It is a new massive attack by Russian forces, while the United States and Germany have finally decided to deliver tanks to support Ukraine. The country was targeted on Thursday morning by 55 Russian missiles, launched from the air and the sea. According to the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian armed forces, General Valery Zaloujny, “47 missiles were destroyed, including 20” near from Kyiv. At least 11 people were killed and 11 others injured in these Russian strikes, which targeted energy installations in particular.
The head of French diplomacy arrived in Odessa, in the south-west of Ukraine, on Thursday for a visit intended to show France’s support for kyiv as the first anniversary of the invasion of the country by the Russia.
A missile attack took place on Thursday morning against Ukraine, targeted by more than fifty Russian missiles, said the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian armed forces, Valery Zalouzhny. The anti-aircraft defense “destroyed 47 cruise missiles, including 20 near the capital” kyiv, he said on Telegram. Of the 55 “high precision” missiles, two were of the KH-47 Kinjal type and four were KH-59 fired from Mig-31 and Su-35 aircraft respectively, the army explained. Ukrainian air on Telegram. Another 40 missiles, of the Kh-101 and Kh-155 types, were fired from Tupolev-75 bombers beyond the Caspian Sea and nine of the Kalibr type from Russian surface boats and submarines at sea Black, according to the same source.
At least 11 people were killed and 11 others injured in these strikes. “Emergency” power cuts were triggered Thursday morning in kyiv and in three regions.
The previous evening, Ukraine had already shot down a set of 24 Russian-launched, Iranian-made suicide drones, according to the Air Force.
Russian justice declared this Thursday “undesirable” the independent media Medusa in Russia, paving the way for criminal proceedings against its journalists, a new episode of repression that targets civil society in the country.
Medusa, a popular online Russian-language newspaper based in Latvia to evade censorship, was launched in March 2014. For almost a year, its articles have been widely critical of the Russian military operation in Ukraine and the crackdown on Russian civil society. . The Prosecutor’s Office explained in a statement on Thursday that it had “established that its activity represents a threat to the foundations of the constitutional order and security of Russia”.
After long procrastination, Washington announced on Wednesday the delivery of 31 Abrams tanks to theUkraine, thereby further pushing the boundaries between aid and co-belligerence. To avoid being accused of participating directly in the war, Joe Biden also immediately affirmed that the act did not constitute an “offensive threat against Russia”.
Until recently, the United States said it was not ready to provide its most advanced heavy tanks, the Abrams, to Ukraine to fight the Russian invasion, justifying this refusal by questions of maintenance and training. Last week, the Pentagon’s number three, Colin Kahl, pointed out that the Abrams tank was “a very complicated piece of equipment”.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky welcomed this turnaround during his daily address, while calling for long-range missiles and fighter jets. In the immediate term, “the key now is the speed and volume” of tank deliveries, he said. The delivery of these tanks is “an important step for the final victory”, added Volodymyr Zelensky.
Under pressure for several weeks, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz also agreed to send 14 Leopard 2 heavy tanks to Ukraine, despite his reluctance, and while claiming to want to avoid “an escalation” which would lead to a war between Russia and NATO. They should arrive “at the end of March, beginning of April”, Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said on Thursday.
The German government also allowed its Western allies with these German-made armor to do the same. A message heard by Norway, which, a few hours later, also announced that it would donate this type of armament to Ukraine. The Ukrainian presidency hailed this series of decisions as a “decisive” act for the country’s “future victory”.
Moscow, for its part, denounced an “extremely dangerous decision which will bring the conflict to a new level of confrontation”, according to the Russian ambassador in Berlin Sergei Netchaev. “This convinces us once again that Germany, like its closest allies, does not want a diplomatic solution to the Ukrainian crisis and wants a permanent escalation,” he said. said again.
The historic center of Odessa in Ukraine was inscribed on Unesco’s list of world heritage in danger on Wednesday because of the “threats of destruction” hovering over this site since the start of the Russian invasion, a decision deemed “political by Moscow. During a sometimes stormy extraordinary session of the World Heritage Committee in Paris, the inscription of this city, in the middle of the war, was voted by six votes in favor, one against (Russia) and 14 abstentions. Although generally spared since the start of the Russian offensive in February 2022, Odessa, known in particular for its monumental Potemkin staircase and its architecture, has been hit several times by Russian bombardments.
The head of French diplomacy arrived this Thursday in Odessa, in the south-west of Ukraine, for a visit intended to show France’s support for Ukraine as the first anniversary of the invasion of the country by Russia, she announced in a tweet.
Russian representatives were not invited to the celebrations marking the 78th anniversary of the Red Army’s liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Nazi death camp following Russian aggression against Ukraine, a the site museum announced on Wednesday. “In view of the aggression against a free and independent Ukraine, the representatives of the Russian Federation have not been invited to participate in this year’s celebration of the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz” which is to take place this Friday, said Piotr Sawicki, spokesperson for the museum.
Until now, Russia has always taken part in the ceremonies held annually on January 27. Its representative spoke at the main ceremony.
A European official, who did not want to be identified by name or country of origin, said his government was seeking to send Ukraine cluster bombs, a type of bomb banned by a convention signed in 2008 by most Western countries, but not by Russia which has been accused of using them in Ukraine.
“The Ukrainians are asking for them. These are legitimate weapons. The collateral damage is not so important anymore. It was extremely important in the 1940s and 1950s, today it is rather manageable,” the European official said during of a visit to Washington.
