Russia fired missiles at Kyiv for the third time in five days on Monday. It seems like they are attacking Ukrainian cities more often now. This has been going on for three years and there hasn’t been much change in the fighting.
Five people got hurt in the attack in the Ukrainian capital, and two of them were taken to the hospital, according to Kyiv Mayor Vitalii Klitschko.
Russia shot two big missiles at Kyiv from Crimea in the daytime, but they were stopped before they could hit the city, according to Serhii Popko, who is in charge of the Kyiv City Military Administration. Loud booms were heard in the city, which scared the people who live there.
Missile pieces broke homes in two areas and a gym in another area of the city, according to Ukraine’s National Police.
The attack happened three days after another attack at a concert hall in Russia where over 130 people were killed.
Russian President Vladimir Putin tried to connect the attack to Ukraine, even though a group linked to the Islamic State said they did it.
Analysts said that Putin might use the Moscow attack to get more support for the war and also to have a reason to increase attacks on Ukraine.
Tag: Kyiv
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Three airstrikes against Kyiv in five days as Russia intensifies its city-bombing
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13 individuals injured after Russia launches 31 missiles at Kyiv
Russia launched 31 missiles at Kyiv early Thursday morning, which was the first attack on the city in 44 days, according to officials. The air defences stopped all the missiles from coming in, but 13 people, including a child, got hurt from the falling debris.
People in Kyiv were woken up by big booms around 5 in the morning. Serhii Popko, who is in charge of the Kyiv City Administration, said that the missiles came from different directions at about the same time.
The air force of Ukraine said that Russia fired two big missiles and 29 smaller missiles at the capital city.
An 11-year-old girl and a 38-year-old man had to go to the hospital, the city government said. Eight more people got small injuries, according to Mayor Vitali Klitschko.
Ukraine’s Emergency Service helped about 80 people leave their homes.
Debris from missiles that were shot down caused a fire in a building, damaged cars, and made holes in the streets and a park. Some streets had trash and broken glass from broken windows on them.
The attack happened after Ukraine repeatedly bombed an area in Russia called Belgorod, near the border with Ukraine.
Russian leader Vladimir Putin said he will do the same back if someone attacks.
At a meeting in the Kremlin, Putin said Russia can fight back in the same way if the enemy attacks our civilian buildings and other important places. We have our own thoughts about this and our own ideas to do it. “We will do what we have planned. “ -
Russian strikes on Kyiv and Kharkiv claimed lives of citizens
Russian missiles hit Kyiv and Kharkiv, and killed four people. Many others were hurt according to officials.
Three people died and 42 were hurt when houses were hit in Kharkiv on Tuesday.
They were two women, one was 40 years old and the other was 56 years old.
The mayor of the city said that some of the apartment buildings were destroyed and rescue workers were searching through the debris to find people who may be alive.
The sky over Kharkiv turned orange because of a fire from Russian missiles. The city is near the border, so it’s hard to stop the missiles in the sky.
Natalia from Kharkiv said to the media that she hasn’t heard this much noise since the war began. She said, “My house was shaking. ” It was very noisy. There were loud booms, then ten seconds later there was another loud noise.
A lot of people don’t have electricity and heat. “I only feel fear and hatred right now,” she said.
At least one person died in the city of Pavlohrad in the Dnipropetrovsk region.
In Kyiv, there was an air attack that lasted for over two and a half hours, the longest since 2 January. Many people got hurt when a large building with apartments caught on fire and another building was also damaged.
A representative said a young woman was rescued from the collapsed building. At first, rescuers thought she was dead, but she is now in the hospital in critical condition. Many people were hurt in the central and western districts of Kyiv, Solomianskyi and Sviatoshynskyi.
In Sviatoshinsky, some houses were broken. A few hours after the attacks, the emergency services told the media that they were still at the place of the attacks looking for bombs. They thought there might be a part of a missile that didn’t explode.
Three more parts of Kyiv were also harmed by debris falling after the air defenses stopped the Russian missiles. Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko’s office reports that 20 people are hurt and 13 are in the hospital, including kids.
In another part of the city, after the attack, people came out of their bomb shelters and houses to see the damage.
In places that were not affected this time, people went about their morning like they normally do. Stores were open, and there were lots of people on the roads and streets.
The media went to a hospital where the workers kept working even though there were air raids and they heard the explosions and felt the doors shaking.
Ukraine’s air force destroyed 21 out of 41 missiles launched by Russia last night.
Missiles are hitting Ukraine’s cities more often now, and it’s very dangerous. The attacks have been getting worse in the last few weeks.
Ukraine is worried that Western countries are not giving them the weapons they need. Andriy Yermak, who works for the president, showed a video of the damage in Kharkiv and said, “Look at what’s happening in Kharkiv. ” We are more than just a fortress. “We want guns. ”
Ukrainian soldiers have attacked Russian fuel facilities, including a big attack on an oil terminal in the city of St Petersburg in the last week.
Novatek, an energy company, had to stop some of its work because of a fire at its Ust-Luga Baltic Sea export complex.
Two tall buildings in Kyiv were struck. -
Ukraine issues missile warning to Russia after drone attacks
Ukraine’s capital Kyiv has become the target of new Russian drone attacks, with authorities also warning of missile attacks from Moscow.
Kyiv Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko said explosions were heard in the city on Tuesday morning and that drone debris caused a fire in the Desnianskyi district near the center. Aerial warnings also took place in other cities, including Kherson and Mykolaiv.
Recent days have been marked by significant air strikes from both sides. Klitschko said drone debris caused a fire in the Desnianskyi district and emergency services were at the scene.
The mayor of Mykolaiv in southern Ukraine said air defense forces shot down a drone in the town, its debris causing a fire.
The Ukrainian Air Force said on Telegram that it shot down all 35 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) launched by Russia on Monday night.
However, after these attacks, many missiles were fired from Russia towards areas such as Kyiv, Cherkasy and Kirovohrad.
He asked people to listen for air raid sirens and go to shelters.
This follows multiple attacks from both sides in recent days, with Russia responding to a Ukrainian attack on the Russian border town of Belgorod on Saturday that left at least 25 people dead and more than 100 injured person.
According to officials installed by Moscow, Ukraine bombed the Russian-controlled city of Donetsk on New Year’s Eve (Sunday), killing four people and wounding 13 others, while Ukraine said the attacks by a Russian drone killed one person and injured nine in Odessa.
On New Year’s Day (Monday), six civilians were killed by Russian attacks in various Ukrainian cities.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said his forces will increase attacks on military targets in Ukraine in response to the attack in Belgorod.
Putin also said Western rhetoric about the war is starting to change as they begin to realize that it cannot “destroy” Russia.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky dismissed these claims in an interview with The Economist, saying that Putin’s suggestion that Russia was winning the war was just a “feeling”.
He highlighted the number of Russian casualties in Ukraine and said opposition forces had not captured a single major city in 2023.
Mr Zelensky also expressed frustration with Kiev’s Western allies, saying they had lost a sense of urgency.
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Ukraine war: Greatest drone strike hits Kiev since the start of the war
Russia has sent off its greatest robot assault on Kyiv since its full-scale attack of Ukraine started last year, the city’s chairman has said.
Inhabitants were woken by blasts before sunrise on Saturday, and for over six hours, the blasts of Kyiv’s air safeguards reverberated through the city.
There was a large number of floods of assaults from the north and east.
Authorities said that in excess of 75 Iranian-made Shahed drones were discharged at the capital, and 74 were destroyed.
With Russia’s decreasing rocket stocks, Shahed drones are viewed as a modest other option. They are more slow than long range rockets and have an unmistakable wingspan.
It was a night where the whimpers of their motors mixed with the blasts of the city’s air guards.
As could be, regardless of whether a rocket or robot is caught, the falling flotsam and jetsam can be deadly as well.
There have been no revealed passings from this assault, yet something like five individuals were harmed, including a 11-year-old kid, Kyiv’s city hall leader Vitaliy Klitschko said.
A kindergarten was among the structures harmed.
For a few calm weeks, Moscow had been associated with storing rockets. That unexpectedly finished toward the beginning of today.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called the strikes a demonstration of “wilful dread” and said that his nation will “keep on attempting to join the world in guard against Russian fear”.
He is attempting to get proceeded with Western help as well as arrange Ukraine’s way to being a potential individual from the European Association.
President Zelensky additionally noticed that the assault came around the same time that Ukraine remembers the 1932-1933 Holodomor starvation – welcomed on by Soviet tyrant Joseph Stalin – which killed a few million Ukrainians.
As winter keeps on gnawing, it had been expected that Russia would continue its strategy of focusing on Ukraine’s energy framework. With 16,000 homes being left without power in the focal Kyiv area, this seems, by all accounts, to be the situation.
Notwithstanding, in the event that the point of Moscow’s procedure last year was to deny Ukrainians of much-required power and water, it eventually flopped as specialists figured out how to rapidly fix harmed pipes and powerlines.
Ukraine’s air safeguards likewise continued to move along.
This isn’t to imply that strikes like this are not felt.
They actually kill, annihilate homes, spread dread and disturb lives.
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Ukraine achieves ‘significant’ but partial gain in the south as counteroffensive continues
As Kyiv’s counteroffensive continues to struggle to make any real headway, Ukraine has declared “partial success” in a settlement on the southern front.
In another area, Russia is launching an attack close to Kupiansk in the northeastern Kharkiv region, which borders Russia. This is the first large Ukrainian evacuation in months, and the area has experienced heavy bombardment.
As Ukraine continues to descend into the Sea of Azov, heavy fighting is taking place on the front lines.
As moving deeply into the region would mean destroying Russia’s land-bridge between occupied Crimea and eastern Donetsk, the region is a key goal for Ukraine.
According to the General Staff of the Armed Forces, Ukraine declared “partial success” close to the village of Robotyne in the Zaporizhzhia region. Social media videos and pictures on Friday appeared to show Ukrainian troops entering the area.
Even little improvements by Ukraine in this area, according to the Institute for the Study of War [ISW], are noteworthy.
Even if Ukrainian gains are now modest, the ISW stated that the ability of Ukrainian forces to advance to the outskirts of Robotyne, which Russian forces have devoted substantial effort, time, and money to defend, remains significant.
The General Staff reported that Russian forces conducted “unsuccessful attempts” to retake lost territory close to the settlement of Urozhaine in the eastern Donetsk area. Ukraine declared “partial success” in securing positions in the region on Thursday.
According to a local military official, Russian forces are also attempting to “escalate and take over the initiative” in an effort to “pull” Ukrainian troops from other frontline locations in Eastern Ukraine.
“The enemy is trying to escalate and take over the initiative at this direction and attacking our positions,” said Serhii Cherevatyi, the deputy commander of the Eastern Military Group for Strategic Communications, in remarks made on national television on Saturday. This is in reference to the Lyman-Kupiansk direction in the northeastern Kharkiv region.
According to the daily report from the Ukrainian General Staff, Russian forces tried offensives close to Kupiansk but were repelled in a number of nearby communities. Early in the fight, the city was taken, but it was freed last autumn.
This week, Russia increased its shelling of the region and claimed to have captured some Ukrainian positions; as a result, a mandatory evacuation order was issued for Kupiansk and the neighbouring territories.
Fighting has been concentrated on the eastern and southern fronts during Ukraine’s long-awaited counteroffensive for weeks. Kyiv started the battle in an effort to retake land that Russia had taken. However, the benefits made thus far have been modest and difficult to get.
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Explosions shake Kyiv as warning about Putin’s hypersonic missiles issued
Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, was rocked by many explosions, which prompted the government to issue a general air-raid warning.
Residents were instructed to remain in air raid bunkers by Mayor Vitali Klitschko. Ukrainian air defences, according to Kyiv city officials, were in operation.
The air alert is tentatively connected to the movement of probable targets for Russian Kinzhal hypersonic missiles, which were allegedly shot down by Ukrainian air defences.
Around 200 kilometres from Kiev, in the western and central parts of Vinnytsia and Khmelnytskyi, explosions were audible.
“The missile threat is still present! Keep to the shelters! Serhiy Popko, a general from Ukraine, stated on Telegram.
According to Klitschko, missile parts landed on the grounds of one of the city’s paediatric hospitals. “There were no injuries or property damage.”
The warning follows a Russian missile strike that injured 16 people and killed one on Thursday night in the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia.
‘Zaporizhzhia. Russian shelling does continuous damage to the city. The occupants fired a missile at the structure, which caused a fire to start, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
The 16 injured, according to Zaporizhzhia Governor Yuriy Malashko, included four youngsters.
Officially released images and video revealed a sizable crater, crushed vehicles, and a severely damaged four-story building with a hotel sign.
Reikartz Hotel, located in the heart of the city on the bank of the Dnipro River, was identified as the damaged structure by local media.
Denise Brown, the humanitarian coordinator for Ukraine, stated via email that when UN personnel visited the town, they stayed at the hotel.
“I am horrified by the news that a Russian strike in Zaporizhzhia just now hit a hotel frequently used by UN employees and our colleagues from NGOs supporting people affected by the war,” she added. Every every time I have travelled to Zaporizhzhia, I have stayed in this hotel.
It was Zaporizhzhia’s second attack in as many days. A Russian missile attack on Wednesday resulted in the deaths of two young women and a man and nine additional injuries.
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Moscow was attacked by drone from Ukraine – officials
Early on Monday, drone attacks were carried out in Moscow by Ukrainian forces, a Kyiv official told CNN.
The representative from Ukraine’s Defence Intelligence, a division of the country’s Ministry of Defence, said that the organisation was in charge of the operation that Russia referred to as a “terrorist attack of the Kiev regime,” using the spelling for the country’s capital that is used in Russia.
Due to lack of permission to discuss the incident in public, the official spoke on the condition of anonymity.
The attack was also claimed by Ukraine’s minister of digital transformation. Mykhailo Fedorov, whose ministry is in charge of implementing his nation’s “Army of Drones” acquisition strategy, predicted additional strikes.
The drones struck two non-residential buildings in the Russian capital – including one near the Ministry of Defense headquarters – in Monday’s early hours, according to Russian authorities, who said they had “thwarted” the attack.
The strikes caused no serious damage or casualties, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said on Telegram Monday – but the incident will serve as a reminder of the range of Kyiv’s drones, as Ukraine seeks to bring the war closer to home for Russians.
Russia’s Ministry of Defense said that two drones were “suppressed by electronic warfare means and crashed.”
“On the morning of July 24, an attempt by the Kyiv regime to launch a terrorist attack using two unmanned aerial vehicles against facilities on the territory of the city of Moscow was thwarted,” the ministry said on Telegram.
Social media footage of the aftermath, verified by CNN, showed damage to the Russian defense ministry complex.
One of the buildings seen damaged in footage geolocated by CNN houses the ministry’s military orchestra. It was not immediately clear if that had been caused by the drones.
The area also houses the Russian Foreign Military Intelligence, known as GRU, 26165 unit, which carries out cyber activities, according to multiple Western sources. It’s also in the vicinity of the Ministry of Defense’s National Defense Management Center.
Later Monday morning, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told journalists that Russian air defenses had worked successfully.
“All the drones have been neutralized today, and measures are being taken,” Peskov said. “As for the development of the defense system, ensuring its more intensive work, this is a question for the Ministry of Defense.”
