Apartments on fire, dead drones in the street, stretchers carrying injured victims. Scenes of daily life in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine were again the target of a massive Russian attack on the night between Thursday and Friday which left at least 6 people dead and 35 people injured. “I didn’t feel anything, suddenly my hair was on fire,” he told the AP Maria Kalchenkoa Kiev citizen who escaped the bombing of his palace. This time Moscow launched 19 missiles and 430 drones: Ukrainian defense shot down 419 of them, but 23 warheads reached their destination at 13 locations, including the capital and Chornomorsk (Odessa), where a drone killed two people and injured 7 people in a market.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky He accused Russia of carrying out a “calculated attack, designed to cause maximum damage to the population and civilian infrastructure”, and condemned residential buildings in Kiev as well as the Azerbaijani embassy being hit – a situation that prompted Zelensky to speak with the Azerbaijani president. Ilham Aliyev and then Baku summoned the Russian ambassador. The Russian Ministry of Defense claimed to have targeted “military-industrial complex and energy targets in response to Ukrainian terrorist attacks on civilian targets on Russian territory.”
That same night Kiev also launched an attack on Russia. They bombed a refinery in Saratov, and an attack on the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk – acknowledged by Russian authorities – damaged an oil depot, a ship and several residential buildings, wounding four people. “In the evening, our servicemen successfully used Long Neptunes (long-range missiles, ed.) against targets on Russian territory, and this was our more than correct response to the ongoing terrorism,” wrote Zelensky in “Absurdity”, Kiev responded, which was also accused by Alexei Likhachevhead of Russia’s state atomic agency Rosatom, for launching a drone at the Novovoronezh nuclear power plant, causing debris from the intercepted plane to fall.
This is news that does not change the outcome of an unpleasant week for Ukraine. Russia, which is close to controlling the vital center of Pokrovsk in Donetsk, yesterday claimed control of two other locations: Orestopol, in Dnipropetrovsk, and Rog, near Pokrovsk. And protests in Kiev have not abated over recent energy sector procurement corruption cases that led to the resignations of the Ministers of Justice and Energy and which have hamstrung the president over arrest warrants against his friends and associates. Timur Mindich. Yesterday the president met with Prime Minister Svyrydenko, with whom he discussed audits at state companies. “Allies must be immediately informed of the results and related decisions,” he said, aware of European pressure and how scandals could be exploited. In the evening he then announced that “Ukraine will soon receive new air defense systems and fighter aircraft from allies, in particular from France. This is a historic agreement.” Finally, tomorrow he will fly to Athens, Monday to Paris, and Tuesday to Madrid.
