“We will stand alongside” the Ukrainians “as long as necessary”, for her part promised the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen after the strikes on the night of Saturday to Sunday described as “unacceptable” by the secretary UN General Antonio Guterres which left ten people dead and around twenty injured.
On Sunday evening, eight people, including two children, died and at least ten others were injured in a new bombing, this time on a residential area in Sumy, a city in northeastern Ukraine, announced the Interior Minister Igor Klymenko.
“Criminals must be punished for killing innocent people,” responded Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
American long-range missiles
In this context, Washington has given authorization to Ukraine to fire long-range missiles delivered by the United States into Russian territory, an American official told AFP on Sunday.
President Joe Biden would thus have acceded to a request repeatedly addressed in an urgent manner by kyiv, making a major strategic turning point shortly before his departure from the White House and the return of Donald Trump, very critical of his country’s aid to ‘Ukraine.
Volodymyr Zelensky has in fact been demanding for months permission to use British Storm Shadows and American ATACMS to reach targets further inside Russian territory.
But he greeted Sunday’s news with caution.
Recalling the importance of his army’s “long-range capability”, he simply added: “Today, many media are reporting that we have received authorization to take appropriate measures.”
With these missiles with a maximum range of several hundred kilometers, Ukraine could hit logistical sites of Russian forces and airfields from which its bombers take off.
“To the entry of North Korean troops into the war and the massive Russian missile attack, President Biden responded with language that V. Putin understands,” commented the head of Polish diplomacy Radoslaw Sikorski.
Deadly attacks
“A massive combined attack targeted all regions of Ukraine” and targeted “our energy infrastructure,” denounced Volodymyr Zelensky, reporting 120 missiles fired and 90 drones launched during the night from Saturday to Sunday.
It was a “hellish night”, said the spokesperson for the Ukrainian air force Yurii Ignat, according to whom the anti-aircraft defenses shot down 144 of these machines, while the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Andrii Sybiga, spoke of “one of the largest air attacks” launched by Russia.
The Russian Defense Ministry, for its part, affirmed that “all” the targets had been reached, “essential energy infrastructure”.
Russia, by increasing its drone and missile attacks, has already destroyed half of Ukraine’s energy capacity, kyiv claims.
As a result, electricity consumption will be restricted on Monday in all Ukrainian regions, according to network manager Ukrenergo.
This is the tenth major attack against Ukrainian energy infrastructure since the start of the year, he noted.
Putin wants to “intensify the fighting”, says Macron
Russian missiles and drones even hit Transcarpathia, a very rarely targeted region in the far west of Ukraine, far from the front and bordering Poland and Hungary.
Poland announced on Sunday that it had taken off fighter planes and mobilized forces to defend its territory, a usual procedure in the event of danger near its borders.
After this offensive, “I believe it is clear that President Putin’s intentions are to intensify” the fighting, said Emmanuel Macron in Buenos Aires. “Whatever his declarations, he does not want peace and is not ready to negotiate it,” continued the French president, who did not rule out contacting his Russian counterpart again, but only when the “context” s ‘will lend to it.
In this regard, Ukrainian Minister Andriï Sybiga judged that Sunday’s attacks constituted the “real response” of the Russian head of state to the leaders who “called or visited him” in recent times.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz actually had a telephone conversation with Vladimir Putin on Friday, for the first time since December 2022, with President Zelensky accusing him of having opened “Pandora’s box”.
Mr. Scholz, for his part, reaffirmed on Sunday his support for Ukraine and assured that “no decision” would be taken without it, while British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has “no intention of speaking” to the Russian president.
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