According to Russian state media outlet TASS, a drone hit a high-rise business center on Likhacheva Avenue in Moscow, causing drone debris to fall on Komsomolsky Avenue.
Law enforcement agencies and emergency services are currently working on the scene, and traffic on Komsomolsky Avenue from the center of the city towards the affected region has been blocked off, according to TASS, citing the Department of Transportation and Road Infrastructure Development of Moscow. CNN could not independently verify the reports.
A resident who was the area at the time of the attack told Reuters she was asleep and woken by an explosion.
“Everything started to shake. It felt like the whole building had come down. I looked out of the window, I live (in the neighboring building) on the side where there’s less damage. And it felt strange – the damage was so minor,” the resident, who gave her name as Polina, said.
“It sounded worse than it looked, as it seemed like the whole mall had exploded,” she added.
A second resident, who identified themselves to Reuters as Sergei, said he heard a bang “and then nothing.”
“We did not see anything flying, even though the windows were open… and we should have heard the sound (of something flying), but no, nothing,” he said.
Russia’s Ministry of Defense also on Monday accused Ukraine of launching 17 drones towards Russian-occupied Crimea overnight. The drones had been downed by its air defenses, with no casualties, the ministry said.
The reported attacks come after Russian missiles badly damaged a historic Orthodox cathedral in the southern Ukrainian port city of Odesa, sparking outrage and prompting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to vow retaliation.
See what remains of this UNESCO World Heritage site after missile attacks
The Odesa strikes killed at least one person and injured several others, Ukrainian officials said, the latest in a wave of attacks on the port city. The attacks also destroyed other historic buildings, Ukraine’s culture ministry said.
Kyiv almost never publicly claims responsibility for attacks that have taken place on Russian soil or in Russian-occupied territoriesduring the course of the war, which Moscow began when it launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February last year.
Ukraine denied direct involvement in a drone attack on Moscow in May, which damaged two buildings and injured two people.
Earlier this month, Russia said it “destroyed or neutralized” five Ukrainian drones in what it also described as a “terrorist” attack.
Meanwhile, Russian drones attacked Ukraine’s port infrastructure on the Danube river overnight Monday, targeting Ukrainian grain stocks, according to the Ukrainian Army.
Six people were injured in the attack, Oleh Kiper, head of the Odesa Regional Military Administration, said on Telegram.
The Ukrainian Army also said a hangar with grain was destroyed while storage tanks for other types of cargo were damaged.
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Greta Thunberg calls response to dam disaster “ecocide” during Kyiv visit
A Swedish climate activist, Greta Thunberg visited Kiev to highlight the environmental harm resulting from the conflict in Ukraine and to criticize the international response to the massive hydropower Kakhovka dam’s collapse on June 6.
“I do not think that the world reaction to this ecocide was enough,” said Thunberg, who was in Kyiv for the inaugural meeting of a new environmental group that also includes senior European political figures.
“We have to talk louder about it, we have to raise awareness about what is going on,” she said, according to a Ukrainian translation of her comments.
The group is tasked with assessing the damage to Ukraine’s environment and developing mechanisms to hold Russia accountable, said Andriy Yermak, head of the Ukrainian presidential staff and co-chair of the group along with former Swedish Deputy Prime Minister Margot Wallstrom.
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Ukrainian cities hit by renewed Russian missile attacks
In the early hours of Tuesday, Russian missiles targeted the capital city of Kyiv and several other cities, causing significant damage to critical infrastructure in Lviv, located in the west of Ukraine.
The attacks on Kyiv and Zaporizhzhia in the south were reported as massive in scale.
Ukraine’s air force reported that they successfully intercepted and shot down all but three of the 35 drones that were launched during the attack.
Fortunately, no casualties were reported in Lviv, although there were explosions heard in the city during the early morning hours. However, the head of the regional authority, Maksym Kozytskyi, stated that an important target was struck three times by Iranian Shaheed drones, resulting in a fire outbreak.
According to the Ukrainian air force, more than 20 drones were launched in waves from Russian territory in the north and from the coastal region of the Sea of Azov in the southeast, targeting the capital city. Kyiv authorities stated that this was the first such incident in 18 days.
In addition to the drone attacks, Zaporizhzhia was struck by a number of Iskander-M ballistic missiles, but thankfully no injuries were reported. Furthermore, three drones were shot down over the southern region of Mykolaiv, as confirmed by the governor.
It is worth noting that the Zaporizhzhia region has been a focal point of the Ukrainian military’s ongoing offensive to reclaim territory that was captured by Russia during its full-scale invasion, which began in February 2022.
Defence Minister Hanna Malyar said hours earlier that Ukrainian forces had recaptured the village of Piatykhatky as they try to break through Russia’s front line in the southern region. She said it was the eighth Ukrainian village to be recaptured in the past week. There has been no independent confirmation of the latest developments.
In his nightly TV address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that in some areas the military was moving forward while in others they were holding positions against Russian attack.
The defence minister said Ukraine’s push had advanced some 7km (4.3 miles) in two directions in Zaporizhzhia, towards the occupied southern cities of Melitopol and Berdyansk.
The exiled mayor of Melitopol, Ivan Fedorov, said residents had seen Russian forces leave the Kherson region further west for the front line in Zaporizhzhia.
Melitopol and Berdyansk lie on a coastal route from Russia to Crimea seen as critical to the Russian military because the bridge over the Kerch Strait from Russia to occupied Crimea is largely avoided by supply lorries. A Russian MP said earlier this month that the bridge was not considered secure but the “land corridor” was operating normally.
Western intelligence officials say Russian troops have moved away from the front line in Kherson since areas around the Dnipro river were flooded after the Kakhovka dam was destroyed on 6 June.
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Explosions cause damage in a tiny community west of Kyiv
A tiny village on the outskirts of Kyiv, Stari Petrivtsi which is about 50 minutes from the city center, has become the most recent location to bear the scars of Russia’s assault on Ukraine.
Houses on both sides of a dirty street have been totally destroyed, rooves blown in, and fences blasted off their posts.
But miraculously, no-one was killed, although four people were injured, according to local authorities.
It’s not yet clear whether the damage was caused by a direct missile attack or whether it was collateral damage from Ukraine’s air defence systems.
People were going about their daily business: a 12-year-old boy was at home alone while his mother was at work. He had the sense to go to the cellar, but he thought in the moment of the blast that he could die, and that everything they have here could be destroyed.
He’s long used to living in fear, but today was the worst he’s experienced.
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Kyiv under attack as African leaders visit on peace mission
As African leaders embark on a peace mission to Ukraine, the city of Kyiv has come under attack from drones and missiles.
The delegation, comprised of seven leaders including representatives from South Africa and Egypt, will hold discussions with President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv before proceeding to Russia tomorrow.
Their primary objective is to engage in dialogue with both Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin, with the aim of achieving a ceasefire and fostering lasting peace.
However, this mission unfolds amidst Kyiv’s launch of a counter-offensive against the ongoing Russian invasion, leading to a surge in intensified fighting.
As tensions escalate, it becomes imperative for the African leaders to navigate the complex landscape in pursuit of a resolution.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has arrived in Kyiv as part of his "African Peace Mission". Meanwhile, air raid sirens are sounding across the city, as another Russian air raid is detected. pic.twitter.com/GeNOuKJk2r
— Jimmy Rushton (@JimmySecUK) June 16, 2023In a separate development, a recent investigation by the BBC has uncovered that the number of Russian soldiers killed in Ukraine is significantly higher than the figure officially released by Moscow.
The investigation estimates that at least 25,000 Russian soldiers have lost their lives, four times the reported number. This revelation adds further gravity to the conflict and underscores the urgent need for diplomatic efforts to quell the violence.
Simultaneously, in Brussels, NATO defense ministers are convening to discuss the situation, emphasizing the international community’s concern over the escalating crisis.
Meanwhile, the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum is underway, with President Putin anticipated to deliver a pivotal keynote address, likely addressing the ongoing conflict and its impact on the regional and global economies.
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Ukraine loses 16 armoured vehicles made in the US
Open-source intelligence analysis shows that 16 US-supplied armoured vehicles have been lost by Ukraine in recent days. This comes after the Ukrainian military declared that three Russian settlements had been taken during an attack in the eastern Donetsk region.
According to Jakub Janovsky of the Dutch open-source intelligence website Oryx, which has been gathering visual proof of military equipment losses in Ukraine since Russia’s invasion began on February 24, 2022, the 16 US Bradley infantry fighting vehicles either destroyed or damaged and abandoned in recent days represent nearly 15% of the 109 that Washington has given Kyiv.
The Bradley fighting vehicle, which moves on tracks rather than wheels, can hold around 10 troops and is used to transport personnel into battle while providing supporting fire.
When the first batch of more than 60 Bradleys were sent to Ukraine at the end of January, US Army Lt. Col. Rebecca D’Angelo, commander of the Army’s 841st Transportation Battalion, said the armored vehicles would be important to Kyiv’s offensive operations.
“This is going to hopefully enhance their capabilities to provide forward advancement in the battlefield and regain lost ground, by having equipment that matches or exceeds what the Russians have,” D’Angelo said in a US Army report.
But when Washington announced in January it would supply to Bradleys to Ukraine, CNN military analyst James “Spider” Marks, a retired general, said the Bradleys would need the right mix of other abilities, including air support, long-range artillery and incisive intelligence.
“A single piece of equipment like the Bradleys is wonderful, but it needs to be used in conjunction with all those other enablers,” he said at the time.
Air support is one area where Ukraine’s military is lacking, although Kyiv’s forces are expected to get F-16 multi-role fighter jets from Western allies in the future.
The Bradleys are among almost 3,600 pieces of military equipment Ukraine has lost in the war, according to Oryx. Meanwhile, the website says it has documented the loss of more than 10,600 pieces of Russian military equipment.
In a statement in Monday, Moscow claimed it had destroyed multiple Ukrainian armored vehicles in the Zaporizhzhia region.
“Enemy armored forces are currently launching more and more attacks in the [Zaporizhzhia] direction. However, Russian anti-tank troops stand in their way, cold-bloodedly turning Western armored vehicles into scrap heaps,” the Russian Ministry of Defense said.
The statement did not say what kind of vehicles were destroyed.
Despite the loss of the Bradleys, Ukraine reports it has taken back at least three villages from Russian forces in fighting over the weekend.
Ukraine’s advance south from the front-line town of Velyka Novosilke in the Donetsk region now stretches somewhere between 5 and 10 kilometers (3 to 6 miles), according to information released by Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar.
Writing on Telegram Sunday evening, Maliar said the village of Makrivka had been recaptured from Russian control – the third in a string of settlements that sit along the Mokri Yaly River to be declared liberated by Ukrainian forces over the course of the day.
Earlier, videos emerged showing soldiers hoisting the Ukrainian flag from buildings in Neskuchne and Blahodatne.
CNN military analyst Mark Hertling said the situation was positive for Ukraine from both morale and battlefield perspectives.
“It reinforces the fact that they are moving forward,” Hertling told CNN’s Jim Acosta.
Meanwhile, “every single piece of land Ukrainian forces can pull back to their sovereign territory is going to be part of a march toward operational success,” Hertling said.
Reporting on developments, Russian military bloggers offered a pessimistic assessment of the situation facing the Kremlin’s forces in the area. The Rybar Telegram channel suggested late Sunday that Ukraine’s offensive looked set to continue, adding that Russian forces “should expect the pressure to intensify in the near future.”
Fighting is taking place near the village of Urozhaine, slightly further down the river, Rybar reported. The channel added that heavy cloud and rain were also limiting Russian forces’ ability to use drones to repel the Ukrainian advance.
A Ukrainian army spokesman said Russian forces had blown up a dam on the river, adding that there was flooding on both banks but saying it “would not affect our counteroffensive actions.”
On Monday, Ukraine accused Russia of blowing up another small dam along the border between Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia, near the village of Novodarivka.
Floodwaters spilled over both banks of the Mokri Yaly River after the dam of a small reservoir near the village was destroyed, according to Ukraine’s Military Media Center.
Novodarivka is one of several villages in the area that Kyiv’s troops have claimed in recent days.
In its most recent battlefield roundup, Russia’s Ministry of Defense made no mention of retreats but said its forces had “destroyed the concentrations of manpower and equipment” of three Ukrainian brigades operating in the same area.
Further west, in neighboring Zaporizhzhia region, Russian airstrikes and artillery fire by the Vostok brigade had succeeded in pushing back three Ukrainian advances south of Orikhiv, the Russian Defense Ministry said.
Meanwhile, a Ukrainian army spokesman told CNN that Kyiv’s forces have been counterattacking around the eastern city of Bakhmut for a week but downplayed its importance saying, “this is not a major offensive.”
“These are counterattacks where we take advantage of the fact that the enemy is rotating, that the enemy has not fully reconnoitered, has not fully coordinated its units, has not fully dug in. We take advantage of this and counterattack them,” Serhii Cherevatyi told CNN by phone.
He said Russian forces continue their shelling towards Ukrainian positions but said Ukraine’s forces had advanced up to two kilometers (1.25 miles) in places.
Cherevatyi said Russia’s presence in Bakhmut was maintained by airborne troops, with support from infantry personnel and mercenaries from several smaller private military companies.
While Russian forces continue to hold the city, Ukraine’s forces have concentrated their efforts on areas to the northwest and southwest.
Hertling noted that Ukraine has been using a “deep-strike capability” to disrupt Russian supply lines well back from the front lines.
“Ukraine has been very good in terms of striking deep targets that effect the logistics support,” Hertling said.
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Kyiv warns against talk as Russia claims to repel Ukrainian attack in Donetsk
There is increased speculation that Kyiv may soon begin a spring counteroffensive that could change the direction of the conflict after the Russian Defence Ministry said its troops successfully repelled a “large-scale” attack from Ukrainian forces in the eastern Donetsk province.
Intense informational efforts have been waged by Russia and Ukraine to manipulate public opinion and mislead their adversaries about their strategies. The Russian military claimed in a statement to have killed 250 Ukrainians and destroyed armoured vehicles used in the attack, but supplied very no supporting documentation.
A spokesperson for the Ukraine Armed Forces, Bohdan Senyk, told CNN that Ukraine does “not have information” on a purported “large-scale offensive” in Donetsk.
Moscow is known to make inflated claims about Ukrainian losses. CNN has been unable to independently verify the claim.
In a post on its official Telegram feed, the ministry said the assault took place at “five section of the front in the southern Donetsk direction.”
The ministry claimed the goal of the Ukrainian operation was “to break through” Russian defenses in what it considered to be “the most vulnerable area of the front.”
At the time of the attack, Russia’s top general Valery Gerasimov “was at one of the forward command and control posts,” the statement added.
Gerasimov, who is chief of Russia’s General Staff, was put in overall command of Russian military operations in Ukraine early this year. He has come under public criticism from the head of the Russian private military company Wagner for supposedly running the war from a comfortable office.
Further south, a Russian-appointed official in Zaporizhzhia said Ukrainian troops were attempting to break through a defense line to reach the coast of the Sea of Azov.
“The goal of the [Ukraine Armed Forces] militants is to reach the Azov Sea coast and cut the land corridor,” Vladimir Rogov said, according to Russian state media outlet RIA Novosti.
