Ukrainian sources claim that Putin launched 14 missiles at Kyiv and the surrounding area, inflicting at least 2 injuries to residents.
Three weeks of relative calm and peace in Kyiv were enjoyed during the conflict, up to the Sunday strikes that began at 6:00 AM. These attacks are the first since June 5.
At 6.30 AM, loud booms were heard in the area. Emergency services responded by rescuing people from the nine-story burning building’s windows.
Officials claim that it is too soon to know if any people have been killed. The head of regional military administration Oleksiy Kuleba stated that one of the missiles was shot down by air defense systems. It landed near a village.
Vitali Klitshko (Kyiv) stated, “We’re doing all we can to control the fire and evacuate the people living in the buildings that have been destroyed.” “We are hopeful that nobody has been killed, but we’ll have the last information in just a few hours.
He described the attack as an attempt at intimidation of the city in advance of the G7 summits and NATO summits this week.
Russia has concentrated most of its offensives against Ukraine in the Donbas to the east. They managed to seize the strategically important city of Severodonetsk after the Ukrainian army pulled out.
However, reports have surfaced that Putin may have fired his top Ukrainian general, apparently over the Russian army’s main thrust to annexe the Donbas.
- Today, the leaders of G7 industrialized nations met in Germany to agree on a new round of sanctions against Russian gold exports
- Russian forces finally captured Severodonetsk in Luhansk. This is considered a “significant accomplishment” by the British MoD
- Russia continues to blockade Ukrainian ports in Black Sea, and is preventing grain exports from countries in Africa or the Middle East. This has prompted fears about a possible famine.
- Putin discredits another high-ranking general called the “Butcher Of Aleppo” for slow progress in Donbass
- Lithuania has blocked train shipment from Belarus to Kaliningrad Russian exclave. Belarus dictator Lukashenko calls it an ‘acts of war’
Emergency workers rescue a resident from a building that was damaged by a Russian rocket strike. Kyiv major Vitaliklitshko said many were injured.
At 6.30am on Sunday, fourteen cruise missile strikes rattled the surrounding area of the city. They shattered the fragile peace that the city enjoyed since Putin’s troops left the north of Ukraine.
As smoke rises from the fire in a residence that was damaged by Russian missile attacks, firefighters work to extinguish the flames
After the missile strike, firefighters responded to the call of emergency at a residential property.
A rescue team carries a woman who was injured in a rocket strike on an apartment block that had been destroyed. The number of those hurt is not yet known.
As a patient is being taken to the hospital by an ambulance, a medic tends to a wounded woman from a missile attack on an apartment building.
According to rumors, Gen Alexander Dvornikov was a drunk who is distrusted by his colleagues. This would represent yet another significant shake-up of Putin’s command structure and expresses the frustration of Putin with the current state of his war against Ukraine. He had assumed that it would end in four days.
Dvornikov was known as “Butcher in Aleppo” for the 2015 air attack that decimated the largest Syrian city, reducing it to an ash heap. It is also believed to be seven of the generals Putin has overthrown since June.
According to the British Ministry of Defence, the Russian High Command is believed to have removed several high-ranking Ukrainian officers from important command positions in Ukraine.
Dvornikov was the commander of Southern Group of Forces, and likely acted as the operational commander of Russian forces in Ukraine. His departure is said to have been accompanied by General-Colonel Andrei Serdyukov of Airborne Forces.
According to reports, Dvornikov is being replaced as the commander of SGF by Colonel-General Sergei Surovikin. This army group consists of primary Russian forces that seek to seize and occupy Ukrainian territory.
The MoD states that Surovikin’s 30-year career was marred by corruption allegations and acts of brutality.
On Saturday morning and Sunday morning, dozens of Russian missiles also hit other parts of Ukraine. According to Ukraine’s military command, some were launched from long-range Tu-22 Russian bombers that had been deployed in Belarus.
After the bombardment, a meeting was held in St Petersburg between Russian President Vladimir Putin & Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko. On Saturday, Putin declared that Russia intended to provide Belarus with Iskander M missile systems.
Iskander missiles can be used as short-range, nuclear-capable cruise missiles. They have a range up to 310 mi.
Putin stated that he would transfer to Belarus Iskander M tactical missile systems. These can be used in conventional or nuclear missiles.
Lukashenko, who was present at the meeting expressed concern over the aggressive, conflictual, and repulsive policies that were being pursued by Belarus’s neighboring countries, Lithuania and Poland.
