War in Ukraine, Day 123 | New Russian strikes on Kyiv

(Kyiv) Kyiv was targeted on Sunday by new Russian strikes which left at least one dead and four injured, in a district already affected in recent weeks, on the opening day of a G7 Summit in Bavaria.

Four missiles hit the neighborhood from 6:30 a.m. (3:30 a.m. GMT), Edouard Chkouta, who lives in this wealthy neighborhood in the northwest of the Ukrainian capital, located not far from the center, told AFP.

An apartment building was hit and the top three floors – out of a total of ten – were destroyed, AFP noted on the spot. Several fires broke out, releasing thick brown smoke. Firefighters fought for several hours to bring them under control.

“I saw with my own eyes the wounded coming out,” said Mr. Chkouta.

“I went to the balcony, I saw missiles falling and heard a huge explosion, everything vibrated,” Yuri, 38, who also lives in this complex, told AFP.

One of the missiles hit a nearby kindergarten, apparently with no casualties.

According to a new report provided Sunday afternoon by the mayor of Kyiv, Vitaly Klitschko, “a body was found, six residents were injured, four of whom were hospitalized, including a seven-year-old girl”.

The girl was “out of danger” after being extracted from the rubble and then operated on at the hospital, he said. His mother, whom rescuers took several hours to extricate, was “in a state of moderate gravity”, he added.

AFP assisted in the rescue of the girl’s mother. Authorities introduced her as a citizen of the Russian Federation, in her 30s.

Mr. Klitschko initially spoke of four injuries. He did not give details of the deceased.

This is the third time since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine that this district has been targeted by missiles. He was first hit in mid-March, then on April 28, during the visit to Kyiv by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres. A Ukrainian journalist from Radio Liberty had been killed.

The district is home to an arms factory, called Artem. Founded at the end of the 19th^e century, it produces in particular air-to-air and anti-tank rockets and large-caliber missiles, according to a Ukrainian specialized military site.

The Russian Ministry of Defense confirmed at the end of the day that this factory “was the target” and that a Russian missile had “precisely hit (its) workshops”. He claimed that the damage to the nearby residential building was caused by a Ukrainian air defense missile.

A spokesman for the Ukrainian air force told him that the strikes had been carried out by missiles, “probably X101”, fired by TU-95 and TU-160 bombers from the Caspian Sea. Moscow did not provide information on the weapons used.

“Intimidating Ukrainians”

Mr Klitschko accused the Russians of wanting to “intimidate the Ukrainians […] approaching the NATO summit” and that of the G7, the two events being linked in Bavaria then in Spain from this Sunday until Thursday.

A little later, he called on the inhabitants of the capital – many of whom do not obey the almost daily alerts urging them to seek shelter – to be vigilant.

The enemy “tries to intimidate us, to sow panic and despair. Let’s stay vigilant! Let’s respect the basic safety rules that can save our lives. As soon as you hear the warning signal, go down to the shelters, do not neglect your safety,” he stressed.

Shortly after the strikes, dozens of residents gathered on the sidewalks in front of the affected building, some in tears, others in bathrobes or accompanied by their dog, after the emergency services called on them to evacuate, noted the AFP.

Irena, 32, stepped out onto the sidewalk with her 17-month-old son Makar. “We went down with our emergency backpack which has been near the door since the beginning of the war because we had to evacuate,” she said.

The last Russian strike on the capital dated back to June 5, and had targeted a factory on the southeastern outskirts, injuring one person.

A “barbarism”

US President Joe Biden called the attack on Kyiv “barbaric”. The Briton Boris Johnson warned the Frenchman Emmanuel Macron (whose country still holds the presidency of the European Union for a few days) against any attempt to negotiate “now” with Moscow a peace in Ukraine. And the two men said they still saw an opportunity to “turn the tide” of the war, according to Downing Street.

Mr. Biden, who arrived in Europe on Saturday evening and will then participate from Tuesday in the NATO summit in Madrid, is determined to consolidate, and over time, the ranks of Westerners against Moscow.

