Ukraine proposed Tuesday that its allies shoot down Russian missiles targeting it from their territory, if “all necessary means” to do so were not provided to Ukrainian forces, which lack anti-aircraft defense systems.
The proposal came from the head of Ukrainian diplomacy, Dmytro Kouleba, during a press conference in kyiv with his German counterpart Annalena Baerbock, who estimated that the hesitations on military aid to Ukraine “threaten” the security of Westerners. “There is no legal, security or moral argument that would prevent our partners from shooting down Russian missiles over the territory of Ukraine from their territory,” Mr. Kouleba said.
At the start of the invasion, Ukraine had already called on the West to help destroy Russian missiles above its territory, but its allies then considered that the risk of escalation of the conflict was too great.
Mr. Kouleba brushed aside the argument on Tuesday, noting that shooting down missiles does not endanger Russia or Russian soldiers. These are “pieces of metal that carry death from Russia to Ukraine,” he insisted. “If you don’t want to do it, provide us with whatever means necessary. We will deploy them on the territory of Ukraine and we will intercept these missiles ourselves,” he concluded.
On a surprise visit to kyiv, Mme Baerbock, for her part, insisted on the need to deliver more anti-aircraft assets to this country as quickly as possible. “Every hesitation and delay in supporting Ukraine costs innocent lives. And every hesitation to support Ukraine also endangers our own security,” said the German minister.
According to her, Russian President Vladimir Putin “knows no limits” and has unleashed a campaign of “destruction” of Ukraine, citing the example of its electricity network relentlessly bombed by Russia.
Anti-aircraft defense, “absolute priority”
“The best protection against Russian missile terror is to strengthen Ukraine’s air defenses. So this is a top priority for us these days,” Mr.me Baerbock.
His trip comes at a time when intense fighting is taking place in the border region of Kharkiv, in the northeast of the country, where Moscow’s troops have been on the offensive since May 10, and after a new Russian night attack by drones over Kharkiv and other Ukrainian regions.
The German minister, whose eighth visit to Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion in February 2022, was concerned upon her arrival about a situation which had “dramatically worsened” for the Ukrainian army.
According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, the Russian assault in the Kharkiv region could be the “first wave” of a much larger operation.
The head of the occupation administration in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region said Tuesday that the Russian army now controls “around 40%” of the town of Vovchansk, one of the two northeastern border areas where it is went on the attack. Russian soldiers “continue to advance towards the Vovtcha, the river which divides the city into two parts. […] The northern part of the city has already been completely liberated,” Vitali Gantchev told Russian TV channel Pervy Kanal.
According to a spokesperson for Ukrainian forces in the region, the situation on the ground “remains difficult and is changing quickly.”
Exercises involving nuclear weapons
In response to Mme Baerbock, the Kremlin said that an increase in Western arms supplies to Ukraine would not change Russia’s current advantage on the front. “This will not allow the Ukrainian armed forces to somehow change the dynamics,” its spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told journalists.
Furthermore, Russia announced on Tuesday the start, near Ukrainian territory, of exercises involving nuclear weapons, claiming that it was a response to Western “threats”.
The Ukrainian Air Force, for its part, announced on Tuesday that it had shot down 28 of the 29 Shahed explosive drones sent overnight by Russia, particularly in the city of Kharkiv, the second largest in Ukraine, and in the southern and southern regions. center.
In Kharkiv, around thirty trucks, buses and cars were damaged and two houses, a garage and a minibus set on fire by falling drone debris, said regional governor Oleg Synegoubov. Two people were also injured early in the city, “following a rocket attack against a transport company”, he added.
Across this region, more than 14,000 people have been displaced by the fighting, the World Health Organization deplored Tuesday.