Extract from ABC News
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has promised to provide tanks and artillery systems to Ukraine, amid renewed missile attacks by Russia targeting multiple Ukrainian cities for the first time in nearly two weeks.
Key points:
Five people were killed and more than 20 wounded in the south-eastern city of Dnipro, where a Russian missile strike destroyed a section of an apartment building
The UK has pledged to provide Challenger 2 tanks and other artillery systems to Ukraine
Explosions rocked the capital, Kyiv, the north-eastern region of Kharkiv, and the western Lviv region, while three people were killed in the eastern city of Avdiivka
Five people were killed and more than 20 wounded in the south-eastern city of Dnipro, where a Russian missile strike destroyed a section of an apartment building, regional Governor Valentyn Reznichenko said.
Photos showed a large gap in the nine-storey building.
Infrastructure facilities were also hit in the western Lviv region and north-eastern Kharkiv.
Kyiv, the capital, was also targeted.
Mr Sunak made the pledge to provide Challenger 2 tanks and other artillery systems after speaking to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Saturday, the British leader's Downing Street office said in a statement.
It didn't say when the tanks would be delivered or how many.
British media have reported that four British Army Challenger 2 main battle tanks will be sent to Eastern Europe immediately, with eight more to follow shortly after, without citing sources.
Mr Zelenskyy tweeted his thanks to Mr Sunak on Saturday "for the decisions that will not only strengthen us on the battlefield, but also send the right signal to other partners".
Ukraine has for months sought to be supplied with heavier tanks, including the US Abrams and the German Leopard 2 tanks, but Western leaders have been treading carefully.
The Czech Republic and Poland have provided Soviet-era T-72 tanks to Ukrainian forces.
Poland has also expressed readiness to provide a company of Leopard tanks, but President Andrzej Duda stressed during his recent visit to the Ukrainian city of Lviv that the move would be possible only as an element in a larger international coalition of tank aid to Kyiv.
Infrastructure sites targetted by strikes
In Dnipro, rescuers were using a crane to try to evacuate people trapped in the apartment building's upper storeys, some of whom were signalling with the flashlights on their mobile phones, the deputy head of Ukraine's presidential office, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, said on Telegram.
He also said there were likely people under the rubble.
Mr Zelenskyy took to social media to denounce the Dnipro attack, sharing vision of the destroyed building.
"Eternal memory to all whose lives were taken by [Russian] terror! The world must stop evil," he wrote on Twitter.
"Debris clearance in Dnipro continues. All services are working. We're fighting for every person, every life."
In the north-eastern Kharkiv region, Governor Oleh Syniehubov said two Russian missiles hit an infrastructure object again on Saturday afternoon, following a similar attack in the morning.
In the city of Kharkiv, the subway suspended operations amid the attacks, according to its Telegram channel.
Another infrastructure facility was hit in the western Lviv region, according to Governor Maksym Kozytskyi.
Air defence systems were activated in other regions of Ukraine, as well, and as another round of air raid sirens sounded across the country in the afternoon, regional officials urged local residents to seek shelter.
Explosions came ahead of warning sirens
Vitali Kim, governor of the southern Mykolaiv region, hinted in a Telegram post that some missiles had been intercepted over his province.
Earlier in the day, explosions also rocked the capital, Kyiv. The blasts occurred before air sirens sounded, which is unusual.
It's likely the explosions came ahead of the warning sirens because the attack was by ballistic missiles, which are faster than cruise missiles or drones.
According to Ukrainian air force spokesman Yurii Ihnat, Russia attacked Kyiv with ballistic missiles flying from the north.
"The ballistics are not easy for us to detect and shoot down," he told local media.
The warning about the missile threat was late because of the lack of radar data and information from other sources.
An infrastructure target was hit in the morning missile attack, according to Ukrainian officials.
Explosions were heard in the Dniprovskyi district, a residential area on the left bank of the Dnipro River, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.
Mr Klitschko also said that fragments of a missile fell on a non-residential area in the Holosiivskyi district on the right bank, and a fire briefly broke out in a building there. No casualties have been reported so far.
This was the first attack on the Ukrainian capital since January 1.
On Saturday morning, two Russian missiles hit Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city.
The strikes with S-300 missiles targeted "energy and industrial objects of Kharkiv and the [outlying] region," Governor Oleh Syniehubov said.
No casualties have been reported, but emergency power cuts in the city and other settlements of the region were possible, the official said.
In the city of Avdiivka in eastern Ukraine where fighting is most intense, three people were killed in Russian artillery attacks on Saturday, Mayor Vitalii Barabash said.
AP
No comments:
Post a Comment