Dhe Ukrainian head of state Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called on Germany and France to respond “hard” to Russia’s recent attacks on Ukraine. The Ukrainian head of state said on Monday on Twitter that he had spoken to Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) and French President Emmanuel Macron.
“We talked about strengthening our air defenses, about the need for a tough European and international response and increased pressure on Russia” in the face of recent Russian attacks, Zelensykj wrote. He called for an emergency meeting of the G-7 countries, which will now take place: The seven leading industrial nations are planning consultations on the war in Ukraine on Tuesday afternoon. That said the German government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg condemned the attacks on civilian targets and pledged continued support for Ukraine.
Zelenskyy also accused Russia of targeting civilians and power plants in its rocket attacks on Kyiv and other major Ukrainian cities. “We are dealing with terrorists,” Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram on Monday. “They want panic and chaos, they want to destroy our energy supply system.”
Dozens of missiles and Iranian drones have been fired at energy facilities across the country, including areas in western Ukraine, Zelenskyy continued. The second goal is people. “They specifically chose such a time and such targets in order to cause as much damage as possible.” Zelenskyj called on the civilian population in his country to stay in the air raid shelters and to follow the safety rules.
Russia had fired more than 80 rockets at Kyiv and other cities in Ukraine. The attacks on Monday morning killed at least 11 people across the country and injured at least 64, according to the Ukrainian civil defense. According to Mayor Vitaly Klitschko, five people died and 52 were injured in Kyiv alone. Many people were on their way to work.
Damage to a high-rise building from Russian shelling in Kyiv
Quelle: dpa/Efrem Lukatsky
people receive medical care
Quelle: dpa/Efrem Lukatsky
Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin called the attack a reaction to the “terrorist attacks” against Russian territory. The targets were the energy infrastructure, military installations and telecommunications, Putin said at a meeting of the National Security Council and threatened even tougher action. “No one should have any doubts about that.”
In total, Russia fired 83 missiles, 43 of which were intercepted, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense said.
The visa office of the German embassy was also hit. A spokesman for the Foreign Office confirmed damage to the building. But there has been “no service” there for months. After more than five and a half hours, the air alert in Kyiv was lifted.
Russia blames secret service for bridge explosion
Just a few hours earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin had described the explosion on a bridge connecting Russia and the annexed peninsula of Crimea as a “terrorist act” behind which Ukrainian secret services were behind.
The Ukrainian secret service SBU has not confirmed involvement. The SBU headquarters is located in the center of Kiev. Moscow has repeatedly threatened to shell command posts in the Ukrainian capital if the shelling of Russian territory doesn’t stop.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba sharply rejected this. “No, Putin was not ‘provoked’ by the Crimean Bridge to Rocket Terrorism,” he tweeted. “Russia kept hitting Ukraine with rockets in front of the bridge. Desperate because of defeats on the battlefield, Putin is trying to use rocket terror to change the pace of the war in his favor.”
The bridge to the Crimea is important as a supply route for the Russian attack. The building also has a high symbolic value for the leadership in Moscow. Putin ordered the attack on Ukraine on February 24. The war will now last almost eight months.
According to Russian sources, the missile strikes are part of the warfare. “All this is happening as part of the military special operation,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, according to the Interfax news agency.
“The best response to Russian missile terror is to supply Ukraine with anti-aircraft and missile defense systems,” said Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov. Russia considers rocket attacks to be an effective means of intimidation. They are not. “They are war crimes.”
The government of the Republic of Moldova accused Russia of violating Moldovan airspace in the rocket attacks. In Belarus, ruler Alexander Lukashenko announced the formation of a regional military unit of the country’s armed forces with the Russian army. He had agreed this with Putin, said Lukashenko.
Electricity and water supply destroyed
The rocket salvos hit several cities in Ukraine in the morning, from Kharkiv in the east to Lviv in the west. Across the country, Russian missiles hit civilian facilities and energy infrastructure. The mayor of Kharkiv, Ihor Terekhov, reported that three Russian attacks had cut off electricity and water supplies. The regional governor of Lviv, Maksym Chelmytskyi, also reported hits on the energy infrastructure.
In contrast to previous attacks in Kyiv, which mostly hit suburbs and outskirts, several locations in the city center were attacked on Monday.
Zelenskyj wrote on Telegram that Russia is trying to “destroy us and sweep us off the face of the earth”. “Hold on and be strong.”
