KYIV: Russia has launched a wave of large-scale strikes on Kyiv and across Ukraine, wreaking destruction and injury, officials said Monday morning, as Moscow prepares for its dear victory party which marks the anniversary of his defeat of Nazi Germany.
At least five people were injured following Russian strikes on Kiev, Ukrainian officials said, while Russian missiles set fire to a food warehouse in the Black Sea city of Odessa and explosions erupted. reported in several other Ukrainian regions.
The new attacks come as Moscow prepares for its Victory Day parade on Tuesday, a key anniversary for President Vladimir Putin who evoked the spirit of the Soviet army that defeated Nazi German forces to declare that Russia would defeat a Ukraine supposedly in the grip of a new incarnation of Nazism.
Russia has stepped up its bombardment of Bakhmut in hopes of taking it by Tuesday, the Ukrainian general in charge of defending the beleaguered city said, after the Russian mercenary group Wagner appeared to abandon plans to attack. remove it.
Three people were injured in explosions in Kyiv’s Solomyanskyi district and two others were injured when the wreckage of a drone fell on Sviatoshyn district, both west of the capital’s center, a Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on his Telegram messaging channel.
The Kyiv military administration said the wreckage of the drone fell on a runway at Zhuliany airport, one of two passenger airports in the Ukrainian capital, without causing any fire, but that the services of emergency were working on the site.
He also said that in Kiev’s central Shevchenkivskyi district, drone debris appeared to have hit a two-story building, causing damage. There was no immediate information about potential victims.
Reuters witnesses said they heard numerous explosions in kyiv, with local officials saying air defense systems were repelling the attacks. It was not immediately clear how many drones had been launched at kyiv.
Serhiy Bratchuk, spokesman for Odessa’s military administration, posted photos on his Telegram channel of a large structure completely engulfed in flames, in what he described as a Russian attack on a food warehouse food, among others.
After air raid warnings sounded for hours over about two-thirds of Ukraine, the media also reported sounds of explosions in the southern region of Kherson and in the Zaporizhzhia region in the southeast.
Vladimir Rogov, a Russian-installed local official in Zaporizhzhia, said Russian forces struck a warehouse and the position of Ukrainian troops in Orikhiv, a small town in the region. Reuters was unable to independently verify the report.
Separately, Russian forces shelled eight sites in the Sumy region of northeastern Ukraine on Sunday, the regional military administration said in a Facebook post.
Over the past two weeks, strikes have also intensified against Russian-held targets, including in Crimea. Ukraine, without confirming its role in these attacks, claims that the destruction of enemy infrastructure is preparation for its long-awaited ground assault.
Putin invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, calling it a “special military operation” to defend Russia against neo-Nazis in Ukraine, but Kiev and its allies say it was a land grab unprovoked.
The invasion sparked the biggest conflict in Europe since World War II and killed thousands and forced millions to flee the country.
At least five people were injured following Russian strikes on Kiev, Ukrainian officials said, while Russian missiles set fire to a food warehouse in the Black Sea city of Odessa and explosions erupted. reported in several other Ukrainian regions.
The new attacks come as Moscow prepares for its Victory Day parade on Tuesday, a key anniversary for President Vladimir Putin who evoked the spirit of the Soviet army that defeated Nazi German forces to declare that Russia would defeat a Ukraine supposedly in the grip of a new incarnation of Nazism.
Russia has stepped up its bombardment of Bakhmut in hopes of taking it by Tuesday, the Ukrainian general in charge of defending the beleaguered city said, after the Russian mercenary group Wagner appeared to abandon plans to attack. remove it.
Three people were injured in explosions in Kyiv’s Solomyanskyi district and two others were injured when the wreckage of a drone fell on Sviatoshyn district, both west of the capital’s center, a Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on his Telegram messaging channel.
The Kyiv military administration said the wreckage of the drone fell on a runway at Zhuliany airport, one of two passenger airports in the Ukrainian capital, without causing any fire, but that the services of emergency were working on the site.
He also said that in Kiev’s central Shevchenkivskyi district, drone debris appeared to have hit a two-story building, causing damage. There was no immediate information about potential victims.
Reuters witnesses said they heard numerous explosions in kyiv, with local officials saying air defense systems were repelling the attacks. It was not immediately clear how many drones had been launched at kyiv.
Serhiy Bratchuk, spokesman for Odessa’s military administration, posted photos on his Telegram channel of a large structure completely engulfed in flames, in what he described as a Russian attack on a food warehouse food, among others.
After air raid warnings sounded for hours over about two-thirds of Ukraine, the media also reported sounds of explosions in the southern region of Kherson and in the Zaporizhzhia region in the southeast.
Vladimir Rogov, a Russian-installed local official in Zaporizhzhia, said Russian forces struck a warehouse and the position of Ukrainian troops in Orikhiv, a small town in the region. Reuters was unable to independently verify the report.
Separately, Russian forces shelled eight sites in the Sumy region of northeastern Ukraine on Sunday, the regional military administration said in a Facebook post.
Over the past two weeks, strikes have also intensified against Russian-held targets, including in Crimea. Ukraine, without confirming its role in these attacks, claims that the destruction of enemy infrastructure is preparation for its long-awaited ground assault.
Putin invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, calling it a “special military operation” to defend Russia against neo-Nazis in Ukraine, but Kiev and its allies say it was a land grab unprovoked.
The invasion sparked the biggest conflict in Europe since World War II and killed thousands and forced millions to flee the country.
