A day after President Volodymyr Zelensky declared he would return from a European tour with a reloaded arsenal, Russian drones and ballistic missiles targeted Ukraine’s capital early on Tuesday in what the defense forces called an extremely intricate strike.
Drones, cruise missiles, and likely ballistic missiles were launched “from different directions simultaneously” in Tuesday’s attack, the seventh on the capital this month, according to the Kyiv City Military Administration.
The busy Solomyansky neighborhood of Kiev, which houses the international airport, sustained the worst damage as a result of a fire that started in a non-residential structure.
Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Telegram that three persons were hurt in Solomyansky and that a leafy outer neighborhood, Obolonsky district, was hit by missile debris.
The most recent attack on Kyiv comes after Zelensky secured a number of new guarantees for the delivery of armaments from Berlin, Paris, and London. This offensive deepens the military alliance between the West and Ukraine, which has helped placed Russia on the defensive.
Zelensky tweeted on Monday night that he was “returning home with new defence packages” following his quick tour of the major capitals of Europe.
Gains have already been made near the hotspot of Bakhmut, and it is widely assumed that Ukrainian forces are getting ready for a long-awaited counteroffensive against Russian forces.
Although UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak declared on Monday that plans were being made to create a flight school to teach Ukrainian pilots, Zelensky has failed to achieve his prized aim of enlisting Western combat jets to seize control of the skies.
France, too, has offered to train Ukrainian fighter pilots, though President Emmanuel Macron ruled out sending warplanes to Kyiv.
And while Russia’s ally China vies to act as a peace broker, sending an envoy to Kyiv this week, Moscow’s reported attempt to acquire more drones with military collaborator Iran has caused ire in Washington.
“This is a full-scale defence partnership that is harmful to Ukraine, to the region in the Middle East, and to the international community,” US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Monday, adding that further sanctions would soon be announced.
‘For all of Europe’
Zelensky visited France, Germany, and the UK on Monday after starting his tour in Italy to increase military support to help his forces become more combat-ready.
While Germany announced it was putting on a new military package for Ukraine worth 2.7 billion euros ($3 billion), the French offered dozens more light tanks and armored vehicles.
Zelensky secured the promise of hundreds more air defense missiles and long-range attack drones at the UK prime minister’s country home of Chequers outside of London on Monday.
He stepped off a Royal Air Force Chinook helicopter and offered Sunak a bear hug while wearing his signature fatigues.
He said the crisis was a matter of “security not only for Ukraine, it is important for all of Europe”.
Sunak noted that the Chequers meeting was taking place in the buildup to a Council of Europe leaders’ meeting in Iceland and a G7 summit in Japan, as he hit out at Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“The front lines of Putin’s war of aggression may be in Ukraine, but the fault lines stretch worldwide,” Sunak said.
Russia said the new UK weapons would only cause “further destruction” and claimed to have downed a Storm Shadow cruise missile that Britain last week said it was providing, in the West’s first deployment of long-range missiles for Ukraine.
Fighting increases
The timing and focus of Ukraine’s high-stakes counter-offensive remain unclear, but Zelensky’s tour of European capitals underscored the importance of securing Western heavy weapons and ammunition.
On the ground, the fighting appears poised to increase after months of stalemate.
According to Kyiv, there was a “massive enemy attack” that caused damage to a number of homes in Kherson’s southern region.
In the meantime, seven people were hurt in an explosion in Russian-controlled Lugansk, including a senior official who was placed in Moscow and a youngster, according to local authorities.
More than ten Russian positions on the outskirts of Bakhmut, the scene of a bloody control struggle that erupted nearly a year ago, have reportedly been taken by Ukrainian forces.
Russia said two military commanders had been killed in combat near the town.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the private Wagner mercenary group in Russia, once more accused the Russian army of passivity near Bakhmut.
He did, however, dispute as “laughable” a Washington Post report that said he had provided Ukraine with information on Russian troop placements in exchange for a break for Wagner forces in January.
Chinese mediation
In another sign of tensions with the West, Russia said Monday it had scrambled a Su-27 fighter jet over the Baltic Sea to intercept two aircraft, one German and one French, which Moscow said had attempted to “violate” its airspace.
“After turning the foreign military planes away from the Russian Federation state border, the Russian fighter (jet) returned safely to its airbase,” the Russian defence ministry said in a statement
As the search for an endgame to the war continues, high-ranking Chinese diplomat Li Hui will start a two-day visit to Kyiv on Tuesday, a Ukrainian government official told AFP.
Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Moscow in March and has been criticised for refusing to condemn Putin’s war.