He claimed that Ukrainian troops have increased the intensity of their shelling, and fired Storm Shadow missiles. “They are launched in large quantities, which means Ukrainian militants and terrorists have ammunition in sufficient quantity.”
Rogov said he did not think a full-scale counteroffensive had begun.
Ukraine’s much-anticipated counteroffensive has been shrouded in secrecy despite clear signs that Kyiv is gearing up for a sweeping operation.
Deputy Defense Minister, Hanna Maliar and other officials posted a social media video urging silence over any potential news of a counteroffensive.
The video shows several soldiers in full combat gear putting a finger to their lips and saying “shhh” followed by the text: “Plans love silence. The beginning [of the counteroffensive] will not be announced.”
On Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked troops on the front lines for striving to control the skies above them.
“We should all remember that our defense, our active actions, and the independence of Ukraine are not something abstract. These are very particular people, particular actions of particular heroes, thanks to which Ukraine exists and Ukraine will exist,” Zelensky said.
He singled out fighters who would be particularly key in the counteroffensive, just days after he told the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) that Kyiv was “ready” to launch the long-awaited military maneuvers.
“I think that, as of today, we are ready to do it. We would like to have certain things, but we can’t wait for it for months,” Zelensky said in an exclusive video interview published Saturday.
The president said he believed the counteroffensive will be successful but was not sure how long it will take.
“Everyone knows perfectly well that any counteroffensive in the world without control in the skies is very dangerous. Imagine what a military man feels, knowing he does not have a ‘roof’ and he can’t understand how neighboring countries have that,” Zelensky said about his dogged campaign for allies to supply Ukraine with F-16 fighter jets.
According to the WSJ, Zelensky acknowledged Russia’s superiority in the skies, adding that a lack of protection against Moscow’s air power means “a large number of soldiers will die” during the counteroffensive.
“If everybody knows we need the protection for our skies, then what’s the issue with [giving us] the modern jets? What is the issue?” he implored.
The Ukrainian leader has spent months courting Western allies to provide Kyiv with fighter jets and weapons to help control the skies and help limit the number of casualties to Ukrainian fighters during any potential counteroffensive.
Earlier this week, Jake Sullivan – US President Joe Biden’s national security adviser – said Washington believed the counteroffensive would help Kyiv retake “strategically significant territory.”
“Exactly how much, in what places – that will be up to developments on the ground as the Ukrainians get this counteroffensive underway,” Sullivan told CNN’s Fareed Zakaria. “But we believe that the Ukrainians will meet with success in this counteroffensive.”
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Putin’s rocket almost hits car in Kyiv
This is the shocking incident when a piece of what looked like a missile touched down on a Kyiv highway.
Video captures the debris falling during a noon hit on the Ukrainian capital on Monday, nearly missing a moving car.
After the wreckage impacted the asphalt and sent smoke plumes into the air, no casualties were recorded.
Hours after launching dozens of drones, Russia unleashed one of its largest aircraft assaults in weeks.
Ending weeks of relative calm in Kyiv, the sky was filled with smoke trails and blast clouds.
Panicked residents, some of whom had initially ignored the air raid sirens as they ate breakfast in cafes, rushed for cover.
All the Russian missiles were shot down, but one person in the Podil district was taken to hospital, authorities said.
Mayor Vitali Klitschko said explosions sounded in the capital’s central districts and emergency services were dispatched.
Ukrainian police inspecting a fragment of a rocket (Picture: AP) ‘The attack on Kyiv continues. Don’t leave the shelters,’ he wrote on Telegram.
Metro stations across the city were packed with people taking shelter while the air warning lasted.
Russia has increased the frequency of air attacks as Ukraine prepares to launch a counteroffensive.
The attack happened hours before Moscow was targeted by drones that damaged several buildings.
There has been no comment from Kyiv, but on Monday, the head of the Ukrainian military intelligence, General Kyrylo Budanov, warned of a fast response to pre-dawn attacks on the capital.
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2 kids killed in latest Russian bombardment of Kyiv
In the most recent attack by Russia on the capital of Ukraine, at least three people have died.
The latest attack on Kyiv, which happened in the wee hours of Thursday, comes after an alleged 17 assaults on the city in May as Russia intensifies its operations.
Russia primarily targeted Kyiv this morning with ground-based missiles that caused damage to apartment buildings, a clinic, a water pipeline and a vehicle.
The city’s administration reported three people, including two children, were killed and 10 more have been wounded.
This is despite Ukrainian air defences becoming increasingly effective at intercepting Russian drones and missiles and shooting them out of the sky.
In some cases, the resulting debris can cause fires and injuries on the ground.
Preliminary investigations believe Kyiv’s air defences intercepted all incoming missiles this morning – meaning the latest deaths and injuries were caused by falling debris.
A woman was killed while watching an aerial attack from her balcony this week, leading the authorities to warn residents to stay in shelters.
A woman collapses as she looks at the body of her daughter killed during this morning’s missile strike (Picture: Reuters) 
Residential buildings were damaged (Picture: Roman Pilipey/Getty Images) 
The bombardment also hit a medical centre (Photo: Oleksii Chumachenko/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images) On Wednesday Russian forces carried out aerial attacks over the south of Kherson region, with missile and heavy artillery strikes in other parts of the region.
Kyiv suffered a barrage of drone attacks over the weekend as the city prepared to celebrate Kyiv Day, the anniversary of the city’s founding.
Analysts believe Russia is trying to deplete Ukrainian air defences before it can begin its much-anticipated counter-offensive.
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Russia attacks Kyiv in a new daytime manner
Following a nighttime onslaught of the Ukrainian capital and the rest of the nation, Russia launched a surprise midday attack on Kyiv on Monday.
Late on Monday morning, after the city had recovered from a more routine overnight bombardment, residents of central Kyiv heard explosions that set off sirens and sent them running for cover.
In the daylight strike, the military forces of Kyiv claimed to have shot down 11 Russian Iskander missiles. As a result of missile parts landing in the Podilskyi neighbourhood, one guy was taken to the hospital, according to Vitalii Klitschko, the mayor of Kiev.
Serhii Popko, head of Kyiv city military administration, said this attack shows “the enemy changed its tactics – after prolonged, nighttime attacks only, it struck a peaceful city during the day, when most residents were at work and outside.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky posted a video of a child running for shelter as an explosion is heard in the background.
“Ukrainian children. Every time an air raid alert sounds,” he said. “This is what an ordinary weekday looks like.”
His wife, Olena Zelenska, reposted the video, adding: “Morning after sleepless night under fire. Anxiety once again… Children running and screaming for shelter to the sounds of explosions. But it should not be like this.”
Hours earlier, cities across Ukraine were hit by a wave of Russian strikes.
The Commander-in-Chief of Ukraine’s Armed Forces, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, said 37 cruise missiles, dozens of Shahed drones and a reconnaissance UAV were shot down by Kyiv’s forces – the vast majority of those fired.
The Khmelnytskyi regional military administration said Russia had attacked a military facility in the western Ukrainian city, damaging five aircraft.
The Russian Defense Ministry said later that its forces hit Ukrainian airfields, destroying all targets. “As a result of the strike, command posts and radar posts, as well as aviation equipment, storage facilities with weapons and ammunition of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were hit,” it said in its daily briefing.
On Sunday a huge wave of Russian drones targeted Kyiv, marking the largest such assault on the capital since the conflict began, according to Ukrainian authorities. Klitschko said a 41-year-old man died in the early hours of Sunday following the attacks.
The attack came on Kyiv Day, when the city celebrates its founding. But Russia is so far seeing limited returns from its repeated attacks.
The Iranian-made Shahed drones are a cheap way to inflict at least some pain on Kyiv, which for much of the last year has been spared the impact of the Russian invasion.
Russia has bought many hundreds of such drones, which cost roughly 20 times less than a missile.
Moscow is also hoping to land a psychological blow. Since the beginning of the invasion, the air raid siren has been on in Kyiv for a cumulative 887 hours.
But all the indications are that despite the dislocation and exhaustion, the attitude of the city’s population is hardened rather than weakened by such attacks.
The greater purpose on the Russians’ part in sending waves of Shaheds is likely to wear down Ukraine’s air defenses, and force them to expend scarce munitions on the swarms of drones.
Multiple accounts over the past few months, including estimates in leaked US military assessments, have referred to critical shortcomings in Ukraine’s layered air defenses, especially as its Soviet-era S-300 system – the workhorse of Ukrainian air defenses – is degraded and as it becomes increasingly difficult to find ammunition for such systems.
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Kyiv witnesses fresh attack after intense drone blast
Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, has faced renewed attacks with heavy drone strikes for two consecutive nights. In the latest barrage, missiles were used, but no casualties have been reported so far.
Russia has launched 16 air attacks on Kyiv this month, typically occurring overnight. However, the most recent attack took place in mid-morning, targeting the city center. Mayor Vitali Klitschko urged residents to seek shelter and warned about the potential danger of falling debris.
According to Air Force spokesman Yuri Ihnat, the latest attack involved the use of Iskander ballistic missiles, and there is a possibility that S-300 and S-400 missiles were also deployed. Air raid sirens were reportedly heard in several other regions of Ukraine.
Ukrainian officials have claimed to have destroyed most of the drones used in the weekend’s attacks. Additionally, explosions were reported in the Lviv, Odesa, Vinnytsya, and Khmelnytskyi regions.
In Khmelnytskyi, a military airfield was struck, resulting in damage to five aircraft and the runway, as confirmed by regional authorities.
Meanwhile, the governor of the Russian region of Belgorod stated that several frontier settlements were simultaneously shelled by Ukrainian forces.
Oleksandr Scherba, the ambassador-at-large at Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, expressed that the recent days have been exceedingly difficult for the residents of Kyiv.
“Almost every night, the skies look and sound like another Star Wars episode, but we don’t feel much of Russian rockets hitting their targets here within the city area. And this is all thanks to the decent countries, decent people of the world who gave us this air defence,” he said.
Living in the capital was anything but normal at the moment, Mr Scherba said, adding that the drone attacks and sleepless nights had become “part of our routine”.
On Sunday, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky praised his country’s air defence forces after Kyiv sustained the largest drone attack since the war began.
“You are heroes,” said Mr Zelensky, after military commanders said most of the so-called kamikaze drones launched by Russia were brought down.
Russia has stepped up its attacks on Kyiv in recent weeks, seeking to overwhelm the capital’s defences.
Saturday’s overnight attack came as the people of the capital prepared to celebrate Kyiv Day, the anniversary of the city’s foundation. In a remarkable demonstration of resilience, people took to parks, bars and restaurants in the capital to celebrate the holiday.
In its recent attacks, Russia – which launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022 – has been using kamikaze drones as well as a range of cruise and ballistic missiles.
Analysts say Moscow is seeking to deplete and damage Ukraine’s air defences ahead of its long-expected counter-offensive.
On Saturday, one of Ukraine’s most senior security officials told the BBC the country was ready to launch such an operation.
Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of the powerful National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine, said an assault to retake territory from President Vladimir Putin’s occupying forces could begin “tomorrow, the day after tomorrow or in a week”.
The trained accountant is unlikely to be fazed by the challenges. As a two-term governor of Lagos, he revitalised Nigeria’s commercial hub – no easy job – and is well aware of the issues.
His allies say he will take the same technocratic and thoughtful approach to running Nigeria, a vast country of more than 200 million people.
But opponents of the incoming president say he has lost the vitality he used to forcefully modernise Lagos.
Since the election he has travelled abroad twice, raising questions about his health. In 2021 he spent months in London being treated for an undisclosed illness.
He has brushed off the criticism, saying the job does not require the fitness of an Olympic athlete – and his associates are quick to remind everyone that US President Joe Biden is older, at 80.
But if the candidates who came second and third – Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi – in February’s presidential election have their way then Mr Tinubu may not be in power for very long.
The election tribunal is expected to start hearing the main arguments on Tuesday and the outcome of the case should be known within the next six months.
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Russian Belgorod raiders support Ukraine but find it difficult to adopt Kyiv’s position
Russian dissident fighters who had just returned from a raid in their own country paraded around Ukraine with an armoured car as a prize, but they had trouble explaining their actions in line with Kyiv‘s official line.
In a two-day attack that was extensively documented on social media, Ukrainian authorities claim the fighters were acting independently when they sped across the Russian border and started shooting up Russian communities in the Belgorod region earlier this week.
The Ukrainian security forces are in charge of the members of the Russian Volunteer Corps and the Freedom for Russia Legion, both of which are made up of Russian citizens waging war in Ukraine against their motherland.
“Was this an independent action uncoordinated with the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, or did they give you instructions?” I asked Dennis Nikitin, leader of the far-right Russian Volunteer Corps on Wednesday.
He replied, “Obviously, everything we do, every decision we make behind, beyond the border [in Russia] … is our own decision.”
But he went on to admit a certain “encouragement and help and aid.”
“What we do, obviously, we can ask our, let’s say, [Ukrainian] comrades, friends for their assistance in planning. What do you think about this? Could you tell us if this is a plausible mission? Would it help Ukraine in this fight or would it make things worse?” Nikitin said.
“They will say ‘yes’, ‘no’, ‘this is a good idea’, ‘this is a bad idea’. So this is a kind of encouragement and help and aid.”
Nikitin didn’t actually do a stage wink, but he might as well have.
Similar signals came from “Caesar,” the nickname of the spokesman for the Freedom for Russia Legion, a more moderate anti-Putin formation of a few hundred men which is also dedicated to ending the war in Ukraine and to toppling Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Asked whether it was true that the Russian dissidents had used some US-made MRAP armored vehicles – perhaps even vehicles donated by the United States to Ukraine – Caesar said: “We used Humvees also. We buy them in international shops, war shops. Yeah … everyone who has some money can do it.”
He was wryly and consciously repeating a Russian propaganda trope dating back to Moscow’s first invasion of Ukraine in 2014, when the Kremlin denied its troops were on the ground and suggested that pro-Moscow rebels had bought Russian vehicles on the open market.
The use of US vehicles in the operation has provoked minor consternation in Washington.
“The US government has not approved any third party transfers of equipment to paramilitary organizations outside the Ukrainian Armed Forces, nor has the Ukrainian government requested any such transfers,” Pentagon Press Secretary Air Force Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder said on Tuesday, emphasizing that the US would “keep a close eye” on the issue.
The West has insisted that Ukraine not use weapons it receives from members of the NATO security alliance inside Russia. A strike against a Russian target inside Russia itself using the UK-provided Storm Shadow cruise missile, for example, would risk the appearance of bringing NATO into direct conflict with Moscow.
But MRAP armored vehicles are armored trucks. It’s the weapons systems that really matter.
Ukraine doesn’t want any credit for the raid into Russia. So it has used Russians to do the job, and claimed they’re not under Ukrainian orders, this time.
Nevertheless, Kyiv will be delighted by the result. The dissident raid has had the desired effect – destabilizing Russia.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the Wagner mercenary company that’s been fighting in Ukraine alongside Russia’s military has already seized upon the raid as a proof of the military’s ineptitude.
“Sabotage and reconnaissance forces calmly enter Russia and march, uploading videos, driving their tanks, armoured infantry vehicles. Where’s the guarantee that they will not enter Moscow?…So far as I understand, nobody gives a sh*t about residents of Belgorod region,” thundered Prigozhin on Tuesday in an interview with pro-Russian blogger Konstantin Dolgov.
