11 killed and 11 others wounded after wave of missiles launched by Russia into Ukraine day after US and Germany confirm they will supply tanks
11 people have been killed and 11 others wounded in a wave of Russian missile attacks that caused explosions to shake Kyiv and air raid sirens to sound across Ukraine on Thursday morning, the day after the US and Germany agreed to deliver tanks to Kyiv. Ukrainian air defences shot down 47 of the 55 missiles Russian forced fired at Ukraine, the country’s top general claimed.
Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, reported on Telegram that there had been explosions in the city. He wrote: “As a result of a rocket hitting a non-residential building in the Holosiiv district, there is currently information about one dead and two wounded. The injured were hospitalised by medics.”
Russian missile strikes damaged energy infrastructure in Ukraine’s southern port city of Odesa. No injuries were reported, but there were power blackouts and some residents reported an interruption to the water supply. There were also reports of explosions in Vinnytsia and Kherson. The prosecutor general’s office said three people were killed and seven injured in an attack on energy infrastructure in Zaporizhzhia.
The attacks came the day after Joe Biden approved sending 31 M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine. The US had resisted providing its own M1 Abrams tanks, citing maintenance and logistical challenges with the hi-tech vehicles. Earlier, the US president had spoken by phone with leaders Emmanuel Macron of France, Olaf Scholz of Germany, Giorgia Meloni of Italy and Rishi Sunak of Britain. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, thanked Biden for the “powerful decision” and described it as “an important step on the path to victory”.
Germany also confirmed on Wednesday it will make 14 Leopard 2A6 tanks available for Ukraine’s war effort. The chancellor, Olaf Scholz, also said his government plans to send further military support to Ukraine beyond the tanks. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy of Ukraine welcomed the decision, and said he was “sincerely grateful” to Scholz.
The key to providing tanks for Ukraine’s defence against Russia was speed and sufficient numbers, Zelenskiy said on Wednesday. “The key now is speed and volumes. Speed in training our forces, speed in supplying tanks to Ukraine. The numbers in tank support,” he said in his nightly video address.
Germany will also approve other European countries supplying German-made Leopard 2 tanks from their own stock. Finland, Spain and the Netherlands will contribute the same model, according to German media reports. A second battalion will be made up of Leopard 2A4 tanks from Poland and Norway.
The Russian embassy in Germany has accused Berlin of taking the conflict in Ukraine “to a new level of confrontation”. The decision to approve the delivery of Leopard tanks to Ukraine means the “final refusal” of the German government “to recognise its “historical responsibility” to Moscow, ambassador Sergei Nechayev said in a statement.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Thursday that Moscow views sending tanks to Ukraine as “direct involvement in the conflict”. He told reporters “There are constant statements from European capitals and from Washington that the sending of various weapons systems, including tanks, to Ukraine in no way means the involvement of these countries or Nato in the hostilities that are taking place in Ukraine. We categorically disagree. In Moscow, everything that both the alliance and the capitals I mentioned are doing is perceived as direct involvement in the conflict. We see that it is growing”.
The secretary of Russia’s security council, Nikolai Patrushev, one of President Vladimir Putin’s closest allies, has also said on Thursday that the US and Nato were parties to the conflict in Ukraine and were seeking to drag out the fighting.
Russian authorities designated the independent news outlet Meduza an “undesirable organisation” on Thursday, effectively outlawing the site from operating in Russia and banning any Russian from cooperating with Meduza or its journalists. The designation is the latest in a long campaign by the Kremlin to curb independent media and stop their reporting from reaching ordinary Russians in a crackdown that has escalated since Russia invaded Ukraine last year. In a statement announcing the decision, Russia’s general prosecutor said the Latvia-based news outlet “poses a threat to the foundations of the constitutional system and the security of the Russian Federation”.
Viacheslav Chaus, the governor of Chernihiv, has confirmed that the region has been affected by a hack of the authority’s IT systems.
A German citizen was arrested at Munich airport on suspicion of treason for allegedly passing intelligence onto Russia, the prosecutor general’s office said on Thursday.
Ukraine’s military spokesperson, Serhiy Cherevatyi, said Wednesday Ukrainian forces have withdrawn from the eastern town of Soledar in the Donetsk region, according to the country’s state broadcaster Suspilne. The withdrawal of forces was made “in order to preserve the lives of service personnel”, he said. His comments are the first Ukrainian confirmation of Soledar’s capture by Russian forces.