Russia hits Kyiv with missiles; Putin warns West about supplies
- Moscow took aim with air strikes in Kyiv that it said destroyed tanks donated from abroad, and President Vladimir Putin threatened military escalation
- Putin made the comments after the US announced it would supply Ukraine with Himars multiple launch rockets
Russia took aim at Western military supplies for Ukraine’s government with Sunday air strikes in Kyiv that it said destroyed tanks donated from abroad, as President Vladimir Putin warned that any Western deliveries of long-range rocket systems to Ukraine would prompt Moscow to hit “objects that we haven’t yet struck.”
In extracts of an interview to be broadcast late Sunday on Rossiya-1 television, Putin did not specify exactly which targets could be hit nor the exact range of the missiles to which Moscow would react.
The cryptic threat of a military escalation from the Russian leader did not specify what the new targets might be, but it comes days after the United States announced plans to deliver US$700 million of security help for Ukraine that includes four precision-guided, medium-range rocket systems, helicopters, Javelin anti-tank weapon systems, radars, tactical vehicles, spare parts and more.
Military analysts say Russia is hoping to overrun the embattled eastern Donbas region, where Russia-backed separatists have fought the Ukrainian government for years, before any weapons that might turn the tide arrive. The Pentagon said earlier this week it will take at least three weeks to get the precision US weapons and trained troops onto the battlefield.
Russian forces pounded railway facilities and other infrastructure early Sunday in Kyiv, which had previously seen weeks of eerie calm. Ukraine’s nuclear plant operator, Energoatom, said one cruise missile buzzed the Pivdennoukrainsk nuclear plant, about 350 kilometres (220 miles) to the south, on its way to the capital – citing the dangers of such a near miss.
There was no immediate confirmation from Ukraine that the Russian air strikes had destroyed tanks.
Kyiv hadn’t faced any such strikes since the April 28 visit of UN Secretary-General António Guterres. The early morning attack triggered air raid alarms and showed that Russia still had the capability and willingness to hit at Ukraine’s heart since abandoning its wider offensive across the country to instead focus its efforts in the east.
In a posting on the Telegram app, the Russian Defence Ministry said high-precision, long-range air-launched missiles were used. It said the strikes destroyed on the outskirts of Kyiv destroyed T-72 tanks supplied by Eastern European countries and other armoured vehicles located in buildings of a car-repair business.