“I say to the elite of the Russian Federation – you sons of bitches, gather your children. Send them to war. When you come to a funeral and start burying them, people will say: ‘It is all fair now.’”
If not, warned the mercenary leader who still claims to back Putin, “All these divisions can end in what is a revolution, just like in 1917.
It’s safe to assume that the scions of Moscow’s nomenklatura will not suddenly be flooding through the doors of recruitment offices for either the armed forces or Prigozhin’s dogs of war.
But chaos in the ranks of the enemy amounts to victory, according to the eponymous doctrine of Russian armed forces general Valery Gerazimov.
And Caesar is confident that Moscow’s been rattled.
“They [Russians defending Belgorod] were too stupid and too slow. About five hours, about five hours [to react]. They only try to understand what’s happened. It was about one mechanized company to, to force the counterattack. Yesterday, we destroyed those mechanized company. We bring them heavy casualties,” he said in English picked up in his school in Russia.
“It’s just a little beginning, just for reconnaissance,” he added.
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Ukraine space agency clears air on highly luminous light in Kyiv skies
There was a great deal of speculation following a mystery flare that illuminated the skies over the capital of Ukraine on Wednesday night.
Although the US space agency notified the BBC that the satellite was still in orbit, Kyiv officials initially believed it was a Nasa spacecraft that was plummeting to Earth.The flash was likely caused by a meteor entering the atmosphere, Ukrainian space officials later stated.
The air force was confident it was not a Russian air attack – an event all too familiar since the invasion last year.
The bright glow was observed in the sky over the capital around 22:00 local time (19:00 GMT).
An air raid alert was activated but “air defence was not in operation”, the head of Kyiv’s military administration, Serhiy Popko, said on Telegram.
Mr Popko suggested it was caused by a Nasa space satellite falling to Earth, referring to a retired 300kg (660lb) spacecraft that the space agency announced was set to re-enter the atmosphere on Wednesday.
The RHESSI satellite, used to observe solar flares, was launched into low Earth orbit in 2002 and decommissioned in 2018, Nasa said.
But Rob Margetta from Nasa’s office of communications told the BBC that the satellite was still in orbit at the time the flash was observed, and was due to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere during the night.
Satellite-tracking website Satflare indicated that RHESSI was nowhere near Ukraine at the time.
Ukrainian social media has been awash with theories and memes about what the flash could have been, with a popular theme being that it was caused by aliens.
But air force spokesman Yuri Ihnat told Ukrainian TV that the flash had also been seen over neighbouring Belarus to the north and Ukraine’s space agency said it was probably related to a cosmic body entering the dense layers of the atmosphere.
Kyiv officials said it was up to experts to establish what it was but what was most important was the city’s security.
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Russia’s new attack on Ukraine kills 3
At least three persons have been killed by a drone strike on a residential area in the Kyiv region as a result of Russian forces attacking multiple Ukrainian cities.
In the early hours of Wednesday, two residential buildings in the nearby city of Rzhyshchiv suffered damage to their upper floors.
According to rescue services, one of the victims was 11 years old.
Separately, officials in the Crimea that Russia has annexed said that a drone attack by the Ukrainian military had been repelled.
Residents of the port city of Sevastopol reported hearing explosions.
There was no comment from Ukraine’s military, which said earlier this week it had destroyed missiles destined for the fleet at a rail hub in Dzhankoi in northern Crimea.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia had launched more than 20 “killer drones”, as well as missiles and shells.
Referring to Chinese President Xi Jinping’s departure from Russia hours earlier, he said that every time “someone tries to hear the word ‘peace’ in Moscow,” another order was given to launch attacks.
On Tuesday President Vladimir Putin said that many provisions of a 12-point Chinese peace plan “can be taken as the basis for settling of the conflict in Ukraine, whenever the West and Kyiv are ready for it”.
The plan makes no specific proposals and does not call explicitly for Russian forces to leave Ukraine’s sovereign territory.
In a separate Russian attack, three people were wounded in the southern city of Odesa, when a three-storey building was hit in the grounds of a monastery, presidential chief of staff Andriy Yermak said.
Drones were also fired at the north-western region of Zhytomyr, but no-one was reported hurt. Ukraine’s military said 16 of the 21 drones launched on Wednesday were shot down.
Air raid sirens rang out across Ukraine hours afterwards, amid reports that Russian warplanes carrying long-range missiles had taken to the air.
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Ukraine develops self version of Google Street View to depict the scope of the war
Anyone may now explore Ukraine‘s war-torn streets virtually and contrast them with images taken prior to Russia’s incursion.
On the anniversary of the conflict, the Undeniable Street View was introduced in an effort to show the extent of the devastation.
Six Ukrainian cities, including Kyiv, Irpin, Kharkiv, Izyum, Chernihiv, and Sumy, are available for viewers to explore on foot.
The footage has been shot on the ground by Ukrainian photographers, including Mykola Omelchenko whose War Up Close project played an important role.
War Up Close shows the extent of the continued destruction through 360 degree images, virtual tours and global exhibits.
Mykola became the first Ukrainian certified Google photographer in 2016.
He said: ‘When the war started, the pictures that we started to see of the war in the news and on Telegram channels were depressive and scary.
‘But then Russia started to say that (Ukrainians) were bombing their own cities, which is a complete lie.
Photographers wanted to capture the reality of the destruction (Picture: PA) 
People can compare before and after photos (Picture: PA) ‘And to fight that propaganda, we decided to fight behind the cameras.’
He said Irpin and Borodyanka are ‘probably the most destroyed’ he filmed.
‘I know those villages – I have travelled through them a lot for business and pleasure – and to see the destruction was terrible. I was devastated,’ he said.
‘I thought after filming in the Kyiv region I was ready for many things, but when I went to Kharkiv – there’s a region called Saltivka, which is on the east border – it was even more terrible because there was nothing else left but schools and apartments.
‘The team are so focused on showing proof of damage caused in their country, they are willing to risk their lives to do so.
‘This is our own equipment, our own cards, our own lives.
The photographers risk their lives capturing the photos (Picture: PA) Cities people can look at include Kyiv, Irpin, Kharkiv, Izyum, Chernihiv and Sumy (Picture: PA) ‘No-one’s going to pay us back if a missile hits the car, destroys the drone or 360 cameras.
‘We were flying drones in one area to see what the damage was and a little girl – around five years old – came to us and said, “Are you going to bomb us today?”
‘(Another time), a person came out of their completely destroyed house and he asked what we were doing and when he found this information out, he brought us plums.
‘Stories like that put scars on my heart.’
The war has had a huge impact on his feelings of safety and security in other places.
‘Every time I hear a noise, I still duck,’ he said.
‘I still look around to see what it is because my mind is still in Ukraine and understands that there’s a war and a missile can go off anywhere.’
He has plans to film in other cities when they are safer and filming permission is granted.
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Russia fires new waves of missiles at Ukraine and hits energy infrastructure
Russia launched fresh waves of missile attacks across Ukraine on Saturday, killing at least 14 people in a strike on an apartment block in the eastern city of Dnipro.
A number of other cities, including Kyiv, Kharkiv and Odesa, were also hit.
Much of Ukraine is now under an emergency blackout after missiles hit power infrastructure in several cities.
Earlier, the UK said it would send Challenger 2 tanks to Ukraine to help the country’s defence.
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the Challengers, the British army’s main battle tank, would help Kyiv’s forces “push Russian troops back”.
Russia responded by saying that providing more weapons to Ukraine would lead to intensified Russian operations and more civilian casualties.
Later on Saturday – a day when Ukrainians celebrate the Old (or Orthodox) New Year – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russian attacks on civilian targets could be stopped only if Ukraine’s Western partners supplied necessary weapons.
“What is needed for this? Those weapons which are in the depots of our partners and which our soldiers are waiting for so much,” he said in his nightly video address, adding that his forces shot down more than 20 out of 30 Russian missiles fired at Ukraine.
The devastating strike in Dnipro hit the entrance of a nine-storey building, turning several floors into smouldering rubble, and leaving 73 injured, including 14 children, Ukrainian officials said, in what is likely to be the worst attack in months.
A sizeable crowd gathered to watch the rescue effort at the site of the strike, while others joined rescue workers in a desperate search for survivors. There were urgent calls, human chains of volunteers clearing rubble and torch beams piercing thick clouds of dust and smoke.
In his address, Mr Zelensky said debris clearance in Dnipro would continue all night: “We are fighting for every person, every life.” So far, 38 people have been rescued from the building, including six children, officials say.
There is no information yet on why the apartment block was the object of such devastation, as it is some distance from the nearest power facility.
On a day when Russia seemed intent, once again, on targeting Ukraine’s energy grid, this could have been one of the less accurate missiles in Russia’s arsenal, or something brought down by Ukraine’s air defences – although on the face of it, this seems a less likely explanation.
It has been two weeks since the last wave of Russian attacks on Ukraine’s power grid. Mr Zelensky said of the energy infrastructure facilities hit on Saturday that the most difficult situation was in the Kharkiv and Kyiv regions.
Ukrainian state energy company Ukrenergo earlier said round-the-clock consumption limits had been set for all regions until midnight local time.
Officials, in the West and in Ukraine, had begun to wonder if Russia’s “energy war” might be coming to an end, due to a possible shortage of suitable missiles and the evident fact the strategy has yet to break Ukraine’s spirit.
Saturday’s attacks suggest Moscow still thinks it is a tactic worth pursuing.
Source: My
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Ukraine hit by wave of Iran drones – officials
Russia attacked Ukraine with 16 Iranian-made drones overnight – with seven of them targeted at the capital, Kyiv, Ukrainian officials have said.
All of the drones were destroyed, according to Kyiv’s military.
A day earlier, on Thursday, a wave of Russian missiles was fired at cities across the country.
Russia says it has been striking energy and military targets to weaken Ukraine’s capacity to move army reserves and repair equipment.
In the capital, an air alert was announced after 02:00 local time on Friday and residents were urged to take shelter.
Five of the drones were shot down in the air and two “on approach”, said Vitali Klitschko, the city’s mayor.
Reuters news agency reported hearing several blasts, as well as the sound of anti-aircraft fire. But the attack seemed to be over by dawn, it added.
No-one was reported injured in Kyiv, but windows in two buildings were damaged, Mr Klitschko added.
A fire was also started by one of the drones in a four-storey administrative building, according to the presidential office.
Ukraine’s armed forces said the country had been hit by more than 180 strikes of different kinds in the past 24 hours – mostly on energy infrastructure, according to President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The attack came from “various directions with air and sea-based cruise missiles”, the air force said, noting that a number of “kamikaze” drones had also been used.
At least three people were killed and six were wounded, according to Ukrainian Interior Minister Denys Monastyrsky.
Moscow’s defence ministry described it as a “massive strike” against military sites using “long-range high-precision weapons”, adding the goal was achieved, according to state media.
Most were repelled, but there were power cuts in Kyiv, Odesa, Kherson, Lviv and other regions, said Mr Zelensky.
He stressed it would have been much worse without Ukraine’s air defence systems.
It is believed Russia has been using Iranian-made Shahed-136 drones in the Ukraine conflict since mid-September. Iran has denied this.
Each drone has explosives in a warhead on its nose and is designed to loiter over a target until it is instructed to attack.
Dozens of Russian attacks have pounded Ukraine in recent weeks, causing repeated power outages across the country.
Ukraine’s presidential adviser, Mykhailo Podolyak, described Thursday’s strikes as “evil” and accused Moscow of seeking “to destroy critical infrastructure and kill civilians en masse”.
Moscow has repeatedly denied targeting civilians in its missile strikes. However, President Vladimir Putin has recently admitted that Russian troops have been hitting Ukraine’s critical energy facilities.
The government in Kyiv has pleaded with Western leaders to provide it with additional air defences, and US President Joe Biden recently agreed to supply its Patriot system.
Thursday’s attack came just hours after the Kremlin rejected Ukraine’s suggestion that peace talks could begin in 2023.
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Zelensky in Washington: Ukraine’s leader travels to the US for the first time since their war with Russia
President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, has announced that he will meet with Joe Biden, the president of the United States, on Wednesday in Washington.
His journey abroad marks his first since Russia’s invasion in February.
The White House has additionally confirmed the visit and stated that it will give Ukraine a Patriot missile battery, greatly enhancing its air defence capabilities.
Mr. Zelensky will also meet with various people and address Congress.
“On my way to the US to strengthen resilience and defense capabilities of Ukraine,” he wrote on Twitter.
Mr Zelensky regularly hosts foreign leaders in the capital, Kyiv, and has visited troops around Ukraine.
The Ukrainian president has also spoken frequently to world leaders over the telephone and by video call – often from his office in Kyiv.
But the surprise visit to a foreign country marks a first since the war began and also signals the importance of Ukraine’s relationship with the US, which has played a leading role in providing military support.
In its briefing ahead of Mr Zelensky’s visit, the White House confirmed a new package of nearly $2bn (£1.6bn) of security assistance for Ukraine.
That includes a new Patriot missile system, which will help Ukraine to protect its infrastructure against Russian attacks. Ukrainian officials have long been appealing for more powerful air defence systems from the West.
Russia has been targeting Ukraine’s energy sector, plunging millions into darkness in winter with temperatures several degrees below freezing.
The White House said it will train Ukrainian troops on how to use the Patriot system in a “third country” and that this “will take some time”.
Work is also currently under way in the US to push through a bill that would give Ukraine more than $40bn (£33bn) in extra funding heading into 2023.
In terms of overall spending on direct military support since the start of the conflict, the US has committed far more than any other country.
President Zelensky says the monthly cost of defence for Ukraine was about $5bn (£4.1bn).
His visit to Washington comes a day after he made an unannounced visit to the front-line city of Bakhmut, where Ukrainian and Russian forces have fought a fierce, months-long battle.
He met troops and handed out awards to soldiers, the presidency said.
The visit was a significant show of defiance – and a demonstration of support for Ukrainian forces engaged in some of the fiercest battles in recent weeks.
Soldiers gave Mr Zelensky a Ukrainian flag with their names signed on it and asked him to give it to President Biden and the US Congress, in a moment that was captured on camera.
On the same day, Russian President Vladimir Putin awarded medals inside the Kremlin to figures involved in the Russian invasion.
IMAGE SOURCE,REUTERS Image caption, Vladimir Putin awarded National Guard Sergeant Lev Makeyev the Order of Courage Since Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February, the US military estimates that at least 100,000 Russian and 100,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed or injured, along with some 40,000 civilian deaths.
The UN has recorded 7.8 million people as refugees from Ukraine across Europe, including Russia. However, the figure does not include those who have been forced to flee their homes but remain in Ukraine
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Kissinger’s call for peace talks with Russia draws criticism from Kyiv
The Ukrainian government has rejected calls by seasoned US diplomat Henry Kissinger that the time had come for a negotiated peace with Russia in order to lessen the likelihood of a devastating world war as “appeasing the aggressor”
The idea was put forth in an opinion piece written by former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and published in the Spectator magazine. Kissinger was the mastermind behind the detente policy toward the Soviet Union during the Cold War under disgraced US President Richard Nixon and later President Gerald Ford.
“I have repeatedly expressed my support for the allied military effort to thwart Russia’s aggression in Ukraine,” Kissinger wrote.
