KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian forces on Thursday launched massive missile strikes on Ukraine’s Kyiv and Chernihiv regions, areas that had not been targeted in weeks, as Ukrainian officials announced an operation to liberate an occupied region in the country’s south.
Kyiv regional governor Oleksiy Kuleba said on Telegram that a settlement in the region’s Vyshgorod district was attacked early Thursday morning; an “infrastructure object” was hit. It is not yet clear if there are any casualties.
Vyshgorod is located 20 kilometers (about 12 miles) north of central Kyiv. Kuleba linked the strikes to Statehood Day, which Ukraine marked for the first time on Thursday.
“Russia, with the help of missiles, is taking revenge for the widespread popular resistance that the Ukrainians were able to organize precisely because of their statehood,” Kuleba told Ukrainian television. “Ukraine has already violated Russia’s plans and will continue to defend itself.
The Governor of Chernihiv Vyacheslav Chaus reported that numerous rockets were fired from the territory of Belarus at the village of Goncharovska.
Russian troops withdrew from the Kyiv and Chernigov region months ago after failing to capture either. The renewed strikes on the regions come a day after the leader of pro-Kremlin separatists in the east, Denis Pushilin, publicly called on Russian forces to “liberate the Russian cities founded by the Russian people – Kyiv, Chernihiv, Poltava, Odesa, Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, Zaporozhye, Lutsk.”
Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, was also shelled overnight, its mayor, Igor Terekhov, said. The southern city of Nikolaev was also shelled, injuring one person.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian army continued to counterattack in the occupied southern region of Kherson, striking a key bridge over the Dnieper River on Wednesday.
Ukrainian media on Thursday quoted Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovich as saying that the operation to liberate Kherson “has already begun.” Arestovich said Kyiv’s forces plan to isolate Russian troops there and leave them with three options – to “retreat if possible, surrender or be destroyed.”
Oleksiy Danilov, the secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, said in televised remarks on Wednesday that he was “cautious” in assessing the timetable for a possible counteroffensive. “I would really like it to be much faster,” he said, adding that “the enemy is now concentrating the maximum number (of forces) right in the Kherson direction.”
“A very large-scale movement of their troops has begun, they are gathering additional forces,” Danilov warned.
The British military assessed on Thursday that Ukraine’s counter-offensive in Kherson was “gathering momentum”.
“Their forces have very likely established an outpost south of the Ingulets River, which forms the northern border of Russian-occupied Kherson,” Britain’s Ministry of Defense said on Thursday.
It added that Ukraine had used its new long-range artillery to damage at least three of the bridges over the Dnieper River “which Russia relies on to supply areas under its control.” The 1,000-metre-long Antonivsky Bridge, which Ukrainian forces struck on Wednesday, is likely to be “inoperable”, the British Ministry of Defense has concluded.
Ukraine’s presidential office said Thursday morning that Russian shelling of towns and villages over the past 24 hours had killed at least five civilians, all in the eastern Donetsk region, and wounded nine others.
Fighting in recent weeks has been concentrated in the Donetsk region. It has intensified in recent days as Russian forces appear to be emerging from a reported “operational pause” following the capture of neighboring Luhansk Oblast.
A rocket hit a residential building in Toretsk early Thursday morning, destroying two floors. “Rocket terror again. We will not surrender… We will not be intimidated,” Donetsk regional governor Pavlo Kirilenko said on Telegram.
Analysts at the Institute for the Study of War believe that Russian forces are focusing their efforts on capturing the towns of Bakhmut and Siversk in the Donetsk region.
“Russian forces have committed sufficient resources to launch near-daily ground attacks and seize territory along these two axes, but have failed to sustain a similar offensive operational tempo or make similar territorial gains elsewhere in Ukraine,” the Institute said.
___
Follow the AP’s coverage of the Russian-Ukrainian war on
Add Comment