Russia to intensify offensive against kyiv in response to attacks on its territory
Russia announced that it had destroyed an arms factory on the outskirts of kyiv and reported that the attacks against the Ukrainian capital will intensify in response to the attacks it has suffered on its territory.
“The number and magnitude of missile strikes at locations in kyiv will increase in response to all terrorist-type attacks and sabotage carried out on Russian territory by the nationalist regime in kyiv,” Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov, detailing that on Thursday night they destroyed a surface-to-air missile factory near the Ukrainian capital.
Konashenkov’s statements seem to announce a change in strategy by Russia, which after failing to control kyiv and its region, withdrew its troops and announced at the end of March that it was concentrating on eastern Ukraine.
On Thursday, the governors of two Russian regions, bordering Ukraine, accused kyiv of bombing two towns on Russian territory, Klimovo and Spodariushino, attacks in which 7 were injured.
In the first of the places, the attack was carried out with helicopters, according to Russian sources, accusations denied by Ukraine.
Konashenkov explained that one of the helicopters that carried out this attack was destroyed by the Russian defense when it was returning to its base.
Russia claims it killed 30 Polish mercenaries in Ukraine
Russia reported that it killed 30 Polish mercenaries who were fighting with Ukrainian troops in the northeast of the country, in the Kharkov region, at a time of heightened tension between Moscow and Warsaw.
“A detachment of mercenaries from a private Polish company (…) was liquidated in the town of Izyumskoe,” Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said in a statement.
kyiv says there are no victims in kyiv and reports 5 dead in the Donbass
Five people died in the Ukrainian region of Donbass in the last 24 hours, and there were also explosions overnight south of kyiv, in which no casualties or major material damage were initially reported, the Ukrainian presidency said on Friday.
Control of Donbass is now the priority target of the Russian army in its offensive in Ukraine. In Donetsk, the most important region of the Donbass, “where there is fighting on the front line”, three people were killed and seven others were injured, according to the Ukrainian presidency.
In Lugansk, also in Donbass, there were two dead and two wounded in the bombing.
In the kyiv area, from where Russian troops withdrew at the end of March, there were explosions in the Vasylkiv district, southwest of the capital. Anti-aircraft alerts resounded several times in the last few hours, the governor of the kyiv region, Olexandre Pavliuk, said on Telegram.