Ukraine war briefing: Kyiv faces missile barrage after Zelenskyy targets Russian satellite network

Kyiv mayor says attack has caused fires in at least two districts; Ukraine hits Russian rocket facility in long-range strike. What we know on day 1,636

Russian forces launched a missile ⁠attack on Kyiv early on Sunday, sparking fires in ⁠at least ⁠two districts of the Ukrainian capital, the city’s mayor said. Kyiv’s ⁠military administration said one person had been injured. Witnesses reported explosions in the city amid air alerts that sounded after 2am.

Mayor Vitali Klitschko, writing on ⁠Telegram, said falling ​debris had ‌caused a ‌fire in a non-residential part of ‌a northern suburb. Several cars were on fire, and another fire had broken out in an area just south of the city ‌centre, he said. Unofficial ​Telegram channels posted photos of what were described as market stalls ablaze. Russia ‌has in ​recent ​weeks been staging intensive air attacks on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities.

Ukraine says long-range strikes hit a Russian military airfield and a rocket centre ⁠that supports ⁠Russia’s nascent Starlink-style satellite ​internet network. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Saturday said Flamingo cruise missiles struck the rocket facility, about 900km from Ukraine’s border, as part of Kyiv’s campaign to pressure Moscow to end ⁠the war by targeting sites deep inside Russia.“It is important that Russia’s war potential be reduced. Peace is needed, and this must be evident in Russia – through concrete damage ⁠to specific facilities,” Zelenskyy wrote on X. He said the airfield hosted aircraft used to attack Ukraine.

Ukraine’s armed forces said direct hits were ‌recorded at the airfield in Russia’s ‌Nizhny Novgorod region and the Progress rocket centre in Samara region, sparking fires ‌at both sites. The Samara plant produces rockets used to launch satellites for the Rassvet broadband network, which Russia is developing as an alternative to SpaceX’s Starlink. Starlink operates in Ukraine but not in Russia, giving Kyiv an advantage in drone operations and battlefield communications.

In Samara region, local officials said air defences had repelled a “massive missile attack”. “Samara’s industrial infrastructure ‌sustained localised damage,” Ivan Noskov, head of the regional capital, said in an online post. Emergency services were working at the scene, he said.

Russia has ⁠asked Washington and ⁠Ankara ⁠to explain reports ​of possible plans ⁠to transfer to Kyiv a “substantial ⁠arsenal” ​of ‌US weapons ‌and ammunition ‌held by Turkey, a spokesperson for Russia’s foreign ministry said ‌on Saturday. Such a transfer would ​cause “serious harm … to our bilateral relations ⁠with Washington and ​Ankara,” the spokesperson ​said in ​a ‌statement.

A Russian strike on an apartment block in south-eastern Ukraine on Saturday killed a three-month-old baby and wounded 11 people, local officials said. Drones hit the building in the town of Marhanets, said Oleksandr Hanzha, head of the Dnipropetrovsk regional military administration.

Russia’s defence ​ministry on Saturday said in the ‌past 24 hours its drones ​and missiles had ​struck Ukrainian logistics centres and energy and transport infrastructure used by the Ukrainian army, as well as assembly workshops for long-range drones and drone boats.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has told Russian president Vladimir Putin in a letter that he was “proud” of their countries’ strong ties, state media reported. North Korea has become a key ally of the Kremlin, sending troops to support Moscow’s war effort in return for economic benefits and military technology, analysts say. Kim added that he had a “firm belief” that Russia would thrive and defend its “territorial integrity” under Putin’s “wise leadership”.

In a letter to Kim delivered on Friday to mark Korea’s liberation from Japanese colonial rule at the end of the second world war, Putin said relations between the two countries had reached the “unprecedentedly high level of comprehensive strategic partnership”. “Our states are actively cooperating in all the sectors while making concerted efforts to ensure the regional security and stability,” the Russian leader said.

The exchange of letters follows Ukraine’s accusation this month that Moscow had launched North Korean ballistic missiles in a strike that killed at least nine people and wounded dozens. Kyiv has also recently said that up to 50,000 North Korean troops are due to deploy to Russia, although it has provided no evidence to back the claim or a timeframe for the deployment.

Continue reading...