Foreign

Ukraine War: Missile Strikes Kill Civilians

By Web News 362

Five people have been killed and dozens of people wounded in Russian missile attacks targeting the Ukrainian capital Kyiv and second biggest city Kharkiv, according to officials.

Residential buildings were hit early on Tuesday in the north-eastern city of Kharkiv, leaving three people killed and another 35 injured.

They included two women 40 and 56.

The city mayor said part of a block of flats was destroyed and rescue workers were combing the rubble for survivors.

In Kyiv, officials said a woman died and several other people were hurt when a block of flats caught fire and another was damaged. Most of the casualties were in Kyiv’s central Solomianskyi and western Sviatoshynskyi districts.

The BBC’s Sarah Rainsford said the air raid in Kyiv went on for more than two and a half hours, the longest since 2 January.

Ukraine’s air force said it had destroyed 21 of 41 missiles launched by Russia overnight.

Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko said an undetonated missile warhead was found in a flat in the west of the city and residents in the apartment block were told to evacuate.

At least one person was killed in the industrial city of Pavlohrad in the Dnipro region.

Reflecting Ukrainian concerns that its demands for weapons are not being met by Western allies, the head of the presidential administration, Andriy Yermak, published a video of the damage in Kharkiv and said: “Kharkiv. We are not just a ‘fortress’. We need weapons!”

Ukrainian forces have in the past week targeted Russian energy infrastructure, including unprecedented attacks on an oil terminal in its second city St Petersburg.

Energy Company Novatek has had to halt some of its operations after a fire at its Ust-Luga Baltic Sea export complex.

BBC/Adetutu Adetule

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Foreign

Ukraine Shoots Down 15 Russian Cruise Missiles Aimed at Kyiv

By Web News 1786

Ukrainian officials say air defenses downed 15 Russian cruise missiles which were launched overnight against the capital, Kyiv.

According to a senior Kyiv military official, Serhiy Popko, no casualties were recorded from the attack.

He said he believed the missiles had been launched by four bombers flying from the Caspian Sea region.

The new missile attacks came hours before Russia was due to celebrate Victory Day.

The 9 May holiday commemorates the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany during World War II.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has compared the Ukraine war – which he falsely defines as a battle against a “neo-Nazi regime” – to Adolf Hitler’s invasion of the Soviet Union.

Ukraine’s air force wrote on Telegram that “overnight into the ‘sacred’ May 9, Russia, launched an attack on the territory of Ukraine,”

Mr Popko said Russian forces were trying “to kill as many civilians as possible on this day”.

The latest attacks come after Ukraine said Russia launched its biggest drone attack of the war yet on Sunday night.

That wave of drone and missile strikes killed at least one person and injured five.

As Russia prepares for the main event of Victory Day – a military parade – the mood is one of nervousness in Moscow.

A series of explosions, drone attacks, and sabotage rocked Russia over the past week including an alleged drone attack on the Kremlin.

Moscow blamed Ukrainian drones but Kyiv denied any involvement.

BBC/Taiwo Akinola

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Foreign

Ukraine War: Explosions Rock Central Kyiv

By Web News 488

Explosions were heard in the centre of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv early on Wednesday.

Vitali Klitschko said blasts rocked the central Shevchenkivskyi district and emergency services had been dispatched.

According to Kyiv Governor Oleksiy Kuleba, Air defense systems are at work, as BBC reporters heard loud explosions shortly after the air raid siren sounded. Russia has repeatedly targeted Ukrainian energy infrastructure since October with missiles and drones.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukrainian forces had shot down 13 Iranian-made Shahed drones, which he said amounted to all those launched by Russia early on Wednesday.

Kyiv city’s military administration said a drone fragment had hit an administrative building in the city centre and four residential buildings. But a spokesperson for the city emergency services told Ukrainian media that no victims had been reported in the strike.

He said: “The air defense 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.”

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.

Russia has been targeting Ukraine’s energy grid in recent months in a bid to demoralize 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.

