NATO approved Kyiv’s request to hold an emergency meeting of the Ukraine-NATO Council in response to Russia’s recent large-scale strikes against Ukraine, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Jan. 3.

The news comes after Russia attacked Ukraine with at least 500 missiles and drones in just five days, killing and injuring dozens of civilians.

One of the key topics of the council’s upcoming emergency meeting will be strengthening Ukraine’s air defense, Kuleba said on X (formerly Twitter).

The minister called NATO’s agreement to hold the meeting “an important sign of Euro-Atlantic unity in the face of Russian terror escalation.”

He didn’t specify when and where the meeting would take place.

NATO established the council during the Vilnius summit in July as part of the efforts to enable closer coordination between Kyiv and the alliance.

In the latest mass attack against Ukraine, Russia launched at least 99 missiles early on Jan. 2, targeting Kyiv, the surrounding region, and Kharkiv. Five people were killed, and 130 more suffered injuries, including children, according to Ukrainian authorities.

On Dec. 29, Russia launched the largest air attack against Ukraine since the start of the full-scale invasion, according to Ukraine’s Commander-in-Chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi.

The attack killed 53 people and wounded another 170 countrywide, according to the latest update by Ukraine’s State Emergency Service.

Read also: ‘I’m in shock:’ Russia’s mass attack on Kyiv shatters lives and dreams

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