UK’s PM Sunak pledges tanks, artillery for Ukraine as Russian missiles hit Kyiv infrastructure
- British media has reported that four British Army Challenger 2 main battle tanks will be sent to eastern Europe immediately
- It was not immediately clear whether several facilities in Kyiv were targeted or just the one that was reported hit in Saturday’s missile attack
Sunak’s Downing Street office said in a statement that he made the pledge after speaking to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday.
It did not say when the tanks were to be delivered or how many. British media has reported that four British Army Challenger 2 main battle tanks will be sent to eastern Europe immediately, with eight more to follow soon after. They did not cite sources.
Russia fired a second wave of missiles at Ukraine on Saturday, forcing people to take cover as sirens blared across the country just hours after morning air strikes that hit critical infrastructure in Kyiv and the eastern city of Kharkiv.
Authorities in Mykolayiv, the western city of Lviv and the Black Sea port of Odesa said air defences were trying to shoot down incoming missiles. Explosions were heard in the central Vynnytsa region, Ukrainian public broadcaster Suspilne reported.
At least 10 people, including two children, were injured by a Russian strike on an apartment block in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro on Saturday, the regional governor said.
An official from the Ukrainian President’s Office, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, said 15 people had already been rescued from the rubble. He also posted a picture which showed a nine-storey block of flats, part of which had collapsed entirely.
A series of explosions rocked Kyiv on Saturday morning and minutes later air raid sirens started to wail as an apparent missile attack on the Ukrainian capital was under way.
Critical infrastructure in Kyiv was targeted, the deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential office, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, said on Telegram.
An unidentified infrastructure object was hit in the city and emergency services were operating at the site of the strike, Kyiv’s city military administration said.
Explosions were heard in the Dniprovskyi district of the city, Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko said. “Explosions in Dniprovskiy district. All agencies heading to the site. Stay in your shelters!” wrote Klitschko on Telegram.
Klitschko also said that fragments of a missile fell on a non-residential area in the Holosiivskyi district, and a fire broke out in a building there. No casualties have been reported so far.
Ukrenergo, which runs the power grid, said its workers were racing to fix the damage and that the network was grappling with a power deficit caused by earlier attacks even though it was -2 degree Celsius in Kyiv, only mildly cold.
It was not immediately clear whether several facilities in Kyiv were targeted or just the one that was reported hit. The Ukrainian capital has not been attacked with missiles since New Year’s night on January 1.
In the outlying Kyiv region, a residential building in the village of Kopyliv was hit, and windows of the houses nearby were blown out, Timoshenko said.
02:05
Hundreds of Ukrainian civilians trapped in Soledar town by ‘heaviest’ fighting of the war
A total of 18 private houses were damaged in the region, according to regional Governor Oleksii Kuleba. “There are damaged roofs and windows”, but no casualties, Kuleba said in a Telegram post. He added that a fire has been contained at a “critical infrastructure facility” in the region.
Earlier on Saturday, two Russian missiles hit Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, the governor of the Kharkiv region reported.
Oleh Syniehubov said Russian forces fired two S-300 missiles at the industrial district of Kharkiv. The strikes targeted “energy and industrial objects of Kharkiv and the [outlying] region”, 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.
The attacks come amid conflicting reports on the fate of the fiercely contested salt mining town of Soledar, in Ukraine’s embattled east. Russia claims that its forces have captured the town, a development that would mark a rare victory for the Kremlin after a series of humiliating setbacks on the battlefield.
Ukrainian authorities and President Volodymyr Zelensky insist the fight for Soledar continues.
Moscow has painted the battle for the town and the nearby city of Bakhmut as key to capturing the eastern region of the Donbas, which comprises of partially occupied Donetsk and Luhansk regions, and as a way to grind down the best Ukrainian forces and prevent them from launching counter-attacks elsewhere.
But that cuts both ways, as Ukraine says its fierce defence of the eastern strongholds has helped tie up Russian forces. Western officials and analysts say the two towns’ importance is more symbolic than strategic.
