Photo: Vadim Ghirda Associated Press According to the Ukrainian presidency, Russian shelling injured 17 civilians in the kyiv metropolitan region.
Emmanuel Peuchot – Agence France-Presse to kyiv
9:25 p.m.
- Europe
Ukraine announced that it had shot down 31 Russian missiles fired at Kiev at dawn on Thursday, the first major attack on the capital since February, coming after Moscow vowed revenge for deadly bombings in Russian territory.
After this attack which left 17 injured, President Volodymyr Zelensky called on Westerners to have the “political will” to help his country, specifically calling for anti-aircraft systems, such as the American Patriot.
It is “crucial” that the European Union provides more ammunition, he said.
“All missiles were shot down in the Kiev region,” the Ukrainian Air Force said, specifying that the projectiles were two Iskander and Kinjal ballistic missiles and 29 cruise missiles fired by strategic bombers.
According to the Ukrainian presidency, 13 civilians were injured in several districts of the capital and four others in the Kiev region, the debris from the missiles falling, causing damage and victims in each bombardment.
A source in Ukraine's military intelligence service, known for its daring operations, estimated that “the absolute majority” of these missiles had targeted the sites of this structure in Kiev, according to Ukrainian media.
The Russian army, for its part, assured that it had targeted “decision centers, logistical bases and temporary deployment points” of the Ukrainian forces and had “hit all its targets”.
Closer to the front line, one person was killed and six others injured by a Russian ballistic missile which hit an industrial enterprise in Mykolaiv (southern Ukraine) during the day, deplored regional authorities.
The governor of the neighboring Kherson region reported an elderly woman killed in a bombing on Thursday. In the Donetsk region (east), a Russian strike caused the death of a man while two women were injured in the town of Novogrodivka, according to the regional administration.
In kyiv, AFP journalists heard loud explosions starting at 5 a.m.
“This terror continues day and night. It is possible to put an end to it thanks to global unity […] This is entirely possible if our partners demonstrate sufficient political will,” assured Mr. Zelensky, stressing that his country “needs the support” Western.
The head of Ukrainian diplomacy, Dmytro Kouleba, urged the American Congress to “save lives” by granting the $60 billion in aid to Ukraine, blocked for months due to political struggles between Democrats and Republicans.
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Cross bombardments
European leaders were due to meet at a summit in Brussels on Thursday and Friday to discuss how to better arm Ukraine and strengthen their countries' defenses.
The Twenty-Seven must study a plan to use the income generated by hundreds of billions of euros of Russian assets frozen in the EU, an initiative described as “theft” by Moscow, who threatened legal action “for decades.”
Vladimir Putin “constructed his maneuver with the idea that the West would never go to Ukraine but would be content to supply weapons. We must show him that he will not be able to use this logic to go to the end, because this idea is not fair,” said, in this context, Thursday the Chief of Staff of the French Armies, General Thierry Burkhard.
In eastern Ukraine, Russian forces claim to continue their slow push, having claimed Thursday the capture of the village of Tonenké, west of the town of Avdiïvka, conquered in February.
Throughout last week, that of the presidential election in Russia, bombings and ground incursions by armed fighters from Ukraine increased in the Russian border regions.
Russian officials, led by Mr. Putin, had promised to respond to these attacks, themselves carried out in retaliation for Russian bombing of Ukrainian cities.
The governor of the Russian region of Belgorod, particularly targeted, said that new air attacks had left five people injured. The Russian Defense Ministry previously claimed to have shot down 10 Ukrainian RM-70 Vampir rockets.
The day before, three people were killed and four injured in a series of “massive” Ukrainian bombings on a border district in the Belgorod region, according to authorities.
Faced with these Ukrainian bombings, Russian regional authorities temporarily closed schools in border areas this week. Checkpoints must also be set up at the entrance to several villages near Ukraine, scenes of recent armed incursions.
Across the border, in Kharkiv, Ukraine's second city, five people were killed and ten injured on Wednesday in a Russian strike in broad daylight, according to an updated report from the prosecutor's office regional.
And last week, at least 20 people were killed and 70 injured in Odessa, in one of the deadliest Russian attacks on this major port in southern Ukraine.