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Ukraine: Deadly Russian strike in Lviv, major cabinet reshuffle
Ukraine suffered new Russian bombings on Wednesday that killed seven people including three children in Lviv (west), nearly a thousand kilometers from the front, the day after a particularly deadly strike in Poltava (center). At the same time, the Ukrainian government is undergoing its biggest reshuffle since the start of the Russian invasion on February 24, 2022, with Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba announcing his departure. President Volodymyr Zelensky explained that he wanted “new energy.” Moscow, for its part, has intensified its attacks on its neighbor since Kiev launched a surprise offensive on the Russian region of Kursk last month, seizing hundreds of square kilometers. “Seven people, including children, were killed” in Lviv on Wednesday, the Ukrainian prosecutor’s office said on Telegram. Around fifty others were injured, according to the regional military administration. According to the city’s mayor, Andriy Sadoviy, the attack killed four members of one family, a mother and her three children, leaving the father the only survivor. “I heard terrible, inhuman screams,” said Yelyzaveta, 27, a resident of the affected neighborhood. Buildings in central Lviv were covered in soot and charred cars and debris littered the ground, an AFP journalist noted. Marked by its Polish and Austro-Hungarian heritage, Lviv has a historic center listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and “at least seven architectural buildings” were hit Wednesday, according to the head of the city’s military administration, Maksym Kozytsky. Located in western Ukraine, far from the fighting, Lviv has been relatively spared by Russian missiles compared to other cities in the country, but it is still periodically targeted. – Heavy toll in Poltava – On the night of Tuesday to Wednesday, another strike hit Kryvyi Rig, the hometown of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, injuring six people, according to the regional administration. Mr. Zelensky has once again called on the West to provide his country with more military resources to “put an end to terror.” Moscow has been stepping up massive strikes, targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure or targeting cities far from the front. On Tuesday, at least 53 people lost their lives and nearly 300 were injured in a strike by two ballistic missiles targeting a military institute in the city of Poltava, in the center of the country. According to Zelensky, this strike hit the Institute of Communications, which has been training specialists in military telecommunications since the 1960s. The Russian army assured Wednesday that its attack had hit a military training center where “communications and electronic warfare specialists” as well as “drone operators” are trained. In Russia, Ukrainian strikes killed “three civilians” and injured two others in Novaya Tavoljanka, a border village in the Belgorod region, according to Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov.Other attacks left three dead, including two minors, and ten injured in a market in Donetsk, a large city in eastern Ukraine under Russian control, said the head of the pro-Russian administration of the region, Denis Pushilin.- Kuleba resigns -Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, in office since 2020, presented his resignation on Wednesday, following several other officials.The departures of four ministers were approved on Wednesday by the Rada, the Ukrainian parliament. The vote on Mr. Kouleba has, however, been “urgently postponed” and could take place on Thursday, according to a parliamentary source. In total, “more than 50% of the members of the government will be replaced,” assured David Arakhamia, leader of the parliamentary party of the president, on Tuesday evening. On Monday, it was the director of the Ukrainian electricity network operator Ukrenergo, Volodymyr Koudrytsky, who said he had been dismissed from his duties. President Zelensky has carried out several reshuffles since the start of the war, notably dismissing his defense minister in September 2023 after corruption scandals and replacing the army chief of staff following setbacks on the battlefield. The changes come as the Russian army has accelerated its advance in eastern Ukraine, particularly towards Pokrovsk, a major logistics centre from which it is less than ten kilometres away. Russian troops claimed control of a new town in the area on Wednesday, Karlivka. In a sign that the situation is worsening, Ukraine has ordered the evacuation of children living in around 30 villages around Pokrovsk and Kramatorsk, according to the Ministry of Reintegration.bur/led/mm
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