Many people in the Ukrainian capital were on their way to work when Russian missiles landed. Air alarm is triggered. The war is back in Kyiv.
Russia has fired more than 80 rockets at Kyiv and other cities in Ukraine. The attacks on Monday morning killed at least 11 people across the country and injured at least 64, according to the Ukrainian civil defense. According to Mayor Vitaly Klitschko, five people died and 52 were injured in Kyiv alone. Many people were on their way to work.
Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin called the attack a reaction to the “terrorist attacks” against Russian territory. Objects of the energy infrastructure, military control and telecommunications were fired at with high-precision weapons, Putin said at a meeting of the National Security Council. The blows came from the sea, from the air and from the ground.
At the same time, the Russian President threatened Kyiv with even tougher action. “If the attempts to carry out terrorist attacks on our territory continue, the responses from the Russian side will be harsh – and their scale will correspond to the level of the threat to the Russian Federation,” said Putin. “No one should have any doubts about that.”
Russia fires 83 missiles
According to Mayor Vitaly Klitschko, the projectiles hit the center of Kyiv. There was an air alert in almost all parts of the country. The electricity and water supply collapsed in some places. In total, Russia fired 83 missiles, 43 of which were intercepted, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense said.
The visa office of the German embassy was also hit. A spokesman for the Foreign Office confirmed damage to the building. But there has been “no service” there for months. After more than five and a half hours, the air alert in Kyiv was lifted.
Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has promised Kyiv rapid air defense assistance. “We are doing everything we can to quickly strengthen Ukraine’s air defenses,” wrote the Greens politician on Twitter. She spoke with a view to the Russian rocket fire of people in fear of death in the morning traffic in Kiev and an impact crater next to a playground and said: “It is vile and unjustifiable that Putin is shooting at cities and civilians with rockets.”
Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht (SPD) had previously reiterated her announcement made a week and a half ago in Odessa: “In the next few days, the first of four state-of-the-art Iris-T SLM air defense systems will be ready to provide effective protection for the people of Ukraine.”
Putin ordered the rocket attacks after an explosion on Saturday rattled the 19-kilometer bridge linking Russia and the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, annexed by Moscow in 2014. Russia blames the Ukrainian secret service SBU for the explosion.
The Ukrainian secret service SBU has not confirmed involvement. The SBU headquarters is located in the center of Kiev. Moscow has repeatedly threatened to shell command posts in the Ukrainian capital if the shelling of Russian territory doesn’t stop.
Dmytro Kuleba: “Putin is desperate”
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba sharply rejected this. “No, Putin was not ‘provoked’ by the Crimean Bridge to Rocket Terrorism,” he said on Twitter. “Russia kept hitting Ukraine with rockets before the bridge. Putin is desperate because of the defeats on the battlefield and is trying to change the tempo of the war in his favor with rocket terror.”
The bridge to the Crimea is important as a supply route for the Russian attack. The building also has a high symbolic value for the leadership in Moscow. Putin ordered the attack on Ukraine on February 24. The war will now last almost eight months.
According to Russian sources, the missile strikes are part of the warfare. “All this is happening as part of the military special operation,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the Interfax news agency.
Scholz calls Selenskyj
Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) called Selenskyj after the attack and assured the solidarity of Germany and the other G7 countries. Government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit said that the G7 states want to consult with Selenskyj in a video conference on Tuesday.
“The best response to Russian missile terror is to supply Ukraine with anti-aircraft and missile defense systems,” said Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov. Russia considers rocket attacks to be an effective means of intimidation. They are not. “They are war crimes.”
EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen has expressed her dismay at the recent Russian attacks on numerous cities in Ukraine. “Putin’s Russia has once again shown the world what it stands for: brutality and terror,” wrote the German politician on Twitter. She added that she knew that the Ukrainians would remain strong.
Von der Leyen reiterated that Ukraine would be assisted for as long as necessary. “By any means we have.” She also expressed her condolences to the victims of the attacks in a video message recorded in Narva, Estonia, near the Russian border.
Source: Stern
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