolic win for Kyiv, which has been pounded by hundreds of overnight Russian aerial strikes since Moscow invaded more than two years ago.
The latest overnight Russian strikes on the eastern Dnipropetrovsk region killed at least eight people and injured more than a dozen, officials said.
The head of the region Sergiy Lysak said medics had been able to save a six-year-old boy earlier reported killed, revising down an earlier toll of nine killed.
Strikes hit the regional capital of Dnipro and also the region's Synelnykivsky area, where at least two children - aged six and eight - were among those killed, the interior ministry said.
Interior minister Igor Klymenko published photos showing emergency workers carrying injured people away on stretchers.
Life-saving air defence
Ukraine's railway operator said train facilities were targeted in the attack and that seven employees were among those wounded.
A female member of staff - survived by two teenage children - was killed, they added.
In a boost for their forces, Ukraine said it had downed a Russian long-range strategic bomber during a combat mission for the first time.
The Tu-22M3 was returning to its base in Russia after having fired missiles at Ukraine earlier in the night, the main intelligence directorate of Ukraine's defence ministry said.
Shot down
Russian officials said the plane crashed over the southern Stavropol region. They said the pilots had ejected but that at least one member of the crew had died.
"According to preliminary data, the cause of the accident was a technical malfunction," state news agencies quoted the defence ministry as saying.
Stavropol governor Vladimir Vladimirov said two crew members had been taken to a local medical centre.
"The search for the fourth pilot is continuing," he added, posting photos of the burnt-out and mangled fuselage of the plane in a field.
The plane crashed in the region's Krasnogvardeysky district, the governor said - around 400km from the eastern edge of the annexed Crimean peninsula.
The main intelligence directorate of Ukraine's defence ministry said it "was shot down at a distance of about 300 kilometres from Ukraine. As a result of the hit, the bomber was able to fly to the Stavropol area, where it crashed."
Ukraine's air force said that Russia had launched 22 missiles and 14 Iranian-designed attack drones overnight - including from the downed strategic bomber.
It said all the unmanned aerial vehicles were downed as well as 15 missiles.
Russian strikes have pummelled towns and cities across Ukraine since the beginning of Russia's invasion more than two years ago. A missile attack on the northern city of Chernigiv left 18 dead earlier this week.
