dpa
Kiev/Moscow
Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened on Thursday to fire the military’s new medium-range missiles at further targets in Ukraine, including the capital Kiev.
The Oreshnik ballistic missile was first deployed last week against the Ukrainian industrial city of Dnipro, in a move seen as a dangerous escalation in the conflict.
The Kremlin is currently selecting targets for further strikes, Putin said at a meeting in Astana of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, a Russian-led military alliance.
“These could be military buildings, defence companies or decision-making centres in Kiev,” the Russian leader added. Speaking of last week’s strike on Dnipro, he said: “We were forced to carry out the test under war conditions in response to the attacks on the Bryansk and Kursk areas with Western weapons, with ATACMS and Storm Shadow missiles.”
Following recent approval from Washington, Ukraine has begun using US-made ATACMS missiles and British Storm Shadow cruise missiles to target military sites in Russia.
Putin reiterated his praise of the new Russian weapons system as unique, saying that when used in a bundle, its destructive power is comparable to that of a nuclear bomb.
According to Putin, Russia has fired 100 missiles and 466 combat drones at Ukraine in the last two days alone. He described the massive attacks as a response to Western arms deliveries to Ukraine.
Renewed power cuts
Western Ukraine experienced more power outages on Thursday as a result of the missile strikes, leaving more than a million people without electricity.
In the Rivne region, more than 280,000 households were cut off, Governor Oleksandr Koval posted on the Telegram channel, referring also to water supply issues. In the neighbouring Volyn region, near Poland, more than 200,000 households were cut off from the energy grid. Authorities reported strikes on the regional capital, Lutsk. No casualties were initially registered.
Further south, in the Lviv region, more than half a million people were left without power, along with a further 300,000 households in the neighbouring region of Ivano-Frankivsk.
According to the Ukrainian air force, Russia fired over 90 rockets and cruise missiles, including from long-range bombers and ships in the Black Sea. Almost 80 were intercepted.
Earlier, the Russian army had deployed almost 100 combat drones against targets in Ukraine, all of which were either shot down or intercepted by electronic means. Military observers cast doubt on the official figures, however.
Explosions were reported from nearly all parts of the country, including in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv and central Ukrainian city of Kropyvnytskyi. Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko referred on Facebook to targeted Russian attacks on energy facilities. The grid operator, Ukrenergo, had carried out emergency power cuts, he said. Due to Russian missile and drone attacks, an air-raid alarm was in effect in Kiev during the night and early morning, lasting more than nine hours.
Fatal strikes
Two men were killed and three injured in a Russian drone attack in the eastern Ukrainian region of Kharkiv, Governor Oleh Syniehubov announced.
A tractor was hit in a field near the village of Bilyi Kolodiaz by a so-called first-person-view drone, which is controlled via a video connection, he said. Bilyi Kolodiaz is a few kilometres from the front line near the border town of Vovchansk, which has been under siege for months.
Kiev accuses Moscow of
war crimes
Ukraine once again accused the Russian army on Thursday of committing war crimes.
In the southern region of Zaporizhzhya, five out of six Ukrainian soldiers were shot on Sunday after being captured near the village of Novodaryivka, the prosecutor’s office in Kiev said. They said an investigation into war crimes and murder was now under way.
