Russia said on Tuesday it launched mass strikes on Ukraine hours ahead of a meeting of G7 leaders who Kyiv is lobbying to supply enhanced air defences against what it called “desperate” attacks by Moscow.
Officials in Ukraine’s western region of Lviv said at least three Russian missiles targeted energy infrastructure forcing Kyiv to ask people to cut their electricity usage and switch off appliances at night.Russia’s defence ministry confirmed the attacks saying it had carried out massive strikes using long-range and high-precision weapons and that “all assigned targets were hit”. Ukraine has ratcheted up its calls for advanced air defence systems to help stave off future Russian barrages, with Prime Minister Denys Shmygal asking for “more modern weapons to protect the sky and civilians”.
The G7 meeting comes a day after Russian missiles rocked the Ukrainian capital for the first time in months. President Volodymyr Zelensky was defiant, warning his country “cannot be intimidated”.Ukraine’s emergency services said on Tuesday that the overall toll had risen to 19 dead and more than 100 people wounded.The Kremlin said it expected “confrontation” with the West to continue as the G7 leaders prepared to meet.The United Nations said on Tuesday the wave of attacks may have violated the laws of war and would amount to war crimes if civilians were deliberately targeted.
Monday’s mass barrage came in apparent retaliation for an explosion on Saturday that damaged a key bridge linking Russia to Crimea, a peninsula Moscow annexed from Ukraine in 2014.Russian President Vladimir Putin blamed Ukraine for the bridge blast and warned of “severe” responses to any further attacks.Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said the strikes showed Moscow was “desperate” after a spate of embarrassing military setbacks, a sentiment echoed by NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg who said they were “a sign of weakness”.
Turkey on Tuesday called for a viable ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine “as soon as possible”, with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan expected to meet Putin in Kazakhstan this week. / Compiled from newswires by Argumentum.al
