Ukraine said on Thursday that it had shot down almost all of the Russian missiles that targeted Kiev and several regions overnight, killing one in Odessa, a new example of the intensification of this type of attack in May.
This ninth series of Russian missile strikes targeting the capital in particular since the beginning of the month comes at a time when Kiev says it is completing its preparations for a major offensive to drive the Russians out of Ukrainian territory.
During this latest “night attack,” Ukrainian forces managed to destroy “33 air targets — 29 missiles and 4 drones! said Air Force Commander Mykola Olechchuk of a total of 30 missiles fired by Russia, according to the military hierarchy.
The civil and military administration in kyiv judged that the Russian attacks carried out since the beginning of May were “unprecedented in their power, their intensity and their variety”.
According to her, cruise missiles were launched by Russian strategic bombers from the Caspian Sea region, and reconnaissance drones then flew over the capital.
“All enemy targets in Kyiv airspace have been detected and destroyed,” she said.
A fire broke out in a company following a fall of debris, but no injuries were reported, said the mayor of kyiv, Vitali Klitschko.
In the port of Odessa on the Black Sea, one person was killed and two others injured in an attack on an industrial site, according to an army spokesman.
The army also reported “cruise missile” attacks in the Vinnytsia region in the center of the country, and local media reported explosions in Khmelnytskyi, some 100 kilometers further west.
Derailment of a Russian train
These new attacks come the day after Moscow and kyiv extended the grain agreement for two months, so important for global food security.
On Thursday, a freight train carrying grain derailed without causing any casualties in Crimea annexed by Russia, according to the authorities, in the midst of a wave of incidents and sabotage regularly attributed by Moscow to Kiev.
In a statement, the local railways said the incident was the result of the actions of “third parties”, a euphemism that seemed to refer to sabotage and a formulation previously used during derailments in early May in a Russian region bordering the ‘Ukraine.
A Russian parliamentary official spoke of an explosion due to an explosive device.
On the diplomatic front, the day before, the Chinese emissary sent, Li Hui, had concluded a two-day visit to kyiv to discuss the “settlement” of the conflict.
Unsurprisingly, the trip of this diplomat – the highest Chinese official to have visited Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion – did not allow for a breakthrough.
“There is no panacea to resolve the crisis and all parties must […] build a relationship of mutual trust and create the conditions for stopping the war and dialogue,” Li insisted, according to a statement from the Chinese Foreign Ministry.
Mr. Li spoke in particular with the head of Ukrainian diplomacy Dmytro Kouleba, who once again indicated that Ukraine will not accept any proposal which “would involve the loss of its territories or the freezing of the conflict”.
Li Hui’s trip should take him to Poland on Friday, then in the days that follow to Germany, France and Russia.
Also on the diplomatic front, the UN Security Council is due to meet Thursday at 3 p.m. EDT to discuss the situation in Ukraine, on the eve of the start of the G7 summit in Japan where the tightening of sanctions to further strangle the Russian economy will be on the menu.