“But the time is approaching to build on the strategic changes which have already been accomplished and to integrate them into a new structure towards achieving peace through negotiation,” he wrote.
“The preferred outcome for some is a Russia rendered impotent by the war. I disagree,” Kissinger continued.
Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in 2019 [File: Jaime R. Carrero/Reuters] “For all its propensity to violence, Russia has made decisive contributions to the global equilibrium and to the balance of power for over half a millennium. Its historical role should not be degraded. Russia’s military setbacks have not eliminated its global nuclear reach, enabling it to threaten escalation in Ukraine,” he added.
Kissinger, who has met Russian President Vladimir Putin multiple times, proposed at the World Economic Forum in Davos in May that Ukraine should let Russia keep Crimea, which it annexed in 2014, and that Russia withdraw to the front lines before its February 2022 invasion.
“Mr. Kissinger still has not understood anything … neither the nature of this war, nor its impact on the world order,” Ukrainian presidential aide Mykhailo Podolyak said on Telegram.
“The prescription that the ex-Secretary of State calls for, but is afraid to say out loud, is simple: appease the aggressor by sacrificing parts of Ukraine with guarantees of non-aggression against the other states of Eastern Europe,” he said.
‘The time is approaching to build on the strategic changes which have already been accomplished and to integrate them into a new structure towards achieving peace through negotiation.’
✍️ Henry Kissinger https://t.co/Vub4zb2mig
— The Spectator (@spectator) December 18, 2022
Ukraine has said that it does not believe that Putin — who has said that he is prepared for a long war in Ukraine — is serious about peace, and that there can be no peace until every Russian soldier leaves its territory, including Crimea.
Podolyak added: “All supporters of simple solutions should remember the obvious: any agreement with the devil — a bad peace at the expense of Ukrainian territories — will be a victory for Putin and a recipe for success for autocrats around the world.”
Kremlin officials were not available for comment late on Sunday.
⚡️Zelensky aide rebuffs Kissinger’s proposal for negotiated peace with Russia.
Kyiv dismissed former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger’s suggestion that the time is approaching to achieve peace through negotiation with Russia, saying his proposal “appeases the aggressor.”
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) December 19, 2022
In May, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy denounced suggestions that Ukraine should cede control of territory to Russia in order to secure peace, comparing such a move with the appeasement of Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany.
Those “great geopoliticians” who suggest this are disregarding the interests of Ukrainians, “the millions of those who actually live on the territory that they propose exchanging for an illusion of peace”, Zelenskyy said at the time.
“Whatever the Russian state does, you will always find someone who says, ‘let’s take its interests into account’,” Zelenskyy said.
CIA Director William Burns said in an interview published on Saturday that while most conflicts end in negotiation, the CIA’s assessment was Russia was not serious yet about a real negotiation to end the war.
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FIFA declines Ukrainian president’s request to deliver a live global peace message ahead of World Cup final
FIFA turned down Volodymyr Zelensky’s request to deliver a message of world peace before the World Cup final kicked off on Sunday, a source told CNN.According to the source, Zelensky’s office offered to appear in a video link to spectators in the stadium in Qatar before the game and was taken aback by the response. It’s not clear if Zelensky would deliver a live or recorded message.
“We thought FIFA wanted to use its platform for the greater good,” the source said.
However, talks between Ukraine and the sport’s governing body are still underway, the source added.
The request, while unorthodox, is unsurprising. Kyiv has repeatedly tried to use major world events, regardless of their theme, to keep the global spotlight on the war in Ukraine.
Zelensky has appeared via video at everything from the Group of 20 Nations summit to the Grammys and the Cannes Film Festival. He’s also done interviews and conversations with a diverse array of journalists and famous entertainers, including Sean Penn and David Letterman.
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Russia hits Ukraine with renewed strikes
On Friday, Russian forces launched missile and drone attacks against Ukraine’s major cities, including the capital Kyiv, Kharkiv in the north, Odesa in the south, and Kryvih Rih in the centre.
This week, the number of attacks on Ukrainian cities increased as Russia targeted the nation’s infrastructure for civilian use.
While Kharkiv’s electricity was out, explosions were reported in Kiev’s northeast.
After a residential building in Kryvih Rih was struck, authorities issued a warning about potential casualties.
Several other cities were also hit as alerts were put out across Ukraine. Vitaliy Kim, the mayor of the southern city Mykolaiv, said as many as 60 missiles were thought to have been fired.
The governor of Sumy, a region close to Ukraine’s northern border with Russia, said power there was also out.
Kyiv Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko appealed to people not to leave shelters.
Millions of Ukrainians have gone without power as winter bites in Ukraine. UN human rights commissioner Volker Turk warned on Thursday that further attacks on power facilities could “lead to a further serious deterioration in the humanitarian situation and spark more displacement”.
Civilians have already been killed this week in Russian strikes. Two people died in shelling in the southern city of Kherson on Thursday.
US President Joe Biden is reportedly finalising plans to send Patriot air defence missiles to Ukraine, after months of requests from Kyiv.
Source: BBC.com
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Russia – Ukraine war: Deadly attack leaves recaptured Kherson with no electricity
In a second day of Russian attacks on central Kherson, which Ukraine recaptured last month, two people have died, according to Ukrainian officials.
According to the regional governor, the city as a whole was left without power due to heavy shelling on vital infrastructure in the port area.
One of Moscow’s biggest setbacks since the invasion in February was the Russian army’s withdrawal from Kherson.
Power facilities in Ukrainian cities have been the target for weeks.
Due to the below-freezing winter temperatures, millions of Ukrainians are without heat or electricity.
Shells reportedly landed 100m (328ft) from the main administration building in Kherson city, officials said, a day after the building itself was badly damaged. A 32-year-old paramedic and a 70-year-old man were killed in the attack which hit a medical aid point, Ukrainian media said.
Explosions also went off in Ukraine’s second biggest city Kharkiv. Mayor Igor Terekhov said Russia was shelling infrastructure facilities and appealed to residents to stay in shelters if possible.
UN human rights commissioner Volker Turk warned that Russia’s attacks were exposing millions of Ukrainians to “extreme hardship” and further attacks on power facilities could “lead to a further serious deterioration in the humanitarian situation and spark more displacement”.
Meanwhile, Russian-backed proxies said Ukrainian forces had launched their “most massive strike” on the centre of occupied Donetsk since 2014, when the separatists triggered a conflict by seizing parts of the Donbas region.
Russian-appointed official Alexei Kulemzin said 40 rockets were fired, killing one person and leaving nine more wounded.
Details of the attack could not be confirmed, but Mr Kulemzin posted pictures of damaged buildings in the city.
In his speech to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Volker Turk said the war had left 18 million people in need of humanitarian aid. He gave details of summary executions of civilians by the Russian military between February and April, including the infamous murders in the town of Bucha outside Kyiv.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky appealed to EU leaders on Thursday to help defeat “Russia’s energy terror”, by maintaining Ukraine’s energy supply with around 2bn cubic metres of gas and electricity worth about €800m (£697m; $851m) worth of electricity.
In the past six months he said Ukraine had achieved tangible victories and had begun building an air shield for Ukraine. The capital Kyiv was also targeted by 13 drones on Wednesday, the president said, but the military had been able to repel it.
IMAGE SOURCE,KHERSON OVA Image caption, This was the scene inside the Kherson administration building after Wednesday’s attack Source: BBC.com
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US on concluding ends on Patriot air defence system for Ukraine
Analysts believe, Ukraine’s Patriot air defence capability would be “significant” in defending civilians and critical infrastructure from attacks.
Following an urgent request from Kiev for more powerful weapons to shoot down Russian missiles and drones that have severely damaged the nation’s electric grid and left millions without heat in the bitterly cold winter, the United States is finalising plans to send its sophisticated Patriot air defence system to Ukraine.
According to US government officials quoted by the news agencies Reuters and Associated Press, Washington could make a decision regarding the Patriot as soon as Thursday.
Wednesday morning’s early testing of Ukraine’s air defence systems came after Mayor Vitali Klitschko announced that emergency services had been sent to the Shevchenkivskyi district following explosions.
“Details later,” he added on his Telegram channel.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy pressed Western leaders as recently as Monday to provide more advanced weapons to his country. The Patriot would be the most advanced surface-to-air missile system the West has provided to Ukraine.
Gaining Patriot air defence capability would be “very, very significant” for Kyiv, said Alexander Vindman, a retired Army lieutenant colonel and onetime leader of Ukraine policy at the White House.
“These are going to be quite capable of dealing with a lot of different challenges the Ukrainians have, especially if the Russians bring in short-range ballistic missiles.”
Russia has continued with air raids on Ukraine, which have destroyed vital infrastructure necessary to provide power, heating and water [Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP] The Pentagon declined to comment and there was no immediate comment from Ukrainian officials.
Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has warned NATO against equipping Kyiv with Patriot missile defences, and it is likely the Kremlin will view the move as an escalation.
Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24 and is now embroiled in a grinding war in the industrialised Donbas region in Ukraine’s east.
Getting through winter
The US has given Ukraine $19.3bn in military assistance since the invasion, which is Europe’s biggest conflict since World War Two.
As a result of Russia’s relentless barrage, the US and its allies have been delivering more air defences to Kyiv, everything from Soviet-era systems to more modern, Western ones.
Millions of civilians are living with cuts to electricity, heating and water as temperatures plummet.
In Paris, about 70 countries and institutions pledged just over 1 billion euros ($1.06 billion) to help maintain Ukraine’s water, food, energy, health and transport in the face of Russia’s attacks, French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna said.
In his nightly video address, Zelenskyy hailed the pledges as good news.
“Every day, we are gaining new strength for Ukraine to get us through this winter,” he said.
In an address to New Zealand’s parliament on Wednesday, he also called for more assistance to deal with the mines and unexploded ordnance created by the conflict.
“As of now, 174,000 square kilometres (67,000 square miles) of Ukrainian territory are contaminated with mines and unexploded ordnance,” Zelenskyy told legislators.
That is an area roughly the size of Cambodia, Syria or Uruguay.
Zelenskyy urged New Zealand, whose military has extensive experience in mine clearing, to help lead the clean-up effort.
“There is no real peace for any child who can die from a hidden Russian antipersonnel mine,” he said.
Training needed
White House and Pentagon leaders have argued consistently that providing Ukraine with additional air defences is a priority, and Patriot missiles have been under consideration for some time. Officials said that as the winter closed in and the Russian bombardment of civilian infrastructure escalated, that consideration took on increased priority.
One of the US officials told the Reuters news agency that Ukrainian forces would probably be trained in Germany before the Patriot equipment was delivered. Vindman said the training could take several months.
The administration’s potential approval of a Patriot battery was first reported by CNN.
According to officials, the US plan would be to send one Patriot battery. A truck-mounted Patriot battery includes up to eight launchers, each of which can hold four missiles.
The entire system, which includes a phased array radar, a control station, computers and generators, typically requires about 90 soldiers to operate and maintain. However, only three soldiers are needed to actually fire it, according to the US Army.
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Ukraine war: Central Kyiv sees explosions amid air raid warning
Mayor Kyiv says, explosions were heard early on Wednesday in Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine.
Blasts reportedly shook the Shevchenkivskyi district in the city’s centre, and emergency services were called in, according to Vitali Klitschko.
Oleksiy Kuleba, the governor of Kiev, claims that air defence systems are in operation.
A short time after the air raid siren sounded, BBC reporters heard loud explosions. Since October, Russia has repeatedly used missiles and drones to attack Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.
Serhiy Popko, the head of the military administration for Kyiv, claimed that early on Wednesday, Ukrainian forces had shot down 13 Shahed drones made in Iran.
The body also said a drone fragment had hit two administrative buildings in the city centre. But a spokesperson for the city emergency services told Ukrainian media that no victims had been reported in the strike.
Ukraine has accused Iran of supplying Russia with “kamikaze” drones used in deadly attacks on 17 October, which Tehran initially denied.
Iran later admitted sending Moscow a limited number of drones “many months” before the war.
In response, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said this was a lie and that many more Iranian drones were being used.
Kyiv governor Kuleba said: “The air defence system is operating. It’s important now to stay in shelters and safe places. Russia is continuing its energy terror against our country. But we are getting stronger daily.”
Russia has been targeting Ukraine’s energy grid in recent months in a bid to demoralise its population.
Global leaders have said the strikes civilians infrastructure amount to a war crime, but last week Russian President Vladimir Putin defended the attacks and said they were in response to blast on the Russian bridge to annexed Crimea on 8 October.
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Russia-Ukraine war: Attacks launched against Odesa and Melitopol
South Ukraine has come under attack from both sides of the war, with Kyiv retaliating near Melitopol after Russia fired drones at Odesa.
The Ukrainian army claimed to have shot down 10 drones on Saturday, but an additional five struck electrical infrastructure, knocking out electricity for about 1.5 million people.
Later, the exiled mayor of Melitopol, a Ukrainian, claimed that a strike had been launched against the Russian-controlled city.
According to Ukrainian officials, Russia used Iranian-made drones in its drone strike on the Ukrainian port city of Odesa.
“The situation in the Odesa region is very difficult,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly video address. “Unfortunately the hits were critical, so it takes more than just time to restore electricity. It doesn’t take hours, but a few days.”
Since October, Moscow has been targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure with large waves of missile and drone strikes.
In Melitopol, pro-Moscow authorities said a missile attack had killed two people and injured 10, while Ivan Fedorov, the exiled mayor, said scores of “invaders” had been killed.
“Air defence systems destroyed two missiles, and four reached their targets,” Yevgeny Balitsky, the Moscow-appointed governor of the occupied part of the Zaporizhzhia region, said on the Telegram messaging app.
He added that a “recreation centre” where people were dining had been destroyed in the Ukrainian attack with Himars missiles.
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Ukraine war: Neither the US encouraged nor enabled Kyiv to strike inside Russia – Blinken
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken says, Washington has “neither encouraged nor enabled” Ukraine to strike targets inside Russia.
He spoke shortly after Moscow accused Kyiv of carrying out drone attacks on three Russian airfields, two of which were hundreds of miles away from Ukraine.
Ukraine has made no comment on the matter.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly warned the United States and its allies not to cross “red lines” by supplying Ukraine with long-range weapons.
The US-led Nato military alliance has ruled out providing such arms to Kyiv, amid concerns that this could lead to a major escalation with a nuclear-armed Russia that invaded Ukraine on 24 February.
Two Russian airfield explosions were reported on Monday, in the Ryazan and Saratov regions. The sites house strategic bombers used to carrying out regular missile attacks on Ukraine’s critical energy infrastructure.
Russia said there was another attack was on Tuesday, in the Kursk region that borders Ukraine.
Russia’s latest missile attack on Ukraine was on Monday, when 70 rockets were fired on targets across the country. Four people were killed, local officials said.
Millions of people across the country are now without electricity and running water, raising fears people may die of hypothermia in sub-zero temperatures.
At a briefing on Tuesday, Mr Blinken accused Russia of “trying to take out the civilian infrastructure that is allowing people to have heat, to have water, to have electricity”.
He said Moscow was now “weaponising winter” and “that is the daily and nightly reality in Ukraine”.
“We have neither encouraged nor enabled the Ukrainians to strike inside of Russia, but the important thing is to understand what Ukrainians are living through every day with the ongoing Russian aggression against their country.
