The Russian army, for its part, declared that it had struck a military site in kyiv in retaliation for Ukraine’s use of American ATACMS missiles.
“Russian armed forces carried out a group strike with precision-guided weapons against Ukrainian military-industrial facilities, including a site that manufactures long-range missiles,” according to the Russian Defense Minister.
“I’m really sorry for Putin. He doesn’t understand what’s going on”
“Putin wants war”
“More proof that Putin wants war, not peace,” said Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiga, describing the attack as “heinous”.
The Russian president “must be forced to accept a just peace by force and by maximum economic and military pressure”, he added.
“All those who help the Russian state in this war must be put under such pressure that they feel it no less than these strikes. We can only do this in unity with the whole world”, for his part declared President Zelensky on social networks.
Later Saturday evening, Mr. Zelensky said the strikes had been carried out by ballistic missiles. “We are constantly working to obtain more air defense systems for Ukraine – modern systems – capable of intercepting these types of ballistic missiles,” he added.
The downed missiles “fell” on the central Shevchenkivsky district of kyiv, damaging an industrial building, a passage leading to the metro as well as residential buildings, according to the same source, adding that the water supply was temporarily impacted.
An AFP journalist in kyiv saw street flooding at the site of the attack and the charred structure of a bombed McDonald’s.
Air defenses were active in the capital all night, the city’s mayor said.
The Ukrainian air force said it had shot down two Iskander ballistic missiles as well as 24 Russian attack drones overnight.
-The attack comes as kyiv has stepped up its air attacks on Russian energy and military facilities in recent months.
kyiv’s military has recently carried out strikes on several Russian oil depots, including two major attacks on a facility near a military airfield in Russia’s Saratov region, which sparked fires that lasted for several days.
The Kremlin multiplies the declarations denying the existence of Ukraine
“Everyone was sleeping.”
Russian forces also “attacked the center of the city” of Zaporizhia, in the south of the country, local governor Ivan Fedorov reported on Saturday morning.
One person was killed and eleven injured, according to its latest report, and a 27-year-old man is still missing. Three of the injured were hospitalized.
Russia “cynically” targeted the center of the city “while everyone was sleeping,” Ivan Fedorov said.
Two other people died in a mortar attack in Beryslav, in the Kherson region (south), according to Governor Oleksandr Prokudin.
Russia also announced on Saturday that it had taken control of two other villages in eastern Ukraine, the latest territorial advance in its offensive.
The Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement posted on Telegram that its forces had captured the villages of Vremivka and Petropavlivka, both in the Donetsk region, the epicenter of the fighting.
The German Defense Minister said for his part on Saturday that he was open to sending German soldiers to Ukraine if a demilitarized zone was established there to guarantee respect for a hypothetical ceasefire with Russia.
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