The Russian military destroyed tanks donated by Ukraine’s Western allies and other armor, the Russian Ministry of Defense said, after a barrage of missile strikes shattered five weeks of eerie calm in Kyiv early yesterday.
There was no immediate confirmation from the Ukrainian side.
The ministry said on Telegram that high-precision, long-range air-launched missiles were used.
Photo: REUTERS
It said the strikes destroyed T-72 tanks on the outskirts of Kyiv, adding that they had been supplied by eastern European countries.
It also destroyed other armored vehicles in buildings of a vehicle repair business, it said.
Kyiv had not faced any such strikes since the April 28 visit of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
The missiles hit Kyiv’s Darnytski and Dniprovski districts, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Telegram.
A pillar of smoke filled the air with an acrid odor in Darnystki District, and the charred, blackened wreckage of a warehouse-type structure was smoldering.
Police near the site told a reporter that military authorities had banned the taking of images, while soldiers blocked off a road in a nearby area leading to a large railway yard.
The sites struck included facilities for the state rail company, Ukrzaliznytsia, said Serhiy Leshchenko, an adviser to Ukrianian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
Russian strikes have repeatedly targeted railway facilities, seemingly aimed at slowing the provision of weapons to Ukrainian forces on the front lines.
The cruise missiles appeared to have been launched from a Tu-95 bomber flying over the Caspian Sea, Kyiv said, adding that air defense units shot down one missile.
The attack showed that Russia still had the capability and willingness to hit at Ukraine’s heart, after abandoning its wider offensive across the country to instead focus its efforts in the east.
Russian forces in the past few weeks focused on capturing the city of Sievierodonetsk.
Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday used a televised interview to make a veiled warning to Western nations who have supplied weapons to Ukraine, saying Russia would use “our means of destruction” to hit “objects that we have not yet struck” if Ukraine gets longer-range rocket systems.
It was not immediately clear whether Putin was referring to new targets within or outside Ukraine’s borders.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has since Feb. 24 led to untold tens of thousands of civilian and troop deaths, driven millions from their homes, sparked vast sanctions against Russia and its allies, and strangled exports of critical wheat and other grains from Ukraine through Black Sea ports — limiting access to bread and other products in Africa, the Middle East and beyond.
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