He said he was determined that Ukrainians have “the equipment that they need to defend themselves, to defend their territory, to defend their freedom.”
Speaking alongside him, US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin stressed that the US would not prevent Ukraine from developing its own long-range strike capability.
“The short answer is no. We are absolutely not doing that,” Mr Austin said, adding that Washington had already given Ukraine more than $19bn (£16bn) in security assistance.
In other developments on Tuesday:
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited troops in the eastern Donetsk region where fierce fighting has been going for weeks
- In the evening, one person was injured in Russian strikes in the central-eastern Dnipropetrovsk region, local officials said
- Russian-installed officials in the city of Donetsk – controlled by Moscow since 2014 – said six people were killed in Ukrainian shelling
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American’s fear the future effects of the war: WSJ
Americans are fearing that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine could lead to a knock-on effect in Europe and possibly influence China to do something similar in Taiwan, the Wall Street Journal reported.
According to a national defence survey, while Americans support the US government sending weapons and providing financial support for Kyiv, they have less trust in their military leadership.
In total, the survey found that 57 percent of respondents said the US needs to continue supporting Ukraine, while 33 percent said they should focus on domestic issues and avoid angering Russia.
The U.S. has sent more than $19 billion in military aid to Ukraine this year, which 39% of Americans said was the right amount.
Source: Aljazeera.com
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Madrid: Ukraine embassy explosion injures one person, officials say
Officials have revealed that an explosion occurred on Wednesday at Ukraine’s embassy in Madrid, injuring one Ukrainian employee who was handling a letter addressed to the country’s ambassador to Spain.
According to Spain’s foreign ministry, the individual was slightly injured and is being treated at a hospital, while police are investigating.
It was later revealed that the envelope was intended for Kyiv’s ambassador to Spain, Serhil Pohoreltsev.
In response, Ukraine has increased security at all of its embassies.
Oleg Nikolenko, a spokesperson for Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, said the life of the injured employee “is not at risk,” and descsribed the staffer’s position as “commandant.”
Police say it is too early to know whether the explosion took place when the embassy worker tried to open an envelope, or simply move it. Nikolenko said no one else had been injured, and that Kuleba “has issued an urgent instruction to step up security at all Ukrainian embassies abroad” following the incident.
“Whoever is behind this explosion they will not succeed in intimidating Ukrainian diplomats or stopping their daily work to strengthen Ukraine and to counter Russian aggression,” Nikolenko quoted Kuleba as saying.
Spanish Foreign Affairs Minister Jose Manuel Albares spoke to Ambassador Pohoreltsev after the incident, Madrid said. The person injured was a Ukrainian worker, according to the statement.
Spain, a NATO country, has sent military equipment to Ukraine to help its armed forces fight Russia’s invasion.
The Ukrainian embassy is located in the Hortaleza district in northeastern Madrid.
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Rishi Sunak: Golden era of UK-China relations is over
Rishi Sunak has declared that the so-called “golden era” of relations with China is over, vowing to “evolve” the UK’s approach to the country.
Mr Sunak said in his first foreign policy speech that the previous decade’s closer economic ties were “naive.”
The prime minister stated that the UK must replace wishful thinking with “robust pragmatism” in dealing with competitors.
However, he cautioned against “Cold War rhetoric,” adding that China’s global importance could not be overlooked.
Since taking office last month, Mr Sunak has faced pressure from Tory backbenchers to toughen the UK’s stance on China.
His speech, at the Lord Mayor’s Banquet in London, comes after protests in China over the weekend against the country’s strict Covid lockdown laws.
Police have made several arrests, and a BBC journalist was detained while covering a protest in Shanghai on Sunday. He was beaten and kicked by the police during his arrest and held for several hours before being released.
Mr Sunak told the audience of business leaders and foreign policy experts that, in the face of the protests, China had “chosen to crack down further, including by assaulting a BBC journalist”.
“We recognise China poses a systemic challenge to our values and interests, a challenge that grows more acute as it moves towards even greater authoritarianism,” he said.
He added that the “golden era” of UK-China relations was “over”, along with the “naïve idea” that more trade with the West would lead to Chinese political reform.
The phrase “golden era” is associated with closer economic ties under former Prime Minister David Cameron – but relations between London and Beijing have since deteriorated.
However, Mr Sunak stressed that “we cannot simply ignore China’s significance in world affairs – to global economic stability or issues like climate change”.
He added that the UK would work with allies including the US, Canada, Australia, and Japan to “manage this sharpening competition, including with diplomacy and engagement”.
“It means standing up to our competitors, not with grand rhetoric but with robust pragmatism,” he added.
Mr Sunak and Chinese President Xi Jinping were set to meet for the first time at the G20 summit in Indonesia earlier this month, but the encounter was cancelled following a missile blast in Poland.
Mr Sunak’s predecessor Liz Truss was reportedly planning to re-categorise China as a “threat” to the UK as part of a review of its foreign policy.
In his speech, Mr Sunak echoed the phrase used in the review – that China is a “systemic challenge”. He said there would be more details of the review in the new year.
The truth is, right now, we don’t know in practical terms what this new approach will actually amount to.
Mr Sunak is promising more detail in what is known as the Integrated Review – which will set out the UK’s national security and foreign policy – in the new year.
But we know already how China is now described: a “systemic challenge”.
The government hopes that people will understand that international relations, like any human relations, are complex and nuanced; that a binary approach, as they see it, would not be in the UK’s interests.
But for the prime minister’s critics, failing to describe Beijing as a “threat” is a big mistake.
But the “robust pragmatism” line in the speech was criticised by former Conservative Party leader Iain Duncan Smith, who is one of a number of backbenchers pushing for a tougher line.
Reacting to a preview of the speech, he wrote in the Daily Express that China had become a “clear and present threat to us and our allies”.
“I wonder if robust pragmatism now sounds more and more like appeasement,” he added.
Labour’s shadow foreign secretary David Lammy called the speech “thin as gruel”, accusing the government of “flip-flopping its rhetoric on China”.
Nigel Inkster, senior China advisor at foreign affairs think tank the International Institute for Strategic Studies, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme he did not think the China-UK golden age “was ever real and substantial”.
He said: “It attempted to focus on economic relations with China while putting geopolitics to one side, and experience shows you simply can’t do that.
“China in its present form is here to stay for the foreseeable future, and I think the Marxist-Leninist dialogue is only going to increase so we are going to have to learn to get used to this.”
Elsewhere in his speech, Mr Sunak promised to continue support for Ukraine, adding: “We will stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes.”
He promised to “maintain or increase” British military aid to the country next year, and provide new air support to protect civilians and critical infrastructure.
IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES Image caption, China’s President Xi Jinping and former prime minister David Cameron drink a beer together during his state visit to the UK in 2015 Mr Sunak visited Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky earlier this month, in his first visit to Kyiv since entering Downing Street.
During the visit, he announced the UK would supply Ukraine with additional anti-aircraft guns and radars, and increase the training offer to Ukraine’s armed forces.
President Zelensky’s wife, Olena Zelenska, made her own visit to London on Monday where she spoke about sexual violence allegedly being perpetrated by Russian troops in Ukraine.
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As Russia attacks, Ukrainians offer tips on survival, optimism
People share wartime survival techniques as Russian missile attacks plunge the nation’s capital into darkness.
If you have no electricity, but don’t want your frozen foods to melt, Anastasiya Zasyadko has a useful life hack for you.
“Put a bottle of water in the freezer when the electricity is on,” the 79-year-old retiree told Al Jazeera.
The ice will take many hours to melt – and keep the freezer, well, frozen.
“The bottle has to be plastic because the glass will crack” when the water freezes, Zasyadko, a former physics teacher, said expertly.
Her experience is first-hand.
She lives in a two-bedroom apartment in a northern Kyiv district of drab concrete buildings surrounded by potholed roads, leafless trees and melting snow.
It had no electricity for more than 24 hours after Wednesday’s shelling of the capital and other Ukrainian cities by Russian cruise missiles.
A Ukrainian woman buys a power bank in the capital, Kyiv [Mansur Mirovalev/Al Jazeera] Low-tech response
But Zasyadko was ready – and saved several kilogrammes of frozen pork, minced meat and vareniki, the Ukrainian ravioli she cannot live without and made weeks earlier.
On October 10, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a string of attacks to destroy power transmission and heating stations, and damage key infrastructure throughout Ukraine.
Zasyadko was already used to the hours-long blackouts – she, her son and her daughter-in-law have plenty of batteries, two power banks, and flashlights you can attach to your head with elastic bands.
“They make you look like a coal miner and ruin your hairdo,” she pouted.
She also can advise you on how to extend the lifetime of a candle and make it heat your bedroom.
Just put it in a glass jar and fill it with vegetable oil. The light will not die out for 12 hours – as long as you make sure that the jar doesn’t fall and start a fire.
You can also combine the contraption with a “flower pot heater” – an ultimate, low-tech response to the lack of central heating.
Take three ceramic flower pots of different sizes, connect them with a long steel bolt so there are a couple of centimetres between them, and put the structure above the burning candle.
The candle-warmed air will not rise to the ceiling but will heat the pots and raise the temperature by several degrees.
Most of the apartment buildings in Ukraine are heated by Soviet-era power stations that have been largely destroyed by the Russian shelling.
A motorcycle is used as a flashlight at a Kyiv mall [Mansur Mirovalev/Al Jazeera] The cold has been debilitating.
“I went to bed in a flannel gown, put the hood and two pairs of socks on,” Zasyadko said.
Wednesday’s attack was especially devastating for Kyivans because it damaged the water supply in the entire capital and made people buy bottled water, ration it and collect porous snow.
The lack of water is worse than any blackout, Zasyadko said, especially when your family members need to flush the toilet.
Kyiv, howhow to extend the lifetime of a candleever, is already covered with several centimetres of snow, and her son Konstantin collected some in tin buckets and melted it on a gas stove.
“Otherwise it will take hours to melt,” she said.
‘I weep every time’
With the news reports about the deaths of civilians, including a newborn killed by a Russian missile in the eastern town of Vilniansk on Wednesday, Zasyadko has not been feeling well.
That is why she took a seat on a bench in a shopping mall in northern Kyiv, waiting for her daughter-in-law to come back from a grocery shop.
The daughter-in-law, Maryana, showed up with two heavy bags – and offered the ultimate advice on patience.
“As long as everyone in our family is alive, we keep thanking God,” the 45-year-old cook said.
“I weep every time I hear about those little kids killed by the bloody Rashists,” she said, using a derogatory term that combines “Russian” and “fascist”.
Just a few metres away, a wartime generation of Ukrainian mall rats is glued to their mobile phone screens. The mall has its own power generator – and offers a chance to reload batteries free of charge.
Dozens of people sit or stand next to power sockets – and many are teenagers with more than one gadget.
Most of the sockets are in drafty, barely lit halls, but there are some in the warmer corridors leading to public toilets.
Denys Kyrilenko, 19, was standing close to a ladies’ room, but paid no attention to the women passing by. The university student was typing a text message to his girlfriend who fled to Poland with her family in early March.
He cannot join her because Ukrainian men aged 18 to 60 are not allowed to leave the country. But the eight-months-long separation only made their feelings stronger, he said.
“War makes you see things better,” he said.
Denys Kyrilenko texts his girlfriend from a mall in Kyiv [Mansur Mirovalev/Al Jazeera] The mall is an oasis of carefree consumerism. And it offers things that have become essential and life-saving.
A small crowd stood around a kiosk with power banks, connecting cables and USB-powered flashlights.
The salesman, Andriy Shevchenko, patiently explained why even the largest power bank in his kiosk cannot be used to power a laptop.
The customers, two women in their early 20s, nodded and bought one anyway – even though the price was almost $80.
That’s not Shevshenko’s fault.
“I hate when suppliers raise prices,” he said. “It ruins my reputation.”
‘We can withstand anything’
Kyiv residents living in private houses with firewood-fuelled stoves feel safe and privileged.
Many stockpiled hundreds of kilogrammes of firewood – and use the stoves to slow-cook their food in metal containers or pots.
And one house owner shared his observation on the resilience of fellow Ukrainians around him.
On Wednesday, Mykhailo Gorshenin, who lives in a two-storey house in northeastern Kyiv, saw how a Russian cruise missile hit a transmission station.
“People came out of a store to take a look,” he said.
Within seconds, another missile hit the same spot.
“They started filming the fire and the smoke with their cell phones,” he said.
Only after two more strikes, the crowd began to slowly disperse.
“We are a unique nation. We can withstand anything,” he said with a laugh. “Pass it on to Putin.”
Source: Aljazeera.com
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Ukraine to set up ‘invincibility’ shelters as cold, snow set in
Russian air attacks have destroyed much of Ukraine’s power infrastructure, leaving people unable to light or heat their homes.
Ukraine’s government has promised to set up shelters to provide heat and water after relentless Russian air attacks that have left its power structure in tatters as temperatures drop and snow falls.
Special “invincibility centres” will be set up around the country to provide citizens with electricity, heat, water, internet, mobile phone connections and a pharmacy, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address on Tuesday. The centres will be free of charge and operate 24 hours a day.
Russian attacks have led to prolonged power cuts for as many as 10 million residents at a time. Ukraine has urged people to conserve energy, and the national power grid operator said on Tuesday that the damage had been colossal.
“If massive Russian strikes happen again and it’s clear power will not be restored for hours, the ‘invincibility centres’ will go into action with all key services,” Zelenskyy said.
Ukraine’s Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said this week that some 8,500 power generator sets were being imported into Ukraine every day.
Much of Ukraine saw its first snow of the winter over the past week.
Authorities have warned of power cuts that could affect millions of people until the end of March – the latest fallout from Russia’s nine-month invasion that has already killed tens of thousands, uprooted millions and pummelled the global economy.
Russia’s attacks on Ukrainian energy facilities follow a series of battlefield setbacks that have included a retreat of its forces from the southern city of Kherson.
A week after being retaken by Ukrainian forces, residents in Kherson were tearing down Russian propaganda billboards and replacing them with pro-Ukrainian signs.
“The moment our soldiers entered, these posters were printed and handed over to us. We found workers to install the posters, and we clean up the advertisement off as quickly as possible,” said Antonina Dobrozhenska, who works at the government’s communications department.
Russian missiles hit a maternity hospital in the Zaporizhzhia region killing a baby, regional governor Oleksandr Starukh said on the Telegram messaging service early on Wednesday.
The Reuters news agency was not able to independently verify the report. Russia denies launching attacks on civilians.
Battles also continue to rage in the east, where Russia is pressing an offensive along a stretch of front line west of the city of Donetsk, which has been held by its proxies since 2014. The Donetsk region was the scene of fierce attacks and constant shelling over the past 24 hours, Zelenskyy said.
Eastern #Ukraine Update:
– Russian sources claimed that Ukrainian forces continued counteroffensive operations along the #Svatove-Kreminna line.
-Ukrainian forces continued to repel Russian assaults west of #Lysychansk.https://t.co/ssq2csZ9eV pic.twitter.com/oSWdeCxUWW
— ISW (@TheStudyofWar) November 23, 2022
In Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula that Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014, Russian air defences were activated and two drone attacks were repelled on Tuesday, including one launched on a power station near Sevastopol, the regional governor said. Sevastopol is the home port of Russia’s Black Sea fleet.
