KYIV, Ukraine — Russia shatters a relatively mild situation for weeks inUkraine's capital, with long-range missiles heading for Kyiv at the beginning of Sunday Was fired. The power of Western leaders to meet in Europeto strengthen military and economic support for Ukraine.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said the missile attacked at least two homes, killing one and injuring six, including a seven-year-old girl and her mother. .. Associated Press journalists saw rescuers fight the flames and rescue civilians from the building.
The strike also damaged a nearby kindergarten, where a crater pierced the courtyard. US President Joe Biden called the attack "barbaric" after arriving in Germany for the G7 summit.
Ukrainian Air Force spokesman Yuriy Ignat said that since June 5, the first air-launched weapons targeting the capital have been launched from fighters over the Caspian Sea more than 1,500 km (932 miles) away. Said it was a Kh-101 cruise missile. ..
Mayor Kyiv told journalists that he considered airstrikes to be "probably a symbolic attack" prior to the NATO summit in Madrid, which began on Tuesday. A former US military commander in Europe said the strike was also a signal to theleadersof the G7 countries meeting on Sunday in Germany.
"Russia can do this all day long. You have no power to stop us." "Russians are humiliating Western leaders."
G7 leaders are up to date on a series of international economic steps to pressure and isolate Russia over the war in Ukraine. Was scheduled to be announced. It is a new ban on Russian gold imports. Biden, standing with German Prime Minister Olaf Scholz, the organizer of the three-day conference, said of the missile attack on Kieu:
Ukrainian MP Oleksiy Goncharenko has shown in a telegram messaging app that Russia has launched 14 missiles into the metropolitan area and Kieu itself, some intercepted. It writes that it suggests that it was done.
In a telephone interview, retired US General Hodges said that Russia has a limited inventory of precision missiles, saying, "If they are using them, it will be for a special purpose. Probably, "he told The Associated Press.
Russia denied targeting civilians during the four-month-old war, and did Hodges intend the missiles launched on Sunday to attack the apartment building? He said it was difficult to know.
Russian troops sought to take control of Kyiv early in the war. After the Ukrainian troops repelled them, the Kremlin largely shifted its focus to the southern and eastern parts of Ukraine.
Governor Igor Tabrez said on Sunday that a Russian rocket attack in the city of Chelcasy, about 160 kilometers (100 miles) southeast of Kyiv, killed one and injured five.
In the east, Russian troops fought to strengthen their interests by fighting to swallow the last remaining Ukrainian fortress in Luhansk Oblast. Luhansk Governor Serhiy Haidai said on Sunday that Russia had carried out a violent air bombing in Lysychans'k city, destroying television towers and seriously damaging road bridges.
"There are so many destructions. Lysychans'k is almost unrecognizable," he wrote on Facebook.
For weeks, Lysychans'k and the nearby city of Sievierodonetsk have been bloody and devastating by Russian troops and their separatist allies with the aim of occupying the entire eastern Donetsk region of Ukraine. Has been exposed to various attacks.
They made steady and slow progress, and Haidai confirmed on Saturday that Sieviero Donetsk, including a chemical plant in which hundreds of Ukrainian troops and civilians were trapped, had collapsed.
Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov commented on the battle of Sieviero Donetsk, and Russian-Moscow-backed separatists now dominate not only the city but also the surrounding villages. Said that. He said Russian troops stopped Ukrainian troops' attempts to turn the Azoth chemical plant into a "center of stubborn resistance."
Occupation of Lysychansik gives Russian troops and separatist forces control over all major settlements in Luhansk. In the final report, they dominated about half of Donetsk, the second state of Donbus.
On Saturday, Russia launched dozens of missiles in several parts of the country far from the center of the eastern battle. According to Ukrainian Air Force Command, some of the missiles were launched from Russia's long-range Tu-22 bomber, which was first deployed from Belarus.
On the economic front, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said banning Russia's imports of gold meant a significant increase in sanctions.
"This is Russia's second most profitable export after energy," Blinken told US news channel CNN. "It's about $ 19 billion a year, and most of it is in the G7 countries, so it's important to cut it off and deny access to about $ 19 billion a year in revenue."
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