Photo: Valentin Reznichenko via REUTERS/Deutsche Welle
Several regions of Ukraine declared alert this afternoon for a new wave of missile attacks by Russian forces that have reached residential areas, according to Ukrainian sources, in addition to the bombardments this morning.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba urged the G7 and the European Union to “kill” the Russian missile and drone industry by imposing sanctions.
“Each wave of missiles further depletes Russian reserves. However, they are still capable of producing new ones. We can and must wipe out your missile and drone industry with a massive onslaught of sanctions,” Kuleba wrote in a message on Twitter, quoted by “Evropeiska Pravda.” The minister urged the group of the seven most industrialized countries in the world and the EU to “apply without delay the relevant sanctions proposed by Ukraine.”
Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of the president’s office, reported “terrible news” from Dnipro, the country’s fourth most populous city, where several people were found under the rubble of an apartment building, the Ukrinform agency reported. Later he indicated that a total of fifteen people have been rescued from under a nine-story building. The regional governor, Valentyn Reznichenko, confirmed the death of five people. “Twenty-seven people are injured. Six children are among them. They are all in the hospital,” he added.
The head of the Kharkiv regional military administration, Oleh Synehubov, reported the impact of two missiles against critical infrastructure facilities. Also in the Lviv region, “the enemy attacked a critical infrastructure object,” reported the head of that military administration, Maksim Kozitsky. The activation of air defense systems in the Mykolaiv and Odesa regions was also reported.
“If we cannot reach a comprehensive peace agreement, we will seek localized and limited ceasefires, local de-escalations,” said Ibrahim Kalin, an adviser to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who called on Russia for a ceasefire last week. Neither Russia nor Ukraine “are in a position to win militarily,” he said, confident that “in the end they will have to negotiate to reach an acceptable result” for both parties. “At the moment nobody wants to stop fighting, but we must continue asking them to do so,” he said.