(Kyiv) Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida arrived in Kyiv for a surprise visit on Tuesday, hours after Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in neighboring Russia for a three-day trip. Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine will be at the heart of discussions at both meetings.
Footage broadcast by Japan’s national broadcaster NHK showed Mr. Kishida walking on the platform of Kyiv’s Central Station, escorted by a few people who appeared to be Ukrainian officials. The Ukrainian capital has not been hit hard by the war, which has become bogged down in eastern Ukraine.
On the ground, Russian and Ukrainian officials on Tuesday gave conflicting versions of what appeared to be a daring attack on Monday against Russian cruise missiles being transported by train in Ukraine’s occupied Crimean peninsula.
A Ukrainian military spokesman says Kyiv was behind the blast that reportedly destroyed several Kalibr cruise missiles near the northern Crimea town of Dzhankoi, but refrained from directly claiming any the responsibility.
Natalia Humeniuk, spokeswoman for Ukraine’s Southern Operational Command, described the strike as a signal to Russia to leave the Black Sea peninsula it illegally seized from Ukraine in 2014.
Speaking on Ukrainian television, Mme Humeniuk stressed the importance of Dzhankoi as a railway junction and said that “for now the way forward (for Russian forces in Crimea) is clear — they must leave the peninsula by rail”.
A vague statement from Ukraine’s military intelligence agency said on Monday that several missiles carried by rail and intended to be launched from submarines had been destroyed, without specifying whether Ukraine was responsible or what weapon had been destroyed. used. However, the agency hinted that Kyiv was behind the blast, saying it was advancing “Russia’s demilitarization process and preparing Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula for disoccupation”.
On Tuesday, Moscow-installed Crimean authorities gave a different version of events, saying Ukrainian drones had attacked civilian facilities in Dzhankoi.
Sergei Aksenov, the Kremlin-appointed leader of Crimea, said the attack injured one civilian but caused “no serious damage”.
Mr Aksenov’s adviser, Oleg Kryuchkov, dismissed Ukraine’s claims and claimed that the Ukrainian drones had targeted residential areas rather than the railway line. Igor Ivin, the head of the local administration of Dzhankoi, said the attack damaged power lines, a private house, a store and a university building.
Late Monday, unconfirmed reports circulating on social media claimed that Russian air defenses had shot down several drones over Crimea. None of these statements could be independently verified.
Throughout the current war, there have been reports of attacks on Russian military bases and other infrastructure in Crimea, with Ukraine rarely explicitly claiming responsibility for these incidents, but welcoming them with glee.
In August, powerful explosions rocked a Russian airbase in western Crimea, with Ukraine later claiming nine warplanes were destroyed. Satellite photos showed that at least seven fighter jets had exploded and others were likely damaged. At first, the Ukrainian authorities avoided taking credit for the attack, while mocking the Russian explanation that a careless smoker could have caused the fire and the explosion of ammunition on the base. by Saki. Unusually, the highest ranking member of the Ukrainian army announced a few weeks later that he had ordered the strikes.
Russian-appointed authorities also reported repeated Ukrainian drone attacks in Crimea, most of which targeted the port of Sevastopol, which hosts Russia’s main naval base.
These incidents in Crimea, along with reported drone attacks on Russian territory, far from the front lines of the war, exposed major weaknesses in Moscow’s defenses and embarrassed Russian President Vladimir Putin, who would have thought that the invasion of Ukraine would be quick and easy.