KYIV: As Europe’s biggest conflict since World War Two dragged on with no end in sight, Ukraine stepped up its counterattacks against Russian forces in the south while Moscow bombed Kyiv’s outskirts for the first time in weeks.
Oleksiy Kuleba, the regional governor of Kyiv, said on Telegram that fifteen people were hurt when missiles struck military installations in the Vyshhorod district on the outskirts of the Ukrainian capital on Thursday.
As visiting Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy spoke in parliament while air raid sirens wailed, Ukraine celebrated its Day of Ukrainian Statehood with a public holiday for the first time on Thursday.
What matters is that we convince other nations to admire our Ukrainian firmness, Zelenskiy said. “It doesn’t matter with what Russia threatens us; whether it’s air-raid sirens or something else.”
The attack destroyed the sense of normalcy that had returned to Kyiv after Russian forces gave up their attempts to take the city in the early weeks of the conflict in the face of tenacious Ukrainian resistance.
According to regional governor Vyacheslav Chausov, more than 10 Russian missiles also struck the city of Chernihiv, which is located about 120 kilometres (75 miles) northeast of Kiev. Chernihiv had gone weeks without being targeted, just like Kyiv.
In addition to expressing concern over a “second phase of ground operations by the enemy,” he said, “This was Russia sending greetings on Ukraine’s Day of State Sovereignty.”
More than 20 missiles were fired at the Russian bordering Chernihiv region from a base in Belarus, according to the Ukrainian military’s North district command. Belarus is a close ally of Russia.
In the south, where it is concentrating its biggest counteroffensive since Russia’s invasion started on February 24, Ukraine said its planes attacked five Russian strongholds in the area of Kherson and another nearby city.
Soon after starting what Moscow refers to as “a special military operation,” Russian forces invaded the Kherson region, which borders the Crimean peninsula that they have annexed. Ukraine calls Russia’s actions a conquest-style imperial war.
In recent weeks, Ukraine has severely damaged three bridges over the River Dnipro using long-range missile systems provided by the West, making it more difficult for Russia to supply its forces on the western bank.
Russian forces in the Kherson region are beginning to be isolated, according to British intelligence.
It stated in an intelligence bulletin that “Russia’s 49th Army, stationed on the west bank of the Dnipro River, now looks highly vulnerable.”
Now, Kherson City was essentially cut off from the other Russian-occupied territories.
Russian efforts to portray the occupation as a success would be severely undermined by its loss, according to British intelligence.
