“Intentional acts of terrorism.” This is how Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy defined the bombings with dozens of rockets that were carried out by Russian ground and air forces in the last few hours and particularly affected Kharkiv in the northeast of the country as well as the capital Kiev and the Ukrainian city of Pavlohrad in the southeast. The number of victims was seven dead and around eighty injuredAccording to the regional military administration, one more person was killed and two were injured in the southern Kherson district, according to Ukrainian authorities.
The Russians deny the accusation that they targeted civilian residential buildings. The Ministry of Defense assures that it has hit “sites for the production of missiles, missile components and ammunition”. “Unlike the regime in Kiev, our armed forces do not target social infrastructure, residential and civilian areas,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, rejecting the hypothesis that today's bombings were in retaliation for the Ukrainian attack on a market in the city of Donetsk Last Sunday, 27 people were killed and 25 were injured. A bomb attack that Moscow in turn described as an “outrageous act of terrorism”.
In addition, local authorities in Donetsk, which was unilaterally annexed to the Russian Federation last year, have reported a new bomb attack by Kiev forces in recent hours, killing two more civilians.
According to the head of the Ukrainian presidential office, Andriy Yermak, “the world must understand that this terror (i.e. the Russian bombing raids) can only be stopped with force.” Therefore, with ever new deliveries of arms and ammunition from the Western allies.
Just today, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and the Director General of the Support and Procurement Agency, Stacy Cummings, signed an agreement according to which The Atlantic Alliance will stock up on hundreds of thousands of new shells of 155mm artillery worth $1.2 billion. A move intended to make it possible to increase ammunition deliveries to Ukraine, which have so far been hampered by the lack of supplies in Western arsenals.
But The Ukrainians also insist on more advanced air defense systems. And today's attack numbers highlight the difficulties facing Ukrainian forces in this area. Kiev managed to shoot down no more than 21 of the 41 cruise and ballistic missiles fired by the Russians, admitted the head of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Valery Zaluzhny. The worst-hit city is Kharkiv, where dozens of apartments in residential buildings were damaged and seven people were killed and 57 injured, according to local authorities. 22 injuries were reported in Kiev and one person died in Pavlohrad.
State energy company Naftogaz said the attacks in Kharkiv also resulted in damage to a gas pipeline not seen since the start of winter. According to the Energy Department, eleven thousand families in the region were temporarily left without power. Meanwhile, following alarms from some senior NATO officials in recent days, Secretary General Stoltenberg assured that he saw “no direct or immediate threat to any ally” of the Atlantic Pact.
According to Stoltenberg, the 90,000-soldier exercise starting this week, the largest in decades, aims primarily to “eliminate any room for misjudgments or misunderstandings in Moscow about our preparation.” But according to Peskov, there are increasingly “voices” in European countries that want to get out of the current phase of the challenge with Moscow “through dialogue.” While Russia, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview with CBS, does not believe that a possible re-election of Donald Trump as President of the United States could significantly change the “destructive” American policy towards Moscow.
Kiev, “Medium-pressure gas pipeline hit in Kharkiv”
The Russian missile attack on Kharkiv also hit a gas pipeline in the city in northeastern Ukraine, causing damage not seen since the beginning of this winter, state-owned company Naftogaz announced, Ukrainska Pravda reported.
“On January 23, a medium-pressure gas pipeline in the Kharkiv region was hit. This winter, there has been no accident of this magnitude in gas distribution in the city,” Naftogaz reported in a statement, adding that gas supply to residents will be restored once as soon as the repair work that has already begun is completed.
Meanwhile, the Energy Ministry said that in order to stabilize the pressure, part of the gas pipeline was blocked and 12 houses were disconnected from the gas supply. No Naftogaz employee was injured or killed in the attack.
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