A man looks at a building destroyed during the attacks, in Borodyanka, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine.
Russia on Sunday destroyed tanks and other armor donated by the West in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv in a series of air strikes. The attack has broken a calm that has prevailed in the capital city for more than five weeks. Russian President Vladimir Putin warned the West about the supply of long-range rocket systems to Ukraine.
Meanwhile, the Russian military closed railway facilities and other infrastructure in the capital Kyiv early on Sunday. Ukraine’s nuclear plant operator, Energotom, said a cruise missile struck the Pivdnoukrensk nuclear plant about 350 kilometers (220 mi) south on its way to the capital, citing the dangers of such a near miss.
There was no immediate confirmation from Ukraine that Russian airstrikes had destroyed the tanks. Kyiv had not faced any such attack since the April 28 visit of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. The morning’s attack triggered an airstrike alarm and showed that Russia still had the ability and willingness to strike at the heart of Ukraine by focusing its efforts in the east rather than abandoning its sweeping offensive across the country. Growing concern in Moscow, attacks aimed at thwarting the re-supply of Ukrainian fighters appeared.
In a posting on the Telegram app, the Russian Defense Ministry said high-precision, long-range air-launched missiles had been used.
It said the strikes that destroyed Kyiv’s outskirts destroyed T-72 tanks supplied by Eastern European countries and other armored vehicles located in car-repair business buildings.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on 24 February caused untold deaths of thousands of civilians and soldiers, expelled millions from their homes, imposed major sanctions against Putin’s government and allies, and allowed Ukraine to enter via Black Sea ports. Threatened the export of important wheat and other cereals. Limiting access to bread and other products in Africa, the Middle East and beyond.
Putin warns West against providing arms to Ukraine
In a televised interview on Sunday, Putin criticized Western deliveries of weapons to Ukraine, saying they aimed to prolong the conflict. “All this fuss for additional deliveries of weapons has, in my opinion, only one goal: to pull out the armed conflict as much as possible,” Putin said, adding that Putin called on the US to supply Kyiv multiple launch rocket systems. Pointing to the plan, he said. Putin said if Moscow went ahead with such a delivery it would hit a target “we haven’t hit yet”. It was not immediately clear whether Putin was referring to new targets within or outside Ukraine’s borders. He stressed that such a supply was unlikely to change much for the Ukrainian government, which he said was already making up for the detriment of rockets of similar range.
If Kyiv finds long-range rockets, he said, Moscow will “draw appropriate conclusions and use our means of destruction, which we have, to strike objects that we have not hit yet.” Mayor Vitaly Klitschko on the Telegram messaging app said the missiles hit Kyiv’s Darnitsky and Dniprovsky districts, undermining the Kremlin’s recent goal of seizing the entire Donbass region to the east. Moscow-backed separatists fought Ukrainian forces in the Donbass for eight years and established self-declared republics.
Russian army captures another Ukrainian city
In recent days, the Russian army has focused on the capture of the city of Svirodonetsk. A billowing column of smoke filled the air with a pungent odor in Kyiv’s eastern Darnistsky district, and the burnt, blackened rubble of a warehouse-type structure was smoldering. Police near the site told an Associated Press reporter that military officials had banned the photographs. Soldiers also blocked a road leading to a large railway yard nearby.
Serhi Leshchenko, an adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky’s office, said on Telegram that the sites attacked included facilities for the state rail company, Ukrzaliznitsia. Energoatom said a Russian cruise missile was approaching dangerously near the Pivdennoukrainsk nuclear power plant towards Kyiv at around 5:30 p.m.
It said the missile “severely flew down” and that Russian targets “still do not understand that even the smallest piece of missile can hit a working power unit, cause nuclear devastation and radiation leakage.” ” Russian attacks have repeatedly targeted railway facilities, aimed at slowing the provision of weapons to Ukrainian forces on the front lines. The Air Force Command said on Facebook that the cruise missiles appeared to have been launched from a Tu-95 bomber flying over the Caspian Sea. It said air defense units shot down a missile.
Elsewhere, Russian forces continue their push to capture land in eastern Ukraine, with missiles and air strikes on cities and villages in the Luhansk region, the war now past the 100-day mark. Luhansk Governor Serhi Haidai said on Telegram that “air strikes by Russian Ka-52 helicopters were carried out in the areas of Girske and Myrna Dolina, by Su-25 aircraft – on Ustinivka,” while Lisichansk was hit by a missile from Tochka-U. went. Complex.
A total of 13 houses were damaged in Girske, and five in Lisychansk. Another airstrike was reported in the eastern city of Kramatorsk by its mayor, Alexander Goncharenko. He said no one was killed in the attack, but two enterprises in the city suffered “significant damage”. On Sunday morning, the General Staff of Ukraine accused the Russian military of using phosphorus weapons in the village of Cherkassky Tishki in the Kharkiv region.
The claim could not be independently verified.
The update also confirmed the attacks on Kyiv, which occurred in the early hours of Sunday. It was not immediately clear from the statement which infrastructure facilities in Kyiv were affected. The General Staff said Russian forces were continuing offensive operations in Svyarodonetsk, one of two major cities yet to be captured in the Luhansk region of the Donbass. The Russians control the eastern side of the city, the update said, and are focusing on trying to encircle Ukrainian forces in the area and “block the main logistics routes”.
The UK military said in its daily intelligence update that Ukrainian counterattacks in Sverodonetsk were “potentially blunting the operational momentum that the Russian military had previously gained by concentrating on combat units and firepower.” Russian forces were previously making steady progress in the city, but in recent days Ukrainian fighters have pushed back.
The statement also said that Russia’s military was partially dependent on reserve forces in the Luhansk region. “These troops are poorly equipped and trained, and lack heavy equipment compared to regular Russian units,” the intelligence update said. Away from the battlefield, Ukraine’s national footballers are hoping for a place in the World Cup when the team takes on Wales in Cardiff on Sunday.
On the diplomatic front, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was on his way to Serbia earlier this week for talks with President Alexander Vucic, then visited Turkey on Tuesday, where the Russian envoy is expected to discuss Ukraine with his Turkish counterpart. hopefully. Turkey is trying to work with the United Nations and the warring countries to clear the way for Ukrainian grain to be exported to Turkish ports, although no agreement on the issue appeared imminent.
An adviser to Ukraine’s president urged European countries to respond with “more sanctions, more weapons” for Sunday’s missile attacks. Mykhailo Podolyak on Friday cited comments from French President Emmanuel Macron, who said Putin had made a “historic error” by attacking Ukraine, but that world powers should not “humiliate Russia” so that the fighting stops at a diplomatic exit can be found.
“While one asks not to offend, the Kremlin resorts to new insidious attacks,” Podolik tweeted. “Each such terrorist attack will face a strong backlash from European capitals: more sanctions, more weapons.” Ukrainian officials have condemned the remarks, and called on France and some other European countries to continue talking to Putin and talk about a diplomatic solution, rather than working to get Russia out of Ukraine militarily. has been criticized.
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