Putin was asked by him to assist his country in a “symmetrical response” to the US-led NATO alliance’s nuclear-armed flight near Belarus’s border.
In comments on Russian television, Putin suggested that Belarusian warplanes could be upgraded to carry nuclear weapons.
‘Many Su-25 [aircraft]They are serving with the Belarusian army. Putin suggested that these soldiers could be modernized in the right way.
“This modernization should take place in Russian aircraft factories and personnel training should begin in line with it.” This will be accomplished if we can agree.
Russian President Vladimir Putin (left) and Alexander Lukashenko, Belarusian President, shake hands at their St. Petersburg meeting yesterday. Putin had agreed to ship Iskander nuke-capable missiles from Belarus to Putin.
Iskander cruise missiles, short-range nuclear-capable hypersonic missiles capable of cruising at speeds up to 310 mph, are short-range missiles that can be used as cruise missiles. They bring all of Eastern Europe to Berlin within reach of arms in just minutes.
Pictured is a test launch of a Cruise missile belonging to the operational-tactical MILSYS ‘Iskander’ from Kapustin Yor’s training ground
Gen Alexander Dvornikov, known as the ‘Butcher of Aleppo’ for his 2015 aerial destruction of Syria’s largest city which reduced it to a bombed out husk, has reportedly been removed by Putin from overall command of Russian forces in Ukraine
Dvornikov is reportedly being replaced by Sergei Surovikin, Colonel General, (pictured right, with a medal presented to Putin), as Commander of the SGF. This army group consists of primary Russian forces seeking to seize and occupy Ukrainian territory.
The Ukrainian military stated that nine missiles from Crimea were fired on the southern Ukrainian port of Mykolaiv, which is located along the Black Sea coast.
About 20 missiles fired from Belarus to the Chernihiv Region were used in the northern part of the conflict.
The military intelligence service of Ukraine claimed that the Russian attack on Belarusian airspace by Russian bombers was directly connected to Kremlin attempts to drag Belarus into conflict.
Belarus has Russian military units. It was used to stage before Russia invaded Ukraine. But its soldiers have yet not crossed the border.
Volodymyr Zelesky, Ukrainian President, said that Russia was compelled to launch a missile show after a five-day war Moscow thought would be over.
According to him, the war is at an inflection point. He stated that the enemy would not win, that the country can be defended, and that it was difficult for them to understand how much longer they will need, what losses, attacks or efforts will remain before victory appears on the horizon.
Russian defense ministry spokeswoman Igor Konashenkov claimed that Russian and Moscow-backed separatists now have control over Sievierodonetsk as well as the nearby villages.
According to him, the Ukrainians tried to make the Azot plant a “stubborn center of resistance” but were unsuccessful.
Under heavy Russian bombardment, Ukrainian soldiers moved to Severodonetsk.
Sergiy Gaiday, Governor of Lugansk said that the Ukrainian forces in Severodonetsk were given an order to withdraw because remaining at positions which have been repeatedly shelled “does not make sense”.
A Ukrainian troop rides a tank along a Donbas road last week. This is because Ukraine claims that Russian shelling caused “catastrophic damage” in Lysychansk (an eastern Ukrainian industrial city), which is just across the river from Severodonets.
Russians captured Severodonetsk’s ruins, and they’reduced them to rubble’ through concentrated heavy artillery bombardment by the Russian army
Serhiy Hadidai, governor of Luhansk Province, said Friday that Ukrainian troops had begun to withdraw from Sievierodonetsk following weeks of house-to-house fighting and bombardment.
According to him, the Russian-backed separatist fighters had taken control of the city on Saturday. He said they are currently trying to prevent Lysychansk being flooded from the south. Just west of Sievierodonetsk lies the city.
Russian forces could capture Lysychansk and take control of all the major settlements within the province. This would make it a step closer to Russia’s ultimate goal of taking the Donbas. About half of Donetsk is controlled by the Russians and separatists. This second Donbas province lies to the north.
Russia’s Interfax news agency reported that Andrei Marochko (a spokesperson for separatist forces) stated that Russian troops and fighters had entered Lysychansk, and that fighting was being held in the center of the city.
The Ukrainian side did not immediately comment on this claim.
Lysychansk was the center of a Russian offensive to capture all the Donbass, and destroy the Ukrainian military protecting it.
Russian bombing reduced Sievierodonetsk’s population to 100,000, while it also reduced its rubble.