The British Prime Minister, an ally of Mr. Biden on this point, also called on the G7 leaders on Saturday not to “abandon Ukraine”, warning against any “fatigue” in supporting Kyiv and announcing aid additional economic savings of up to $525 million, bringing the total to $1.8 billion.

“Any sign of fatigue or weakening in Western support for Ukraine will work directly in favor of President Putin,” Downing Street insisted.

And as soon as the G7 opened, four countries, which Mr Biden said would be joined by the other three, announced an embargo on imports of gold from Russia, Russia’s second largest export after energy, and which earns him tens of billions of dollars.

More weapons and sanctions demanded against Moscow

The Ukrainian government on Sunday demanded more weapons and sanctions against Moscow from the G7 countries, meeting at a summit in Bavaria (Germany), following new Russian strikes in Kyiv.

“The G7 Summit must respond with more sanctions against Russia and more heavy weapons for Ukraine”, urged Dmytro Kouleba, the head of Ukrainian diplomacy, on Twitter, calling for “defeating sick imperialism” Russian following this attack which injured at least four people.

“A 7-year-old Ukrainian child was sleeping peacefully in Kyiv until a Russian cruise missile blew up her building,” said the Ukrainian Foreign Minister.

“It is extremely important that during the summits this week, the G7 and NATO demonstrate that their commitment to defending Ukraine will never be weaker than the desire to [Vladimir] Putin to seize it, ”also insisted on Sunday Mr. Kouleba in a column co-written with his British counterpart, Liz Truss.

The minister again called for “increasing and accelerating the supply of heavy weapons, toughening sanctions against all those who contribute to Putin’s war and completely stopping Russian energy imports”.

“Each additional weapon will help the Ukrainians repel the Russian invaders” and “each new sanction will help to deprive Putin’s military machine of resources and save more lives”, he said.

Military training centers attacked

Russia said on Sunday it struck three military training centers in northern and western Ukraine, including one near the Polish border, days before a NATO summit of which Warsaw is a member.

These bombardments were carried out with “high-precision weapons of the Russian Aerospace Forces and missiles [de croisière] Kalibr,” Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said in a statement.

Among the targets is a military training center for Ukrainian forces in the Starytchi district, in the Lviv region, about thirty kilometers from the Polish border.

The other two targeted Ukrainian training centers are in the Zhytomyr region (Centre-West) and in the Cherniguiv region (North).

Mr. Konachenkov did not specify from where or when these missiles had been fired, but Ukraine announced on Saturday that Russia had carried out strikes that day from Belarus, the northern border. Moscow has not commented on this.

After these strikes, several Ukrainian brigades “completely lost their combat capabilities” and “plans to deploy them in combat zones were thwarted”, Konashenkov said.

With these bombings, Russia is once again reminding us that it is capable of reaching any point in Ukrainian territory, even if most of the operations now take place in the east and south of this country.

Sievierodonetsk destroyed “90%”

Russian forces achieved major military successes in eastern Ukraine on Saturday, fully seizing, after a fierce battle, the strategic city of Sievierodonetsk and entering the neighboring city of Lyssytchansk.

The governor of the Luhansk region Sergei Gaïdaï confirmed Saturday evening the occupation of Sievierodonetsk, stressing that the city was “90% destroyed”. It will be very difficult to survive it”. According to him, the Russians have appointed a “commander” for this city from which it is only possible to escape “through occupied territories”.

The pro-Russian separatists have at the same time declared that they have “taken full control of the industrial zone of the Azot factory” in Sievierodonetsk and entered with the Russian military in Lyssychansk.

“Street fights are currently taking place there,” they added, without confirmation from an independent source being immediately obtainable.

Crucial progress on the ground for Russia, which wants to conquer the entire industrial basin of Donbass, already partially in the hands of pro-Russian separatists since 2014.

In addition, in Kharkiv, in the Northeast, the second largest metropolis of Ukraine, which has resisted the pressure of Russian troops since the start of the offensive, the missiles are falling again daily on the city center.

And Moscow said on Sunday it struck three military training centers in northern and western Ukraine, including one near the Polish border.