Russian-installed Governor Mikhail Razvozhaev called for calm and said no damage had been caused.
‘Stock up on warm clothes’
The World Health Organization warned this week that hundreds of Ukrainian hospitals and healthcare facilities lacked fuel, water and electricity, and that residents faced a life-threatening winter.
“Ukraine’s health system is facing its darkest days in the war so far. Having endured more than 700 attacks, it is now also a victim of the energy crisis,” Dr Hans Kluge, the WHO regional director for Europe, said in a statement after visiting Ukraine.
Sergey Kovalenko, the head of YASNO, which provides energy for Kyiv, advised citizens to “stock up on warm clothes, blankets … think about options that will help you get through a long outage.”
Russia’s attacks on energy infrastructure are a consequence of Kyiv being unwilling to negotiate, Russia’s state news agency TASS quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying last week.
Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24 claiming it was carrying out a “special military operation” to protect Russian-speaking communities.
Ukraine and its allies say Russia’s actions constitute an unprovoked, imperialist land grab in a neighbouring state that it dominated when the two countries were part of the former Soviet Union.
Western responses have included financial and military aid for Kyiv – it received 2.5 billion euros ($2.57bn) from the EU on Tuesday and is expecting $4.5bn in US aid in coming weeks – and waves of sanctions on Russia.
Source: Aljazeera.com
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WHO – This winter, millions of lives in Ukraine are at risk
World Health Organization has disclosed that, millions of people’s lives will be jeopardised in Ukraine this winter.
According to Dr Hans Henri P Kluge, WHO regional director for Europe, half of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure is damaged or destroyed, and 10 million people are currently without power.
Temperatures in some areas are expected to drop as low as -20C (-4F).
Since Russia’s invasion began, the WHO has documented 703 attacks on health infrastructure.
Russia hit more energy installations and civilian buildings last week in one of the war’s heaviest aerial bombardments.
This has been a recent Russian tactic following setbacks on the battlefield, and its impact is starting to be felt more acutely as winter sets in.
“Put simply, this winter will be about survival,” Dr Kluge told a news conference in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv.
Ukraine’s health system is “facing its darkest days in the war so far”, and the best solution is for the conflict to end, he added.
Dr Kluge said hundreds of hospitals and healthcare facilities were “no longer fully operational, lacking fuel, water and electricity to meet basic needs” as a result of attacks. The WHO defines an attack as involving violence as well as threatened violence against hospitals, ambulance and medical supplies.
Maternity wards need incubators, blood banks need refrigerators and intensive care beds need ventilators, Dr Kluge said, adding that “all require energy”.
Up to three million people could flee their homes in search of warmth and safety, the WHO says.
Image caption, “Put simply, this winter will be about survival,” Dr Kluge told a press conference in Kyiv Dr Kluge said he was “very concerned” for 17,000 HIV patients in Donetsk “who may soon run out of critical antiretroviral drugs that help keep them alive”.
Much of Donetsk is under Russian control and Dr Kluge said he was “urgently calling for the creation of a humanitarian health corridor into all newly regained and occupied areas”.
There are also concerns about Covid cases rising.
“With low basic vaccination rates – let alone boosters – millions of Ukrainians have waning or no immunity to Covid,” Dr Kluge said.
The warnings come as snow has fallen across Ukraine and temperatures have dropped below freezing.
In Kyiv, snow covers walkways, empty playgrounds and park benches. Few people are on the streets.
Image caption, Kyiv is covered in snow, and temperatures will drop further Despite the snow, winter has not officially started and temperatures are likely to drop much further.
The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which used to produce more than 25% of Ukraine’s electricity, no longer generates power.
There was renewed shelling at the plant over the weekend.
The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, condemned the attacks, saying it was another “close call” at Europe’s biggest nuclear power plant.
IAEA experts toured the site on Monday, and the agency said they found widespread damage, but that there were no immediate nuclear safety or security concerns.
Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of carrying out the attacks.
Elsewhere in the war, Ukrainian prosecutors have given details of what they have found in four alleged torture chambers in Kherson after Russian troops left the southern city.
They say people were “brutally tortured”, and that batons, bullets and an electrocution device were discovered.
Last week, Ukraine said it had found the bodies of 63 civilians bearing signs of torture near Kherson. The BBC also spoke to two people who said they had been held for more than a month in “torture chambers”.
Russia denies committing abuses during its invasion.
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Ukraine war: Rishi Sunak pays visit to President Zelensky in Kyiv, pledges £50 million in aid
Rishi Sunak has pledged £50m in defence aid to Ukraine as he met President Volodymyr Zelensky in his first visit to Kyiv since becoming prime minister.
Mr Sunak said it was “deeply humbling” to be in Kyiv and that the UK would continue to stand by Ukraine.
“Since the first days of the war, Ukraine and the UK have been the strongest of allies,” Mr Zelensky said following the meeting.
The aid package is intended to counter Russian aerial attacks.
The £50m defence aid comprises 125 anti-aircraft guns and technology to counter deadly Iranian-supplied drones, including dozens of radars and anti-drone electronic warfare capability.
Mr Sunak also announced the UK will increase the training offer to Ukraine’s armed forces, sending expert army medics and engineers to the region to offer specialised support.
It follows more than 1,000 new anti-air missiles announced by the UK’s Defence Secretary Ben Wallace earlier this month.
On his visit the prime minister saw captured Iranian-made drones which have been used to target and bomb Ukrainian civilians in recent months.
Mr Sunak also laid flowers for the war dead and lit a candle at a memorial for victims of the 1930s Holodomor famine, before meeting emergency workers at a fire station.
The prime minister said: “I am proud of how the UK stood with Ukraine from the very beginning. And I am here today to say the UK and our allies will continue to stand with Ukraine, as it fights to end this barbarous war and deliver a just peace.
“While Ukraine’s armed forces succeed in pushing back Russian forces on the ground, civilians are being brutally bombarded from the air. We are today providing new air defence, including anti-aircraft guns, radar and anti-drone equipment, and stepping up humanitarian support for the cold, hard winter ahead.
He added that it was “deeply humbling” to be in the Ukrainian capital and have the opportunity to meet people “paying so high a price, to defend the principles of sovereignty and democracy”.
Mr Sunak’s pledge to send more air defence support is exactly what President Zelensky would want to hear at a time when Russian airstrikes have destroyed nearly 50% of the country’s energy infrastructure, according to the government in Kyiv.
The men’s hopes for peace and a just outcome to the conflict may feel like distant prospects, but Mr Sunak’s promise to hold a reconstruction conference for Ukraine next year in London will be good news for the government and companies, which desperately need access to international finance.
During the visit, Mr Sunak also confirmed £12m for the World Food Programme’s response to Ukraine, as well as £4m for the International Organisation for Migration.
Downing Street said the funding would help provide generators and mobile health clinics, with the UK also sending tens of thousands of extreme cold winter kits for Ukrainian troops.
Labour’s shadow defence secretary John Healey tweeted: “The government continues to have Labour’s fullest backing to support Ukraine, reinforce Nato allies and confront Russia’s aggression.”
Ukraine has been requesting assistance from Western nations in recent months amid intense Russian aerial attacks on Kyiv and across the country.
Earlier in the week, Russia hit Ukraine with one of its biggest barrages of missiles yet, days after its troops were forced to withdraw from Kherson.
Kyiv was hit and there were strikes across the country, from Lviv in the west to Chernihiv in the north.
That attack coincided with the G20 summit in Indonesia this week where, in a virtual speech, Mr Zelensky said he was “convinced now is the time when the Russian destructive war must and can be stopped”.
IMAGE SOURCE,UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT’S OFFICE Image caption, Mr Sunak was shown destroyed military Russian vehicles by the Ukrainian president While Mr Sunak was at the Bali summit, which was attended by Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, the UK prime minister urged Russia to “get out of Ukraine” and condemned the country for its “barbaric invasion”.
He stressed the UK would “back Ukraine for as long as it takes”.
Britain is currently the largest provider of military aid to Ukraine aside from the US. So far the UK has committed about £2.3bn and has pledged to match that amount in 2023, according to the House of Commons library.
The UK is also hosting a programme which will aim to train 10,000 new and existing Ukrainian personnel within 120 days.
Mr Sunak’s predecessor Boris Johnson previously met Mr Zelensky in Kyiv in June and August, and Liz Truss was also a vocal supporter of Ukraine.
Mr Johnson became almost a cult figure in Ukraine, after he was one of the first international figures to publicly support Ukraine and send military assistance.
It is a tough comparison for Mr Sunak to live up to so early on in his premiership. Many people in Ukraine do not know the new prime minister well and they will want to see how committed he is to supporting the country.
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First missile strikes have occurred since Russia lost Kherson
These are the first Russian missile strikes on Ukrainian cities since Kyiv‘s forces liberated Kherson, a key southern port city, on Friday.
Ukrainians regard the recapture of Kherson as a major victory, comparable to the retreat of Russian troops from the Kyiv suburbs in March, as well as a humiliation for the Kremlin.
Approximately 30,000 Russian troops withdrew to the Dnipro’s eastern bank, and Kherson celebrated the weekend. Since early March, the city has been under Russian occupation.
But before today Russia had already fired hundreds of missiles at Ukrainian cities, hitting residential blocks, power stations and many other civilian installations. Many were cruise missiles fired from Russian bombers or ships positioned outside Ukrainian territory.
Ukraine says its air defences have shot down many Russian missiles during these strikes.
Russia claims the Kherson region and three other occupied Ukrainian regions to be part of Russia, as well as Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014. The claim – following hastily organised local “referendums” – is rejected internationally.
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Banksy unveils painting in Ukrainian community that withstood Russian occupation for weeks
The mystery graffiti artist appears to be in Ukraine, where he is credited with three fresh murals.
After unveiling his latest artwork on Instagram, Banksy appears to have verified that he is in Ukraine.
The unidentified graffiti artist posted the painting, which depicts a female gymnast teetering on a destroyed building, late Friday night.
The location was labeled as Borodyanka, in Ukraine’s Kyiv area.
Two other murals were reportedly seen nearby – one depicting a man resembling Russian President Vladimir Putin being flipped during a judo match with a little boy, and another showing two children using a metal tank trap as a seesaw.
Image: The photo of this mural was taken earlier this month when its creator was still unverified. Pic: AP Borodyanka, northwest of Ukraine’s capital Kyiv, was one of the towns hardest hit by Russia’s bombardment after the invasion began late in February.
It was liberated in April, but for weeks afterward, it was isolated – the power had been knocked out, shops were closed, transport links were not operating and humanitarian agencies and other volunteer groups were the only sources of food, clothes, and other necessities.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said later that the situation in occupied Borodyanka had been “much more horrific” than in Bucha, where hundreds of civilians were found dead in mass graves.
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Ukraine war: Kyiv claims major gains as Russia exits Kherson
The Ukrainian army says it has made major gains over the last day around Kherson, after Russia said it was withdrawing from the southern city.
Ukrainian troops say they have taken back the key town of Snihurivka, 50km (30 miles) to the north of Kherson.
Kyiv has also claimed big pushes on two fronts near Kherson, including advances of 7km in some places.
Russia says it has started to exit the city – its top gain in the invasion – but the process could take weeks.
Wednesday’s announcement was viewed as a major setback for Moscow’s war effort, though Ukrainian officials were sceptical – warning that the manoeuvre could be a trap.
There was no immediate evidence of any mass-scale Russian withdrawal from Kherson.
Ukraine’s commander-in-chief Valeriy Zaluzhny said on Thursday that he could not confirm or deny the pull-out – but said his own forces had made important advances.
Gen Zaluzhny said his soldiers had driven forward on two fronts on the western bank of the Dnipro river – an area of land which encompasses Kherson – taking control of 12 settlements.
The 7km gains were made “during the past day”, he said, as troops advanced along a northern-eastern axis and a separate western axis.
Video footage showed soldiers being greeted by locals in a square, apparently after entering the town of Snihurivka.
Snihurivka sits at a major road junction and is a rail hub for Mykolaiv region, which borders Kherson to the north and west.
The regional administration in Mykolaiv posted on the Telegram messaging app touting “lots of good news today”.
It fuelled speculation on Thursday night that Ukrainian troops had reached the outskirts of Kherson itself, after cryptically posting a single letter – “ch” in Ukrainian.
This was taken as a possible clue that troops had reached the suburban village of Chornobayivka.
In total, Ukrainian troops have recaptured more than 40 settlements from Russian control during their advances in southern Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky said.
It was not possible for the BBC to independently verify the details of the latest territorial gains and losses – but the reports come after weeks of steady advances from the Ukrainian military.
Kherson was the first – and only – regional capital to fall into Russian hands after it invaded Ukraine on 24 February.
From late September, it was viewed by the Kremlin as Russian territory – following so-called “referendums” in occupied areas of Ukraine that were widely discredited by the international community.
On Wednesday, Moscow said it was no longer possible to supply the city, saying it would step back from the western bank of the Dnipro – a river which bisects Ukraine.
Notably, Russian President Vladimir Putin did not take part in the televised announcement.
Ukraine’s Gen Zaluzhny said Russia was left with no option but to flee, after its supply lines were destroyed and its command systems disrupted.
Later on Thursday, Ukraine’s defence minister said it would take Russia at least a week to withdraw and that it was not easy to predict the actions of his enemy.
Jens Stoltenberg, the chief of the Nato military alliance of Western nations, said it was clear Russia was under “heavy pressure” but that it was important to see “how the situation on the ground develops”.
The UK defence secretary said Russia appeared to be setting up a defensive line on the other side of the Dnipro river using concrete installations.
Commenting on the withdrawal, Ben Wallace said that “the world shouldn’t be grateful for Russia handing back stolen property”.
A Ukrainian presidential adviser said it was too early to celebrate – accusing his enemy of wanting to turn Kherson into a “city of death” by leaving mines and plotting to shell it from afar.
That could add to the casualty count of a war which has already killed or injured 100,000 soldiers on each side and 40,000 civilians, according to the latest estimate from a senior US general.
Separately, the US has announced another $400m (£341m) military aid package for Ukraine – including Avenger air defence systems and Hawk missiles.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky earlier said he had also discussed defence support from the UK with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
Source: BBC
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Ukraine claims that talks with Russia are contingent on ‘territorial integrity’
Kyiv demands that Ukraine’s borders be restored as a precondition for talks, while ruling out any talks with Putin.
According to a senior security official, the return of all captured Ukrainian territory is Kyiv’s main precondition for entering into peace talks with Russia.
The secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, Oleksiy Danilov, stated on Tuesday that the Ukrainian side also required the “guarantee” of modern air defenses, aircraft, tanks, and long-range missiles.
Kyiv has repeatedly called for additional arms from its Western backers following Russia’s invasion in late February.
“The main condition of the President of Ukraine is restoration of Ukrainian territorial integrity,” Danilov tweeted.
“Guarantee – modern air defence, aircraft, tanks, and long-range missiles. Strategy – proactive steps. Russian missiles must be destroyed before launch in the air, on land and at sea,” he said.
russia, negotiations. The main condition of the President of🇺🇦is restoration of🇺🇦territorial integrity. Guarantee – modern air defense, aircraft, tanks, and long-range missiles. Strategy – proactive steps.🇷🇺 missiles must be destroyed before launch in the air, on land and at sea.
