The Ukrainian capital, kyiv, was targeted at dawn on Wednesday by a combined Russian missile and drone attack, for the first time in more than two months, at a time when the Ukrainians are losing ground on the front and fear losing support from the United States.
Ukraine, for its part, claimed responsibility for the assassination on Wednesday in annexed Crimea of an officer of the Russian Black Sea fleet, whom it accuses of having ordered deadly missile strikes on its cities.
The attack on kyiv comes the day US Secretary of State Antony Blinken promised in Brussels a “firm” response to North Korea's alleged involvement alongside Russia in the war in Ukraine.
Washington has corroborated Ukrainian claims that North Korean soldiers are now “engaged in combat operations” in Russia's Kursk region, a small area of which has been occupied by Ukrainian forces for three months.
The South Korean intelligence agency also confirmed them, assuring that “North Korean troops (…) are already engaged in combat operations” in this part of Russian territory.
More than two and a half years after the start of the invasion, the Russian army now benefits from the reinforcement of nearly 11,000 North Korean soldiers, according to kyiv and the West, which the Kremlin has not formally denied.
Russia has significantly stepped up drone raids on kyiv, almost daily since early October, but this is the first time in more than two months that missiles have been fired at the same time.
“The Russian armed forces launched a combined missile and drone attack against kyiv. The first time in 73 days,” noted the military administration of the capital.
– Russian officer killed –
AFP journalists heard explosions in kyiv and saw dozens of its residents taking refuge in an underground metro station in the city center.
In total, six missiles and 90 drones targeted seven Ukrainian regions during the night from Tuesday to Wednesday, only one of which is located on the front, underlined the Ukrainian Air Force, saying it had shot down two cruise missiles, two missiles ballistic missiles and 37 drones.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitri Peskov, for his part, reiterated that the Russian army was only hitting “military targets”, in response to a question about the increase in civilian casualties in Ukraine.
On the Ukrainian side, a source within the security services (SBU) claimed to AFP the murder of a Russian officer in Crimea, a Ukrainian peninsula annexed by Moscow, as part of a “special operation” intended to “liquidate a war criminal”.
This soldier, killed in the explosion of a car bomb, had “ordered the firing of cruise missiles from the Black Sea on civilian targets in Ukraine” and constituted “an absolutely legitimate target”, commented this source.
This assassination is the latest in a series of Ukrainian attacks against Russian soldiers and figures supporting the Kremlin, both in occupied Ukrainian areas and inside Russia.
– Don't leave Ukraine “alone” –
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, reacting to the nighttime attacks against his country, once again denounced “Russian terrorism” and praised the “effective” response of the anti-aircraft defense.
He expressed his “gratitude” towards his Western allies who have been supplying arms and ammunition for two and a half years.
But this assistance seems threatened, with Ukrainians and Europeans fearing that the United States, with the return of Donald Trump, could interrupt aid to the Ukrainians at the very moment when they are facing great difficulties on the battlefield.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, whose coalition government fell a week ago, assured Bundestag deputies that his country would not leave Ukraine “alone” in the face of Russia.
The German leader spoke during the day with Volodymyr Zelensky, recalling Berlin's “unwavering” support for kyiv, according to a press release from his services.
In eastern Ukraine, the Russian army, despite significant losses, conquered hundreds of square kilometers in October. It claimed Wednesday the conquest of the small village of Rivnopil, at the junction of the eastern and southern fronts.
According to kyiv forces, Russian troops also tried unsuccessfully on Wednesday to “break through” Ukrainian defenses in the Kupiansk area (east), a little more than 150 km north of the key area around the town of Pokrovsk, target of the Moscow army.
