প্রকাশ: 11/10/2022
Ukraine vowed to strengthen its armed forces after Russia
launched its biggest aerial assaults on cities since the beginning of the war,
forcing thousands to flee to bomb shelters and prompting Kyiv to halt
electricity exports to Europe.
Missiles hit targets across Ukraine on Monday morning,
killing 14 people and injuring scores, as they tore into intersections, parks
and tourist sites.
Explosions were reported in Kyiv, Lviv, Ternopil and
Zhytomyr in western Ukraine, Dnipro and Kremenchuk in the centre, Zaporizhzhia
in the south and Kharkiv in the east, Ukrainian officials said.
The barrage of dozens of cruise missiles fired from air,
land and sea was the most widespread wave of air strikes to hit away from the
front line, at least since the initial volleys on the war’s first day, on 24
February.
Russian president Vladimir Putin said he ordered “massive”
long-range strikes after accusing Ukraine of an attack on a bridge linking
Russia to annexed Crimea on Saturday, but the United States said the scale of
the attacks meant they had likely been planned for longer.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy spoke to US
president Joe Biden on Monday and wrote on Telegram afterwards that air defence
was the “number 1 priority in our defence cooperation.”
“We will do everything to strengthen our armed forces,” he
said in a Monday night address. “We will make the battlefield more painful for
the enemy.”
Biden told Zelenskiy the United States will provide advanced
air defence systems. The Pentagon said on 27 September it would start
delivering the National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System over the next
two months or so.
A total of 14 people were killed and 97 were injured, the
State Emergency Service of Ukraine reported. The rush-hour attacks were
deliberately timed to kill people and knock out Ukraine’s power grid, according
to Zelenskiy.
Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal reported 11 major
infrastructure targets were hit in eight regions, leaving parts of Ukraine with
no electricity, water or heat. He promised to restore utilities as quickly as
possible.
As it tried to end blackouts, Ukraine halted electricity
exports to the European Union, at a time when the continent already faces
surging power prices that have stoked inflation, hampered industrial activity
and caused sky-high consumer bills.
Battlefield Setbacks
The Kremlin’s air strikes come three days after a blast
damaged the bridge it built after seizing Crimea in 2014. Russia blamed Ukraine
and called the deadly explosion “terrorism”.
“To leave such acts without a response is simply
impossible,” said Putin, alleging other, unspecified attacks on Russian energy
infrastructure. He threatened more strikes in future if Ukraine hits Russian
territory.
The United States, however, said attacks of such a scale
could not have been put together in just a couple of days.
“It likely was something that they had been planning for
quite some time,” White House national security spokesperson John Kirby told
CNN. “That’s not to say that the explosion on the Crimea bridge might have
accelerated some of their planning.”
Ukraine, which views the bridge as a military target
sustaining Russia’s war effort, celebrated the blast without claiming
responsibility.
After weeks of setbacks on the battlefield, Russian
authorities are facing the first sustained domestic criticism of the war, with
commentators on state television demanding ever tougher measures.
Putin responded to Ukrainian advances by ordering a
mobilisation of hundreds of thousands of reservists, proclaiming the annexation
of occupied territory and threatening to use nuclear weapons.
On Saturday, Russia made its third senior military
appointment in the space of a week by appointing Air Force General Sergei
Surovikin as commander of Russian forces in Ukraine. He previously commanded
Russia’s brutal air campaign in Syria.
Russia says it is waging a “special military operation” in
Ukraine to rid it of nationalists and protect Russian-speaking communities.
Ukraine and the West say it is an unprovoked war of aggression.
Monday’s blasts tore a huge crater next to a children’s
playground in one of central Kyiv’s busiest parks. The remains of an apparent
missile were buried, smoking in the mud. More volleys struck the capital again
later in the morning.
Ukraine’s defence ministry said in its evening update Russia
had staged at least 84 missile and air strikes, and Ukraine’s air defences had
destroyed 43 cruise missiles and 13 drones.
Russia’s defence ministry said it had hit all its intended
targets. Reuters could not independently verify battlefield accounts.
Diplomatic Front
Russia also suffered a setback on the diplomatic front, with
the UN General Assembly voting to reject Moscow’s call for the 193-member body
to hold a secret ballot later this week on whether to condemn its annexations
four partially occupied regions in Ukraine. Read full story
The General Assembly decided, with 107 votes in favor, that
it would hold a public vote - not a secret ballot.
The president of the United Arab Emirates, a member of the
group of oil producers known as OPEC+ that rebuffed the United States last week
by announcing steep cuts last week, will travel to Russia on Tuesday to meet
Putin and push for “military de-escalation”, UAE state news agency WAM
reported.
Biden and Group of Seven leaders will hold a virtual meeting
on Tuesday to discuss their commitment to support Ukraine, the White House
said.
- Reuters
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