— Oleksiy Danilov (@OleksiyDanilov) November 8, 2022
Danilov’s remarks came after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his overnight address on Monday that he was open to “genuine” negotiations with Russia that would restore Ukraine’s borders.
He also called for compensation following devastating Russian attacks, and demanded those responsible for alleged war crimes are punished.Talk of a negotiated end to the conflict has risen in recent days, after the Washington Post newspaper reported that the United States has privately encouraged Ukrainian officials to signal an openness to talk with its neighbour.
US officials reportedly want Ukraine to take the moral high ground and appear more interested in negotiations, amid concerns Kyiv might soon lose international support if it remains resolutely against discussions.
After Russia announced the annexation of four partly occupied regions of Ukraine at the end of September, Zelenskyy said Kyiv will not hold talks with Moscow as long as President Vladimir Putin remains in power.
Government figures have restated this position in recent days, saying that Kyiv would however be willing to negotiate with a successor to Putin.
On Monday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow is open to talks but that Kyiv is refusing them. Russian officials have repeatedly said they will not negotiate over territory they claim to have annexed from Ukraine.
Apart from Russia-ally North Korea, no countries recognise the latest annexations. Most of the world also refuses to recognise Crimea, annexed in 2014, as Russian land.
Meanwhile, the US, Ukraine’s main backer, is holding mid-term elections for Congress on Tuesday.
Although most candidates from both parties strongly support Kyiv, some right-wing Republican candidates have expressed doubt about the cost of US military aid while others on the left faced backlash after calling for “vigorous” diplomacy to end the war.
The White House says US support for Ukraine will be “unflinching and unwavering” regardless of the outcome of Tuesday’s votes.
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Ukraine war: US affirms ‘communications’ with Kremlin
US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan says, communication channels between Washington and Moscow remain open.
The announcement comes as the White House refuses to deny reports that Mr. Sullivan has been leading talks with Russia to avoid a nuclear escalation in Ukraine.
Mr Sullivan stated in New York that maintaining contact with the Kremlin was “in the interests” of the US.
He insisted, however, that officials were “clear-eyed about who we are dealing with.”
The Wall Street Journal reports that Mr Sullivan has held confidential discussions with his Russian counterpart, Security Council secretary Nikolai Patrushev, and senior Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov, over the past several months.
Senior officials told the paper the men had discussed ways to guard against the risk of nuclear escalation in the war in Ukraine, but had not engaged in any negotiations around ways to end the conflict.
Last month, Mr Sullivan said any use of nuclear weapons would have “catastrophic consequences for Russia”. He told the US broadcaster NBC that senior officials had “spelled out” the scope of the potential US response in private discussions with Russian officials.
US National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson refused to confirm the story, telling the paper that “people claim a lot of things”, while Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov accused Western newspapers of “publishing numerous hoaxes”.
But White House press secretary Karin Jean-Pierre said on Monday that the United States reserved the right to hold talks with Russia.
And Mr Sullivan – who is said to be one of the most senior advisers to US President Joe Biden still pushing for discussions with Russia – said maintaining contact with Moscow was in the “interests of every country who is affected by this conflict”.
Last week, the Washington Post reported that senior US officials were urging Kyiv to signal an openness to hold negotiations with Russia and drop their public refusal to discuss an end to the war while President Vladimir Putin remained in power.
But Mr Sullivan told a public event in New York that the Biden administration had “an obligation to pursue accountability” and pledged to work with international partners to “hold the perpetrators of grave and grotesque war crimes in Ukraine responsible for what they have done”.
“I was just in Kyiv on Friday. and I had the opportunity to meet with President [Volodymyr] Zelensky and my counterpart Andriy Yermak, with the military leadership and also to get a briefing on just what level of death and devastation has been erupted by Putin’s war on that country,” Mr Sullivan said.
Concerns have been heightened in recent months that Russia could resort to using nuclear weapons in a desperate attempt to defend four regions of eastern and southern Ukraine that it illegally annexed.
Meanwhile, Ukraine has invoked its war-time martial laws to take control of the assets of five strategically important companies.
Some of the companies – which include two energy companies and firms that make engines, vehicles and transformers – are linked to oligarch Vyacheslav Bohuslayev, who was arrested on suspicion of collaborating with Russia.
President Zelensky said the move would help Ukraine’s defence sector meet the needs of the military, which is currently engaged in counteroffensives in southern and eastern Ukraine.
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United States has announced an additional $400 million in aid for Ukraine
The United States has announced an additional $400m of military aid for Ukraine, including paying for the refurbishment of 45 Czech T-72 tanks to be sent to Kyiv.
Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh said she did not have an exact timeline for the supply of the tanks but expected the first units to be delivered before the end of the year.
She acknowledged that T-72s are “Soviet-era tanks” and were chosen because the Ukrainians had already been trained on them, rather than sending other, more modern tank systems.
Source: Aljazeera.com
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Could European support for Ukraine dwindle as inflation rises?
Analysts believe that the European Union’s solidarity and commitment to Kyiv will be tested this winter, and that the US midterm elections may also have an impact.
Since Russian troops entered Ukraine in late February, European leaders have presented a united front against President Vladimir Putin.
But more than 250 days later, as winter sets in and inflation rises, their resolve stands to be tested as public anxiety over the effects of a prolonged wA van drives past a crater in the road caused by a missile raid, as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues, in the eastern Donbas region of Bakhmut
At the same time, analysts warn a potential victory of critical voices in next week’s American midterm elections could fracture the West’s staunch support for Kyiv.
A van drives past a crater in the road caused by a missile raid, as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues, in the eastern Donbas region of Bakhmut [Clodagh Kilcoyne/Reuters] Moscow has weaponised its energy resources, on which Europe’s heavily relies.
As they attempt to wean off Russian gas, European nations are rushing to find alternatives and energy-savings strategies.
Germany postponed the closure of its power plants, the Czech government swapped old lightbulbs in its offices to less-consuming LED sources.
Italians have lowered thermostats to 19 Celsius (66 Fahrenheit) and were advised to cook pasta at a lower heat.
Louis Vuitton’s parent company, LVMH, said lights at its stores would be turned off earlier, a move followed by Valentino and other luxury brands.
European countries have also reached, and exceeded, a November target to fill at least 80 percent of natural gas storages.
Yet the cold months ahead could offer the right conditions for Putin to indirectly foment unrest and test Europe’s support for Ukraine.
In September, the Russian leader threatened to deprive the European Union of energy, saying at an energy forum in Vladivostok: “We will not supply anything at all if it contradicts our interests, in this case, economic [interests]. No gas, no coal, no oil, nothing.”
Despite storage levels, Europe still needs the steady, even if fractioned, flow of natural gas from Russia running through pipelines beneath Ukraine, Rafael Loss, an EU security expert at the European Council on Foreign Relations, told Al Jazeera.
“If these are disrupted, for example through sabotage, energy rationing with significant consequences for households and industries could become necessary,” Loss said.
Next year’s winter is expected to be even tougher as new supplies from North America, the Gulf and Norway cannot fully compensate Russian imports and are slow to come online.
Putin hopes that Ukrainian refugees will flood neighbouring countries to escape what is going to be an extremely cold winter in the war-torn country, Loss said
Since mid-October, Russia has renewed its war effort, barraging Ukraine with waves of air raids and damaging 30 percent of its energy facilities.
“If Russia succeeds in fomenting social unrest through the energy war, a migration crisis and its disinformation campaign … these could translate in the European support diminishing, which is Russia’s goal,” Loss said, adding though that so far, backing Ukraine remains a priority across the bloc.
Former Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi sounded the alarm in September.
“The increasing cost of energy threatens the economic recovery, limits families purchasing power, damages our industries’ production capacities and can wear down our countries’ commitment towards Ukraine,” he said at the UN General Assembly in September.
As European governments pledge more military and financial aid to Ukraine while their citizens’ savings vanish in the face of life’s spiralling costs, anger is growing.
On Monday, inflation peaked to a new record, reaching 10.7 percent. In October last year it was 4.1 percent.
In the past two weeks, protests have erupted from France to Romania, with workers demanding better salaries to keep pace with rising costs.
In Germany, demonstrators urged their government for a U-turn in fiscal policy as the costs of fuel and food become unaffordable for many.
The worst may be yet to come.
“We expect unrest to grow as inflation is projected to stay high” said Capucine May, a Europe analyst at Verisk Maplecroft.
Her risk intelligence company reported in September that civil unrest was growing in 101 countries, due to rising living costs.
But while discontent simmers in countries supporting Ukraine, aid for Kyiv “is not currently a primary driver of unrest”, said May.
Even so, support for further aid for Ukraine is fragile, said Niklas Balbon, a research associate at the Global Public Policy Institute (GPPi).
“Unless European governments effectively tackle war-induced inflation and socioeconomic hardship, public opposition to further assisting Ukraine is likely to increase,” Balbon wrote for the Carnegie Europe think-thank.
In this handout photo released by Russian Foreign Ministry Press Service, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, (right), and then-British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss pose for a photo prior to their talks in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, February 10, 2022 [Russian Foreign Ministry Press Service via AP] In recent weeks, Europe has witnessed the dizzying effects of economic volatility.
Liz Truss’s government in the United Kingdom lasted for 44 days – the shortest cabinet in British history – after her disastrous budget plans roiled financial markets and plunged the British pound to a record low.
And in the EU, cracks among the public are emerging.
An October report from IFOP, an international pollster, shows that French public support for anti-Russia sanctions dropped to 67 percent in October from 71 percent in March, while in Germany, it lowered to 66 percent from 80.
In Italy, a recent survey conducted by the IPSOS pollster suggests that support for Ukraine has decreased to 43 percent to 57 percent.
While Nathalie Tocci, the director of the Rome-based think-tank Institute of International Affairs (IAI), believes that a sense of war fatigue is exacerbated by the economic crisis, the trend is inconsequential in policy terms.
“There could be a reduction in military support, but even then the real country making the difference is the US, not the Europeans,” she said.
The US has so far promised 27.6 billion euro ($27bn) in military aid to Ukraine. By comparison, the pledges of UK, Germany and Poland – the three-largest military donors after the US – combined together reach 6.76, four times lower than Washington.
Tocci argued that looking ahead, the results of the midterm elections for the US Congress on November 8, could affect the EU’s approach towards Ukraine.
While the race for the Senate is tight, the Republican Party is heavily favoured to win at the House of Representatives.
If such a scenario materialises, the Republicans would have enough power to make it harder for President Joe Biden’s administration to pass additional military or financial aid for Ukraine. This is because Congress must approve federal budgets, which support for Ukraine.
“They wouldn’t take so much issue with Ukraine, but rather make everything impossible for the Biden administration, including delaying aid for Ukraine,” Tocci said, noting that Republicans projected to win the House include supporters of former President Donald Trump, whose aim is to undermine the Biden agenda as ahead of the 2024 presidential election.
A Eurasia Group report in October found strong support among Democrat and Republican voters for the current US approach to Ukraine. However, Kevin McCarthy, the highest-ranking Republican poised to lead the House has suggested a policy change could emerge.
“I think people are going to be sitting in a recession and they’re not going to write a blank cheque to Ukraine,” he said.
If US support for Kyiv diminishes, Tocci said, Ukraine’s fight against Russia could stall within a few months.
US weaponry and financial aid has been vital for Ukraine’s counteroffensive, which has allowed Kyiv to recapture large swaths.
In case of a standstill, “a realpolitik mode of thinking among Europeans would prevail with them favouring to stabilise things as they are, because they wouldn’t be able to make the difference,” Tocci said.
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Grain deal: Putin warns Russia could withdraw again if Ukraine ‘violates’ guarantees
President Vladimir Putin has threatened to walk away from the Ukraine grain deal again if Kyiv breaches the security guarantees that Moscow claims it has provided.
“Russia retains the right to leave these agreements if these guarantees from Ukraine are violated,” Putin said in televised comments hours after Russia announced it was rejoining the deal.
Moscow said it had received assurances from Kyiv that it would not use the secure shipping corridor or its designated Ukrainian ports for attacks against Russia.
Putin affirmed the receipt of those commitments and said that if Russia withdrew once more because of Ukrainian breaches, it would substitute the entire volume of grain destined for the “poorest countries” for free from its own stocks.
But, in a nod to Turkey’s influence, as well as what he called its “neutrality” in Russia’s conflict with Ukraine, Putin added: “In any case, we will not in the future impede deliveries of grain from Ukrainian territory to the Turkish Republic.”
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‘We were prepared for days without heat but not running water,’ Ukrainian MP says
A Ukrainian MP has said recent Russian attacks on energy infrastructure are making it “harder” for Ukrainians, but added that “no one is complaining”.
Kira Rudik told Sky News: “There are no military targets in these objects Russia is attacking, Putin is attacking them just to make sure it is harder for us to survive winter. Today, people are figuring out how to get water for themselves and their families.
“We were ready for spending a couple of days without electricity and heat, but we were not ready to spend days without running water and this is what may happen.”
She added that while Ukrainians are working to restore damaged sites, she claimed Russia waits for them to be restored and targets them again.
Ms Rudik added that people are preparing to supply water for themselves and using local sources.
“People are supporting each other, but it’s getting harder and harder in Kyiv and other major cities in Ukraine.”
Earlier, we reported that 80% of residents in the Ukrainian capital are without water, according to the city’s mayor.
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Ukraine war: ‘Massive’ wave of strikes hits major cities, including Kyiv
Ukrainian officials have reported that Russia has launched massive missile strikes across Ukraine, including the capital Kyiv, causing power and water outages.
At least two explosions have been reported in Kyiv. One resident told the BBC that his neighbourhood was now without power.
According to local authorities, critical infrastructure facilities in the northeastern city of Kharkiv were hit.
The strikes follow Russia’s accusation that Ukraine was responsible for a drone attack on its Black Sea Fleet in annexed Crimea.
On Monday morning, missile strikes were also reported in the central Vinnytsia region, as well as Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhia in the southeast, and Lviv in western Ukraine.
A facility at the Dnipro hydroelectric power plant in the Zaporizhzhia region was also reportedly hit.
In Kyiv, a facility that powers 350,000 apartments was damaged, with engineers urgently deployed to restore the supply.
Residents in the regions under attack were urged to remain in shelters, amid fears more strikes could follow.
Ukraine’s Air Force spokesman Yuriy Ihnat told Ukrainian TV that Russia had used its strategic bombers to carry out its “massive” strikes.
Andriy Yermak, the head of President Volodymyr Zelensky’s office, said that “Russian losers are continuing to fight against peaceful objects”.
IMAGE SOURCE, UKRAINE’S DIGITALISATION MINISTRY Image caption, All of Ukraine’s regions – except for the annexed Crimea in the south – were marked in red as being under air attack on Monday morning Russia has so far made no public comments on the reported latest strikes.
On Saturday, one Russian warship was damaged in the port city of Sevastopol in a drone attack, the Russian defence ministry said. It also accused British specialists of having trained the Ukrainian soldiers who then carried out the strikes in Crimea – Ukraine’s southern peninsula, annexed by Russia in 2014.
Moscow provided no evidence to back its claims.
Ukraine has not commented on the issue, while the UK defence ministry said Russia was “peddling false claims on an epic scale“.
