Russia launches new salvo of missiles against Ukraine, killing one
Russia launched a new salvo of missiles against Ukraine on Thursday, causing one death in the capital and power cuts in several regions, the day after Kyiv’s allies announced the sending of heavy tanks.
Moscow denounced that this delivery of heavy equipment meant the “direct involvement” of the West in the conflict and intensified its fighting in various areas of the Donetsk region, in the east.
A first balance revealed one dead and two injured in the capital, according to its mayor, Vitali Klitschko. The fatality was “a 55-year-old man,” the municipal administration said. The city’s military administration said the death was caused by falling fragments from a missile that had been shot down.
In total, Russian forces fired “more than 30 missiles” at Ukraine on Thursday morning, a military spokesman said. Overnight, 24 Iranian-made Shahed drones were shot down, according to Ukrainian forces. Power cuts were done by Kyiv and its region, as well as two other areas, to “avoid major damage to power infrastructure if enemy missiles hit their target,” with two energy infrastructure sites damaged in the Odessa region (south).
The day before, the US and Germany had authorized the shipment of dozens of heavy combat vehicles to Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelenski thanked his allies for supplying this equipment and said it was “an important step on the road to victory.”
For the Kremlin, the announcement of the military aid amounts to a “direct involvement” of the Western countries, united behind Ukraine to weaken Russia. Russian forces are “intensifying” fighting in the east – the Ukrainian army is facing Russia’s “superiority in numbers and weapons” – and the use of “huge numbers” of soldiers as “cannon fodder” had been reported.
