Missiles for Ukraine: Russia warns of escalation, Zelensky on the front lines

The Kremlin warned Monday of further escalation and promised an “appropriate” response in the event of long-range missile launches against Russia, after the United States gave Kiev the green light, while a new Russian strike left at least ten dead and dozens injured in Odessa.

“The use by Kiev of long-range missiles to attack our territory would mean the direct involvement of the United States and its satellites (…), as well as a radical change in the very essence and nature of the conflict,” said Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova. “Russia's response in such a case will be appropriate and will be felt.”

Meanwhile, President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday toured the Eastern Front, first visiting his troops in Pokrovsk, currently the main target of Russian attacks in Donbass.

He then went to another hot spot, Kupiansk, a city that the Russians occupied in 2022 and which they briefly entered last week.

Demanded by kyiv for months, Joe Biden's decision on missiles was confirmed to AFP on Sunday by a US official, just a few weeks before Donald Trump takes office, considered less inclined to help kyiv.

From Rio de Janeiro, where he is attending the G20, Joe Biden called on all the leaders of the most developed economies to “firmly support the sovereignty” of Ukraine, without however mentioning long-range missiles.

– “Too late” –

A senior Ukrainian presidential official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed to AFP that the Americans had only given kyiv their agreement to the missiles after Russia had received reinforcements of thousands of North Korean soldiers.

The range of ATACMS missiles in Russia © AFP – Valentin RAKOVSKY, Valentina BRESCHI

“This decision was necessary a year ago,” he lamented.

According to media reports, the American green light could also be limited to strikes against the Russian region of Kursk, which is partially controlled by the Ukrainian army and where North Korean troops are reportedly deployed.

On the battlefield in eastern Ukraine, Ukrainian soldiers, forced to give up ground almost every day, were skeptical.

The American announcement “probably comes too late,” one of them, serving in the Pokrovsk area, a logistics hub that the Russians are getting closer to by the day, told AFP.

Moscow also claimed on Monday the conquest of a new village, that of Novooleksiïvka, located approximately 15 kilometers south of this city.

For the first time in several weeks, the presidency announced that Volodymyr Zelensky would travel to the front on Monday, as close as possible to the fighting, in Pokrovsk, then to Kupiansk, further north.

– “The horror” –

The sustainability of American support has been called into question by the election of Donald Trump, whose statements during the presidential campaign have raised fears in kyiv and its supporters that he is seeking to force Ukraine to make concessions that are unacceptable to it.

Ukraine: Positions of military forces © AFP – Valentin RAKOVSKY, Sophie RAMIS, Cléa PECULIER

Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose troops are advancing, has warned that any discussion of a cessation of hostilities could only be based on “new territorial realities.”

In recent weeks, Russia has begun to intensify its deadly strikes on civilian areas in its neighboring country, a tactic seen by many in Ukraine as an attempt to break the morale of the population, with a view to possible negotiations.

A Russian missile strike killed at least ten people and injured 47 in broad daylight on Monday in Odessa, a port city on the Black Sea, according to authorities.

Seven police officers, a medical worker and two residents of the city were among those killed, the regional governor said.

According to the Ukrainian air force, it was shrapnel from a downed Russian projectile that fell on a residential area.

“I saw the horror,” Andriï, originally from Kherson in the south, told AFP, where he lived under Russian “occupation” for “six months” in 2022. Liberated that same year, Kherson is bombarded daily by the Russian army.

Andriï moved to Odessa to be “calm”: “But as the situation in recent weeks shows, it's the same as in Kherson. People are dying every day…”

In the east, three people were killed in Russian strikes, regional authorities said, two in Kostiantynivka (and two injured), as well as a third in Siversk.

In addition, the Organization for The Chemical Weapons Prohibition Organization (OPCW) announced Monday that it had discovered CS tear gas in samples of a grenade and soil supplied by Ukraine, in contravention of its convention on the use of chemical weapons.

Ukraine suffered a new massive Russian attack on its energy facilities last weekend, forcing it to announce massive power cuts for the first time in months.

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