Russian missiles kill at least 21 in Ukraine: officials

Kyiv, Ukraine –

Russian missiles hitting a city in central Ukraine killed at least 21 people and wounded more than 100 on Thursday, Ukrainian authorities said. Ukraine’s president alleged that the attack deliberately targeted civilians in locations of no military value.

Ukraine’s national police said three missiles hit an office building and damaged nearby residential buildings in Vinnytsia, which is 268 kilometers (167 miles) southwest of the capital Kyiv. Ukraine’s Emergency Service said 42 people were missing after the airstrike.

A Russian submarine in the Black Sea fired Kalibr cruise missiles at the city, and three children were among the dead, Ukraine’s deputy head of presidential office Kyrylo Tymoshenko wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

Russia has not officially confirmed the attack. But Margarita Simonyan, director of Russia’s state-controlled television network RT, said on her messaging app channel that she was told by military officials that a building in Vinnytsia was targeted because it housed Ukrainian “Nazis.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia of intentionally targeting civilians with missiles. The attack occurred as government officials from some 40 countries were meeting in The Hague to discuss coordinating investigations and prosecutions of possible war crimes committed in Ukraine.

“Every day, Russia is destroying the civilian population, killing Ukrainian children, directing missiles at civilian objects. Where there are no military (targets). What is this but an open act of terrorism?” Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram.

Vinnytsia is one of the largest cities in Ukraine, with a pre-war population of 370,000. Thousands of people from eastern Ukraine, where Russia has concentrated its offensive, have fled there since the start of the war 20 weeks ago.

In addition to hitting buildings, the missiles started a fire that spread to 50 cars in a parking lot, authorities said. Vinnytsia region governor Serhiy Borzov said Ukrainian air defense systems shot down another four missiles over the city.

Ukrainian military analyst Oleh Zhdanov said he believes the attack mirrors earlier attacks on residential areas that Moscow launched “to try to pressure Kyiv to make some concessions.”

“Russia has used the same tactics when it hit the Odessa region, Kremenchuk, Chasiv Yar and other areas,” Zhdanov said. “The Kremlin wants to show that it will continue to use unconventional methods of warfare and kill civilians in defiance of Kyiv and the entire international community.”

Before the missiles hit Vinnytsia, the president’s office reported five civilians killed and eight others wounded in Russian strikes over the last day.

One person was injured when a missile damaged several buildings in the southern city of Mykolaiv early Thursday, Ukrainian authorities said. A missile attack on Wednesday killed at least five people in the city.

Russian forces also continued artillery and missile attacks in eastern Ukraine, mainly in Donetsk province after taking neighboring Luhansk. The city of Lysychansk, the last major Ukrainian resistance stronghold in Luhansk, fell to Russian forces earlier this month.

Lugansk and Donetsk together make up the Donbas, a mostly Russian-speaking region of steel mills, mines and other industries.

Donetsk Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko urged residents to evacuate as quickly as possible.

“We urge civilians to leave the region, where electricity, water and gas are in short supply after the Russian bombardment,” Kyrylenko said in televised remarks. “The fighting is intensifying and people should stop risking their lives and leave the region.”

The British Defense Ministry said on Thursday that despite continued bombardment in the Donbass region, Russian forces had not made any major territorial gains in recent days.

“The old Soviet-era vehicles, weapons and tactics used by Russian forces do not lend themselves to rapid recovery or building momentum unless used in overwhelming mass, something Russia is currently unable to apply,” the British ministry said.

Both Russian forces and Ukrainian armies are seeking to replenish their depleted stocks of unmanned aerial vehicles to identify enemy positions and guide artillery strikes.

Both sides seek to acquire advanced jamming-resistant drones that can offer a decisive advantage in battle. Ukrainian officials say demand for such technology is “immense” with crowdfunding efforts underway to raise the cash needed for purchases.


In other developments:

— Russian-installed officials in the Zaporizhzhia region of southeastern Ukraine announced that they planned to hold a referendum in early September on the region’s incorporation into Russia. Much of Zaporizhzhia is under Russian control, as is most of neighboring Kherson. Kremlin-backed administrations in both areas have declared their intentions to become part of Russia. Separatist leaders in the self-proclaimed “republics” of Donetsk and Lugansk have also announced similar plans.


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