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Zelensky condemns Russia as strikes kill 22 in Ukraine ahead of ceasefire

18 hours ago
by Live Sports

Russian drone and missile strikes have killed at least 22 people and wounded more than 80 others, Ukrainian authorities have said.

The attacks came just hours before Kyiv was due to enact a ceasefire and three days before Moscow promised its own pause in hostilities.

On Tuesday afternoon, powerful Russian glide bombs smashed into the eastern city of Kramatorsk, the southern city of Zaporizhzhia and the northern city of Chernihiv, killing at least 17 civilians and wounding 45 others, officials said.

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Attacks the previous night killed five people and wounded 39, according to authorities.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky rebuked Moscow for what he said was its “utter cynicism” in launching the attacks after Russia announced a unilateral truce over two days later this week while it marks the 81st anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany in the Second World War.

“Russia could cease fire at any moment, and this would stop the war and our responses,” Mr Zelensky said in a post on X. “Peace is needed, and real steps are needed to achieve it. Ukraine will act in kind.”

The truce proposal follows a familiar pattern of Russia declaring short unilateral ceasefires during the war timed to various holidays – most recently Orthodox Easter – that do not produce any tangible results amid deep mistrust between Moscow and Kyiv more than four years after Russia launched an all-out invasion of its neighbour.

US-led diplomatic efforts to stop the war have come to nothing.

The Russian Defence Ministry declared a unilateral ceasefire in Ukraine for Friday and Saturday, but said that it would strike back at the country if it tries to disrupt the festivities on Victory Day, which Russia marks annually on May 9.

Mr Zelensky replied that Ukraine would observe a truce beginning at the end of Tuesday and would respond in kind to Russia’s actions from that moment on. He did not put an end date on the truce.

A crater in a residential neighbourhood following a Russian missile attack in the Kharkiv region (Andrii Marienko/AP)

Mr Zelensky was in Bahrain on Tuesday where he met King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, proposing a bilateral drone defence partnership amid the Iran war.

The Ukrainian leader said that he offered to share Ukraine’s air defence expertise with Bahrain, drawing a parallel between Iranian attacks on Gulf states and Russia’s daily aerial strikes on Ukrainian territory, which often use Shahed drones initially developed by Iran.

Mr Zelensky said last month that Ukrainian officials are helping Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait and Jordan with drone expertise and air defence.

Russian forces fired 11 Iskander-M ballistic missiles and 164 strike drones at Ukraine overnight from Monday to Tuesday, including a jet-powered Shahed drone variant, the Ukrainian Air Force said.

Air defence units stopped 149 drones and one missile, but others got through, it said. Two ballistic missiles failed to reach their targets, the air force said without elaborating.

Russia has repeatedly hammered Ukraine’s energy infrastructure during the war, which began on February 24 2022. It hit natural gas production facilities in Ukraine’s central Poltava and north-eastern Kharkiv regions, state energy company Naftogaz Group said.

Since the start of the year, Naftogaz facilities have come under attack 107 times, the company said.

Mr Zelensky said that the Poltava attack was “especially vile” because Russia launched a second missile at the same target when emergency rescuers were working at the scene.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said that Russia’s main targets were energy facilities, oil and gas infrastructure, railways and industrial sites, although the attacks also damaged homes, businesses and the transportation network.

Russia’s ceasefire proposals “remain only statements”, Ms Svyrydenko said.

Ukraine also kept up the pace of its long-range attacks on Russian rear areas, apparently aiming at more oil facilities.

Volodymyr Zelensky
Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine would observe a truce beginning at the end of Tuesday (PA)

Russia’s Defence Ministry said that its forces destroyed 289 Ukrainian drones overnight in 18 Russian regions. Drones were also intercepted over the occupied Crimean Peninsula, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014, and over the Azov Sea, it said.

Ukraine during the night launched its F-5 Flamingo cruise missiles at targets including military-industrial complex facilities in Cheboksary, located more than 900 miles away, Mr Zelensky said.

The plant supplied navigation components for the Russian navy, the missile industry, aviation and armoured vehicles, he said.

The regional health ministry said a Ukrainian drone attack wounded three people in the city of Cheboksary.

A Ukrainian drone attack wounded three people in the city of Cheboksary, located east of Moscow and more than 560 miles from the Ukrainian border, the regional health ministry said.

Ukrainian drones also attacked the Kirishi oil refinery in the Leningrad region close to St Petersburg, sparking a blaze in the town’s industrial zone, local governor Alexander Drozdenko said.

Mr Drozdenko said on social media that 29 Ukrainian drones had been shot down during the attack. No casualties were reported.

Ukraine doubled its mid-range strikes on Russia in April compared with March and quadrupled them compared with February, according to a monthly battlefield report from Ukraine’s defence minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, published on Tuesday.

The mid-range attacks were focused on enemy warehouses, command posts, air defence systems and supply lines up to about 100 miles behind the front line.

Also, Ukrainian ground robots completed 10,281 resupply and evacuation missions in April, an average of almost 343 per day, according to Mr Fedorov.

It was not possible to independently confirm the claims.

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