Russia intensifies air attacks, Ukraine wants to be able to strike its airfields

Russia said on Sunday that its forces were advancing in eastern Ukraine, with Kiev reporting deadly airstrikes and urging the West to allow it to carry out more preemptive strikes on airfields and other military sites on Russian territory.

Moscow has stepped up its air attacks in recent weeks, while trying to repel a major Ukrainian offensive in Russia's Kursk region.

Since August 6, kyiv has been carrying out an incursion into this region located opposite that of Sumy in eastern Ukraine, in the hope in particular of creating a buffer zone to protect its border population from air attacks from Moscow.

But a new Russian airstrike killed two people in Sumy.

Undated view of the city of Vovchansk (northeastern Ukraine) destroyed by Russian bombing and fighting, released by the Ukrainian army on September 5, 2024 © Armed Forces of Ukraine – Handout

“Last night (…), the enemy launched an airstrike on the city of Sumy. Two people died and four were injured, including two children,” the military administration of this region announced on Telegram on Sunday.

Further south, a Russian rocket attack on a village in the Donetsk region, the epicentre of the fighting, killed two women, the regional prosecutor's office also indicated on Sunday.

kyiv had launched its offensive further north into Russian territory in the hope of forcing Moscow to redeploy its troops troops currently advancing in the Donetsk region.

However, Moscow seems to be succeeding in intensifying its attacks there, recording in August the most significant territorial conquests in almost two years.

The Russian army claimed on Sunday the capture of a locality in this region, where it is advancing towards the strategic city of Pokrovsk.

Russian forces have “liberated” the locality of Novohrodivka, indicated the Russian Ministry of Defense, using the expression used in Moscow to designate the capture of Ukrainian territories from the authorities in Kiev.

This city is located about twenty kilometers from Pokrovsk, an important logistical hub for the Ukrainian army, targeted for several weeks by Russian troops superior in both men and weapons.

– “Strike the airfields” –

On Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin reiterated his desire to conquer all of Donbass, the large industrial zone in eastern Ukraine, which includes the Donetsk region.

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky once again urged his partners on Sunday to give him more latitude to use the weapons supplied against targets in Russia.

Ukrainian rescuers work at the site of a missile attack in Lviv, western Ukraine, on September 4, 2024 © AFP – YURIY DYACHYSHYN

kyiv is demanding that restrictions be lifted to allow it to strike deep inside Russian soil at military targets deemed “legitimate”, such as airbases from which planes bombing Ukraine take off.

“In just one week, Russia has used more than 800 guided aerial bombs, nearly 300 Shahed drones and more than 60 missiles of different types against our people,” he said on Facebook.

“Terror can be effectively stopped in only one way: by striking Russian military airfields, their bases and the logistics of Russian terror,” he said.

“A country that defends itself against aggression in accordance with Article 51 of the UN Charter cannot be limited in its defense,” the new head of Ukrainian diplomacy, Andriy Sybiga, stressed on X, adding that “international law allows Ukraine to strike legitimate military targets on Russian territory.”

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, whose country is the second largest donor of aid to Ukraine after the United States, and who has promised to maintain this support “as long as necessary,” said on Sunday that it was now necessary to “get out of this war situation” by bringing Russia to negotiations.

“There will undoubtedly be another peace conference,” he said on public channel ZDF, “the Ukrainian president and I agree to include the Russia”.

Russia has rejected any negotiations based on a Ukrainian plan, the first requirement of which is the withdrawal of Russian troops from its internationally recognized territory.

Ukraine: the front line near Donetsk © AFP – Nalini LEPETIT-CHELLA, Sabrina BLANCHARD, Valentin RAKOVSKY

In addition, three people injured in the Russian strike on Poltava in central Ukraine last week have succumbed to their injuries, bringing the death toll to 58, officials announced on Sunday regional authorities.

Russian strikes also left seven dead last week in Lviv, in western Ukraine near the border with Poland, the EU and NATO.

On Sunday, a Russian military drone crashed in Latvia, with the president of this small Baltic state, also a member of the EU and the Atlantic Alliance, Edgars Rinkevics, stressing on X that “the number of incidents of this type is increasing along NATO's eastern flank”.

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