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Ukraine: one dead and embassies damaged in Russian missile strike on kyiv
Russia fired ballistic missiles at kyiv on Friday morning, killing one person, injuring a dozen others and damaging several embassies in an attack carried out, according to Moscow, “in response” to a Ukrainian strike against a Russian chemical factory. “no one was killed, 12 were injured” including five hospitalized, according to the latest report from the military administration of the Ukrainian capital. Six diplomatic missions located in the same building were damaged: those of Albania, of Argentina, the Palestinian Authority, North Macedonia, Portugal and Montenegro, said Ukrainian diplomacy, denouncing a “barbaric attack”. “A new heinous attack against kyiv. This time against a building housing the Portuguese embassy and other diplomatic services,” denounced the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen on X. The Portuguese government also condemned the attack “vehemently” in a press release and summoned the Russian charge d’affaires. Kiev, which had more than three million inhabitants before the Russian invasion launched in February 2022, is regularly targeted by missiles and drones explosives but significant damage is rather rare, especially in the center, the city being relatively well protected by anti-aircraft defense. The Russian attack was carried out using five ballistic missiles of the “Iskander-M/ KN-23”, all shot down, according to the Ukrainian air force. The Russian army, for its part, said it attacked kyiv “in response” to a strike carried out by Ukraine on Wednesday with Western missiles against a factory Russian.- “Duel” – “A group strike was carried out (…) against the control center (of the Ukrainian special services) SBU, the Lutch design bureau, based in kyiv, which designs and manufactures Neptune missile systems” , the Russian army said in a statement. Russian President Vladimir Putin has vowed that Moscow will respond to any Ukrainian attacks on Russian soil carried out using Western missiles, even threatening to relaunch its new “Orechnik” missile. “You know that such strikes on the Russian territory were carried out, and you know that the president said that there would be a response every time,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday. This attack on kyiv came after an exchange of barbs between the master of Kremlin and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky.Vladimir Putin proposed Thursday during his major annual press conference a “duel” between his “Orechnik” missile, which he suggested firing at the Ukrainian capital, and anti-aircraft defense means “We are organizing such an experiment, such a high-tech duel, and we are going to see what happens. It’s interesting,” he said. “People are dying, and he thinks that’s East +interesting+… Asshole,” President Zelensky fumed on above several places. Missile “debris” fell on three districts of Kiev, according to Mayor Vitali Klitschko. They notably caused a heating cut for several hours in more than 600 residential buildings, health establishments and schools in temperatures close to zero, he lamented. The most affected area is in a neighborhood opulent center where the roof of a luxury office building was partially destroyed. Charred carcasses were visible nearby. Residential buildings, a hotel, a Catholic church and a university were also damaged.- “Burn in hell!” -“All the missiles were successfully intercepted, but one of the warheads could not be destroyed, exploding near the office building,” said a Ukrainian analysis center, Defense Express. Ukraine used the powerful American Patriot system to shoot down the projectiles, according to a spokesperson for the Ukrainian Air Force. Viktoria, a doctor who lives in the affected neighborhood, rushed to the bomb shelter of her building after the army warned of an imminent strike. “Even in the shelter, bricks fell on my head. It’s just horrible when people start running from the street,” she told AFP, claiming that the Russians “should burn in hell!”The Russian army also bombed Kherson, a large city in the south of the country, at dawn. At least two people were killed and 10 injured in this strike which hit “essential” infrastructure, depriving “up to 60,000” homes of electricity, according to regional authorities. In eastern Ukraine, where he Russian army has advanced rapidly in recent months, announcing on Friday that it had captured two small villages near the key town of Pokrovsk. brw-ant/pop/mba
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