People are standing next to damaged buildings at the Vizar military-industrial complex after the site was hit by Russian strikes overnight in the city of Vishnevo, a southwestern suburb of Kyiv, on April 15. FADEL SENNA / AFP / Getty Images
Russia’s Defense Ministry promised on Friday to step up rocket attacks on the Ukrainian capital in response to Ukraine’s alleged aggression on Russian territory, a sinister warning following Moscow’s deplorable loss of its flagship in the Black Sea.
The threat of intensified attacks on Kyiv came after Russian authorities accused Ukraine of injuring seven people and damaging about 100 residential buildings by air strikes in Bryansk, a region bordering Ukraine. Authorities in another Russian border region also announced Ukrainian shelling on Thursday.
“The number and scale of missile attacks on sites in Kyiv will increase in response to the Kiev nationalist regime, which carries out all kinds of terrorist attacks or sabotage on Russian territory,” said Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov.
The resumed bombing could return Kyiv residents to the steady howls of air raid sirens heard in the early days of the Russian invasion and to scary nights sheltering subway stations. The capital showed incredible signs of pre-war life after Russian troops failed to capture the city and withdrew to focus on eastern Ukraine, leaving behind evidence of possible war crimes.
Ukrainian authorities have not confirmed that any targets have been struck in Russia, and the reports cannot be independently verified.
However, Ukrainian authorities said their forces had fired missiles at a key Russian warship. If true, Wednesday’s attack on the missile cruiser Moscow, named after the Russian capital, will be an important victory for Ukraine and a symbolic defeat for Russia.
The warship sank while being towed to port on Thursday after suffering severe damage in circumstances that remain controversial. Moscow acknowledged the fire on board, but not the attack. US and other Western officials could not confirm what caused the fire.
Moscow had the capacity to carry 16 long-range cruise missiles. If Ukrainian forces pull out the ship, it is probably the largest warship sunk in battle since the Falkland Islands war. A British submarine torpedoed an Argentine naval cruiser called the ARA General Belgrano during the 1982 conflict, killing more than 300 sailors.
The sinking of a Russian warship reduces Russia’s firepower in the Black Sea, although military analysts disagree on the significance of the event for the course of the war. In any case, the loss was seen as emblematic of Moscow’s fate in a seven-week invasion that is widely seen as a historic mistake following the withdrawal from the Kyiv region and much of northern Ukraine.
“The flagship Russian warship is a worthy place to dive. We already have another place to dive in the Black Sea. We will definitely visit the remnants after our victory in the war, “Defense Minister Alexei Reznikov wrote on Twitter on Friday.
In a speech Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told Ukrainians they should be proud to have survived 50 days under Russian attack when the invaders “gave us a maximum of five”.
Mark McKinnon of the Globe reports from Borodyanka, one of the cities near Kyiv most affected by the Russian attacks. Interviews with survivors show that at least 65 were killed on just one street, with hundreds still unaccounted for after the withdrawal of Russian forces.
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Russia’s warning of renewed air strikes has not prevented Kyiv residents from taking advantage of a sunny and slightly warmer spring day as the weekend approaches. More people than usual were on the street on Friday, walking dogs, riding electric scooters and walking hand in hand.
In a central park, a small group of people, including a woman wearing a Ukrainian flag, danced to the music of a portable speaker.
Residents said they heard explosions in parts of Kyiv at night, but it is unclear what targets were targeted.
News of “Moscow” overshadowed Russian claims of progress in the southern port city of Mariupol, which Moscow forces had blocked since the first days of the invasion. The dwindling number of Ukrainian defenders opposed the siege, which was appalling at the cost of trapped and starving civilians.
The mayor of Mariupol said this week that more than 10,000 civilians had died and the death toll could exceed 20,000. Other Ukrainian officials said they expected to find evidence of atrocities against civilians such as those found in Bucha and other cities outside Kyiv.
Mariupol City Council said on Friday that locals said they had seen Russian soldiers dig up bodies that had been buried in backyards and prevent new burials of “people killed by them”.
“Why the exhumation is taking place and where the bodies will be taken is unknown,” the council told the Telegram news app.
The capture of Mariupol will allow Russian forces in the south, which have risen through the annexed Crimean peninsula, to connect fully with troops in the Donbass region, Ukraine’s eastern industrial center and the target of the impending offensive.
Moscow-backed separatists have been fighting Ukrainian forces in Donbas since 2014, the same year Russia took over Crimea from Ukraine. Russia has recognized the independence of two rebel-held areas in the region.
Although it is uncertain when Russia will launch a full-scale campaign, a regional Ukrainian official said on Friday that seven people were killed and 27 injured after Russian forces opened fire on buses carrying civilians in the village of Borovaya, near the northeastern city of Kharkiv. The claim cannot be verified independently.
Dmytro Chubenko, a spokesman for the regional prosecutor’s office, told the Ukrainian news site Suspilne that Ukrainian authorities had opened criminal proceedings on suspicion of “violation of the laws or customs of war combined with premeditated murder.”
MURAT YUKSELIR / GLOSS AND POST, SOURCE: GRAPHIC NEWS
A major explosion also hit the eastern city of Kramatorsk, where a rocket attack on a railway station killed more than 50 people a week earlier, while thousands, listening to evacuation warnings from the Donbass region, waited to leave.
Associated Press reporters in Kramatorsk heard the sound of a rocket and then an explosion, followed by howling sirens on Friday. It is not immediately clear what was hit and whether there were any casualties. A day earlier, a factory in the same city was hit by an air strike.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Friday that Russian strikes in the Kharkiv region “liquidated a group of mercenaries from a Polish private military company” of up to 30 people and “released” a factor for iron and steel in Mariupol. Allegations cannot be verified independently.
On Thursday, the Ministry of Defense explained the damage to “Moscow” with the fact that the fire caused an explosion of ammunition on board. In addition to cruise missiles, the Moscow carried anti-aircraft missiles and other guns.
The ministry did not say what could have caused the fire, but said the crew, which usually numbers about 500, had abandoned the ship. It is unclear whether there were any casualties.
Maxim Marchenko, governor of Ukraine’s Black Sea region of Odessa, said Ukrainian forces had hit Moscow with two Neptune missiles and caused “serious damage.” Neptune is an anti-ship rocket recently developed by Ukraine in an earlier Soviet design.
According to the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, the missile system can hit targets up to 280 kilometers (175 miles) away. That would put Moscow in range, based on where the ship was when the fire broke out.
Other Russian ships in the northern Black Sea have moved further south since the Moscow incident, a senior US defense official said on condition of anonymity to discuss domestic military assessments.
Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24 and claimed thousands of lives. The conflict killed huge numbers of Ukrainian civilians and forced millions more to flee.
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