Europe

Ukraine reports Russian attacks on Kyiv and Lviv

Kyiv calls for more air defences and long-range missiles

Ukrainian soldiers test a drone outside their compound near Lyman, in eastern Ukraine. Photograph: Mauricio Lima/The New York Times

Roman Olearchyk in Kyiv
Tue Jun 20 2023 - 11:59

Russian “kamikaze” drone strikes hit the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, 1,000km from the front lines, in a nationwide barrage as Kyiv continued its counteroffensive to retake territory in southern and eastern regions.

Andriy Sadovyi, Lviv’s mayor, said in a post on social media that “critical infrastructure” was struck without providing details, adding there were no casualties from the strikes early on Tuesday. Maksym Kozytsky, Lviv region’s governor, said three drones hit their targets.

The Ukrainian army’s general staff said in a statement that 32 of 35 drone strikes nationwide were intercepted overnight. Missile strikes also hit the southern region of Zaporizhzhia, the statement added, while falling debris damaged energy infrastructure in Kyiv and the southern Mykolayiv region.

Russia intensified its campaign of air strikes, which often target civilian infrastructure such as energy networks, last month as Ukraine prepared to launch its counteroffensive. Some 18 per cent of territory in Ukraine’s southern and eastern regions remains occupied 16 months into Russia’s full-scale invasion.

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“In some areas our warriors are moving forward, in some areas they are defending their positions and resisting the occupiers’ assaults and intensified attacks,” Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his overnight video address.

“We have no lost positions, only liberated ones,” he added, referring to the recapture of about eight villages and 113,000 sq km of territory in the past fortnight.

Those gains have been partly attributed to Nato-grade weaponry provided by Kyiv’s western backers that has replaced the country’s increasingly depleted Soviet-era arsenal. This includes tanks, armoured vehicles, multiple-launch rocket systems and, most recently, long-range cruise missiles from the UK.

“The British Storm Shadow long-range missiles are doing a very useful and accurate job at the front,” Mr Zelenskiy said, citing a Monday phone call he held with the UK’s prime minister, Rishi Sunak, in which he asked for more weaponry.

Kyiv wants additional long-range missiles and F-16 fighter jets to help it conduct strikes deep inside occupied territory on airbases, weapon depots, command posts and logistic hubs that would soften the ground for its infantry.

Sergei Shoigu, Russia’s defence minister, said on Tuesday that Ukraine’s army planned to use US-made Himars multiple-launch rocket systems and UK Storm Shadow missiles to strike “Russian territory, including Crimea”.

Since annexing Crimea in 2014 Russia has heavily militarised the peninsula, which is internationally recognised as Ukrainian territory. Kyiv has repeatedly hit targets in Crimea with drones and missiles. But it remains unclear if it plans to deploy weaponry provided by its allies to target the peninsula, given Moscow’s warnings that use of such weapons on what it claims as Russian territory would represent an escalation of the conflict.

“[Such] use of these missiles... will mean full involvement of the US and Great Britain in the conflict and will entail immediate strikes on [government sites] in the territory of Ukraine,” Shoigu said.

Kyiv has pleaded for more missile systems to simultaneously protect its cities and help its infantry advance in frontline areas.

“Today, air defences are deployed where they are most needed, protecting large cities, infrastructure facilities, nuclear power facilities and the front line,” Colonel Yuriy Ignat, a spokesman at Ukraine’s air force, said on Tuesday on state television. “[But] there is a lack of anti-aircraft capabilities in order to cover a state as [large as] Ukraine,” he added.

Russian-appointed authorities said Ukrainian forces struck the Russian-controlled town of Nova Kakhovka in southern Kherson region with drones, killing one person and wounding four. The morning attack on public service facilities, reported on the Telegram social platform, was carried out by kamikaze drones. Reuters news agency could not independently verify the report.

The officials said the injured were rushed to hospital, while a woman died later from her injuries.

Meanwhile, prosecutors served a notice of suspicion to the head of Kyiv’s municipal department for security on Tuesday after three people died in a Russian air attack when they were unable to get into a bomb shelter, the prosecutor’s office said.

The deaths of the people on June 1st after they rushed to an air raid shelter that failed to open caused a public outrage and prompted Mr Zelenskiy to promise a harsh response.

The prosecutor’s office said the suspect was accused of improperly performing their official duties and that a lack of control over the maintenance and readiness of city bomb shelters led to the deaths and injuries of people.

Kyiv’s prosecutor’s office did not name the suspect, but the capital’s city council identified him as Roman Tkachuk and said the municipal security department was co-operating and providing access to available documentation.

The official could not be immediately reached for comment.

An audit, ordered by Mr Zelenskiy, showed that the condition of 15 per cent of Kyiv’s 4,655 shelters were suitable, while only 44 per cent were freely accessible. - Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2023. Additional reporting: Reuters.

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