Ukraine said on Thursday that it had shot down almost all of the Russian missiles that targeted Kiev and several regions overnight, Moscow congratulating itself, conversely, for having “destroyed” all its targets.
This ninth series of Russian missile strikes since the beginning of the month, targeting the capital in particular, comes at a time when Kiev says it is completing its preparations for a major offensive to drive the Russians out of Ukrainian territory.
During this latest “night attack,” Ukrainian forces managed to destroy “33 air targets — 29 missiles and 4 drones! Air Force Commander Mykola Olechchuk said of a total of 30 missiles fired by Russia, according to the military hierarchy.
Conversely, the Russian Ministry of Defense claimed to have “hit” and “destroyed” all the targets of its night strikes. He did not specify what objectives were targeted, confining himself to stressing that “significant stocks of Ukrainian armaments and ammunition” had been destroyed and that troop movements had been “stemmed”.
The civil and military administration in kyiv judged that the Russian attacks carried out since the beginning of May were “unprecedented in their power, their intensity and their variety”. According to her, cruise missiles were launched by Russian strategic bombers from the Caspian Sea region, and reconnaissance drones then flew over the capital. “All enemy targets in Kyiv airspace have been detected and destroyed,” she said.
In the port of Odessa on the Black Sea, one person was killed and two others were injured in an attack on an industrial site, according to an army spokesman.
The military also reported “cruise missile” attacks in the Vinnytsia region in the center-west of the country, and local media reported explosions in Khmelnytskyi.
train derailment
These new attacks come the day after Moscow and kyiv extended the grain agreement for two months, which is essential for world food security.
On Thursday, a freight train carrying grain derailed without causing any casualties in Crimea annexed by Russia, according to the authorities, in the midst of a wave of incidents and sabotage regularly attributed by Moscow to Kiev. In a statement, the local railways said the incident was the result of the actions of “third parties”, a euphemism that seemed to refer to sabotage and a formulation previously used during derailments in early May in a Russian region bordering the ‘Ukraine.
A Russian parliamentary official mentioned a deflagration due to an explosive device, without the competent authorities attesting to this thesis at this stage.
Meeting at the UN and G7
On the diplomatic front, the Chinese envoy sent, Li Hui, concluded a two-day visit to kyiv on Wednesday, where he had discussions on the “settlement” of the conflict. The Ukrainian presidency did not wish to confirm a meeting between the diplomat and President Volodymyr Zelensky, but Beijing, in a press release, said that the two men had seen each other well, without giving further details.
Unsurprisingly, the visit of Mr. Li — the most senior Chinese official to have visited Ukraine since the beginning of the Russian invasion — did not lead to any breakthrough. His tour of Europe should take him to Poland on Friday, then in the days that follow to Germany, France and Russia. Still on the diplomatic level, the UN Security Council was to meet on Thursday afternoon to discuss the situation in Ukraine.
Ukraine also celebrates Thursday the Day of the vychyvanka, the traditional embroidered loose shirt, which has become a symbol of national unity against the Russian invasion. Volodymyr Zelensky thus hailed on Telegram “the strength of our culture” in the face of “totalitarian regimes”, celebrating on the occasion the 79th anniversary of the start of the deportation of the Crimean Tatars, a Muslim minority, by the Soviet authorities.
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