The strikes come amid reports that the US is preparing to arm Ukraine with its state-of-the-art Patriot air defense system. Senior defense officials told the Reuters news agency that the announcement could come as soon as Thursday.

The system is among the most advanced in the world and is usually in short supply. Due to its long-range capability it could potentially shoot down Russian missiles and drones before they come within range of Ukrainian cities.

But unlike Ukraine’s existing air defense systems, Patriot systems require large crews to operate them, and it could take several months to train Kyiv’s forces to use it effectively.

Russia would likely view any attempt to arm Ukraine with Patriot defenses as an escalation. Former president Dmitry Medvedev – who is now deputy chairman of the national security  council – warned against the move last month.

BBC/Taiwo Akinola

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Foreign

Strikes on Energy Grid Causes Power Cuts in Kyiv

By Web News 378

Kyiv’s energy operator on Sunday says that scheduled “stabilisation” power cuts have been introduced in the Ukrainian capital after repeated Russian strikes on the country’s energy infrastructure.

“On October 23, stabilisation shutdowns were introduced in Kyiv by national energy operator Ukrenergo to avoid accidents,” energy company DTEK said in a statement on its website.

The blackouts started from 11:13 am (0813 GMT) with consumers in Kyiv divided into three groups that will be “disconnected for a certain period of time”, DTEK said.

It added that the blackouts should last “no more than four hours” but may be longer “due to the scale of damage to the power supply system”.

DTEK reiterated calls for residents to use electricity “sparingly” and for businesses to limit their use of external lighting.

Over a million households in Ukraine were left without electricity following Russian strikes on energy facilities across the country on Saturday, the Ukrainian presidency said.

Russia in recent days has repeatedly targeted Ukraine’s energy grid, destroying at least a third of the country’s power stations ahead of winter.

AFP / Titilayo Kupoliyi

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Foreign

Kamikaze Drones Kill in Kyiv

By Web News 451

Russia has hit the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, with a wave of Iranian-made kamikaze drones – killing at least one person, says Mayor Vitali Klitschko.

“It shows their desperation,” said Andriy Yermak, head of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s staff, and in the port city of Mykolaiv, sunflower oil tanks were set on fire by similar drones, said the city’s mayor.

According to a report, a week ago, the capital was hit by Russian missiles at rush hour, part of nationwide attacks which left 19 dead.

A Ukrainian air force official said all the drones had flown into the country from the south, as Oleksandr Senkevich said three drones ignited the tanks at Mykolaiv late on Sunday evening, hours before the attack in Kyiv.

Monday morning’s attacks in Kyiv were from drones – the low buzzing of these slow-moving weapons is becoming familiar across the country.

The city reverberated to the rattle of gunfire as anti-aircraft batteries frantically tried to shoot them down.

The explosions on Monday began at about 06:30 local time. The most recent was at about 08:10 local time, two were close to the city centre, with sirens and car alarms heard across the area.

“The enemy can attack our cities, but it won’t be able to break us,” said President Zelensky, describing the attacks as “terrorising the civilian population”.

What is being targeted is hard to determine. The mayor’s office says residential and non-residential buildings have been hit. Railway officials say explosions were seen close to Kyiv’s main station.

The newsmen saw fragments of a drone used in the attack that bore the words, “For Belgorod”, the Kremlin had accused Ukraine of launching missile attacks on the Russian border city of Belgorod, but, Ukraine had denied this.

Two gunmen – who had volunteered to fight in Ukraine – killed 11 people on Saturday at a Russian military training camp in the Belgorod region.

Recent attacks in Ukraine have targeted the country’s energy infrastructure.

Writing on the Telegram social media site, Mr Klitschko said, there were four strikes in Kyiv, although residents heard five or six explosions. He also told people to stay in air raid shelters.

But despite the warnings, the streets are far from deserted. Between the first and second set of strikes, plenty of people seemed to be going about their Monday morning business.

Mr Yermak described the kamikaze attacks as Russia’s “death throes” and said Ukraine needed more air defence systems “as soon as possible”.

BBC/Taiwo Akinola

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