Eleven civilians were killed by a Russian missile attack on Zelensky’s hometown | Another thirty were injured and there were fires from the bombs

2023-06-14 01:12:35

At least eleven people died and about thirty were injured by a series of missile attacks carried out by the Russian Army against a residential area of ​​Kryvyi Rih -president’s hometown Volodymyr Zelensky–located in the Dnipropetrovsk province, in the east of the country.

“Russian murderers continue their war against residential buildings, ordinary cities and people. Unfortunately, there are dead and wounded. The rescue operation in Kryvyi Rih continues,” Zelensky said via his Twitter account, while sharing a video showing fires burning from the blown-out windows of the five-story apartment building that was attacked, and the frames of burnt-out cars stretched out in front of him. “My condolences to all those who lost loved ones, there will never be forgiveness for Russian terrorists, who will be responsible for every missile they launch,” the president added.

https://twitter.com/ZelenskyyUa/status/1668480633864171521

The attack

Krivi Rig is an industrial city located about 400 kilometers southeast of kyiv that before the war had more than 600,000 inhabitants. According to the Ukrainian Air Force, Russia attacked at dawn with Kh-101 and Kh-555 cruise missiles, launched from planes from the Caspian Sea area.

Rescue teams scrambled to recover lifeless bodies from under the rubble. The regional governor, Serhiy Lisak, detailed the work of the anti-aircraft defense systems, which managed to shoot down three cruise missiles, although others hit the city, while firefighters had to act to put out the fires that were caused by the fall. of the bombs.

The European Union described the Russian attacks as cowardly: “Russia continues to terrorize Ukrainian civilians with cowardly attacks against Kiev, Kharkiv and more recently in Krivói Rog against residential buildings,” criticized the EU Foreign Affairs spokesman, Peter Stano, defending that civilians cannot be a target of attacks in a war. And he added: “Those responsible must be held accountable. The EU will remain on Ukraine’s side for as long as it takes.”

“Catastrophic” counteroffensive

For his part, Russian President Vladimir Putinheld a meeting with journalists and described as “catastrophic” the losses that Ukrainian troops are suffering in their attempt to vacate the east and south of the country. According to him, Kiev lost “about 25%, or maybe 30%, of the equipment” that the Westerners supplied, so that 160 tanks and more than 360 armored vehicles were out of service. “We have ten times fewer casualties than the Ukrainian Armed Forces,” he said.

In turn, Putin remarked to kyiv that it will not be able to resist for long with only weapons delivered by its Western allies, when its military industry does not produce “not a crumb.” “The United States pretends that it does not fear (an escalation). Instead, there are many reasonable people there who do not want to take things to a Third World War, in which there will be no victors, including that country,” he warned. While, The United States announced in a statement a new military aid package for Ukraine worth 325 million dollarswhich includes 25 armored vehicles, ammunition for artillery rocket systems and anti-tank weapons.

The Ukrainian Army continues its gradual advance towards the Zaporizhia region. In this counteroffensive managed to retake seven locations for the moment. These are Blahodatne and Neskuchne, Storozhove and Makarovke in Donetsk, as well as Novodarivka, Lobkove and Levadne in Zaporizhia, said General Staff spokesman Andri Kovalev. For her part, Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar assured that the liberated territories occupy an area of ​​90 square kilometers, which is equivalent to the territory of the city of Khmelnitski.

Putin admits mistakes

Although reluctantly Vladimir Putin admitted mistakes, both in the planning of the military campaign in Ukraine and in the lack of foresight when it came to defending the border from enemy incursions and sabotage. “Of course, we must protect our citizens, we must strengthen the security of the border. In principle, one could have thought that the enemy would behave like this and, surely, prepare better,” he said. In turn, he assured that if Ukraine continues its attacks on border regions like Belgorod, then Russia will be forced to create a kind of sanitary zone on Ukrainian territory at such a distance that it is impossible to reach your country.

Regarding drone attacks on Russian territory, the president also acknowledged that missile defense is designed against planes and missiles, and that modern unmanned devices are made of light materials, including wood, so they are quite difficult to detect. . Even so, he was convinced about the defense of Moscow and other cities.

Besides, announced that Russia is now considering withdrawing from the Black Sea grain agreement sponsored by Turkey and the UN, which expires in mid-July. “Unfortunately they deceived us again, they did nothing to release the supplies to foreign markets. I mean the freight, the insurance, the payments, the connection of Rosseljozbank to the Swift system,” he explained. Russia did not sign this agreement to favor Ukraine, “but for our friendly countries in Africa and Latin America, because the grain must go first of all to the poorest countries,” he insisted, although he also acknowledged that he would address this issue with the delegation of leaders Africans who will visit Saint Petersburg this week with a peace initiative for Ukraine.