An arms factory in Kyiv destroyed by long-range Russian air-to-air missiles claims to have produced at least one of the missiles used to sink the Moscow warship.
Friday’s attack was widely seen by both sides as the Kremlin’s most significant revenge strike since the sinking of Russia’s flagship in the Black Sea and a reminder that despite liberation from the occupiers, the war in the Ukrainian capital is far from over.
According to the Ukrainian state arms manufacturer, the Vizar factory, located near Kyiv International Airport, produced Neptune cruise missiles, at least one of which Ukraine said was used to sink Moscow.
The strikes on Friday were followed by other explosions early Saturday after a military equipment factory in the capital’s Darnytskyi district was bombed by Russian forces.
“There were five hits,” Andrei Sizov, the 47-year-old owner of a nearby wood workshop, told Agence France-Presse. “My employee was in the office and was knocked off his feet by the explosion. They make us pay for the destruction of Moscow.
Rescuers and medics are working on the spot, and the number of victims is being clarified.
Russia’s defense ministry says it has used naval-based “high-precision long-range weapons” to hit the plant.
The attack on the Ukrainian capital is among the first since Russian invading forces began to withdraw from regions around Kyiv, as the city seemed to be returning to normal day after day. The shops began to open again and the citizens returned to the streets.
Prior to the invasion, the greater Kyiv area had a population of 3.5 million, but after the first bombings, the Ukrainian capital began to look like a ghost town, with one in two residents leaving the city.
Following the announcement that the Kyiv region had been liberated by the Russians in what was described as Ukraine’s greatest victory in the war, thousands of residents who left after the invasion were preparing to return. However, after two weeks of relative calm in the city, on Saturday morning – after an attack on an armored vehicle plant in the Ukrainian capital – Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko warned residents that it was not time to return.
“Once again, I urge everyone: please do not ignore air alarms,” Klitschko told his official Telegram channel. “And those Kyivites who left earlier and will now return to the capital, please refrain from this and stay in safer places.
The recent attacks in the capital came as no surprise, as the Russian Defense Ministry promised to bomb targets in Kyiv in response to “terrorist and sabotage” attacks on its territory by Ukraine’s “nationalist regime”. It is about the destruction of the giant missile cruiser by Ukrainian forces during a combat operation against Russian ships in the Black Sea on Wednesday. The boat’s ammunition deck exploded after being hit by two Neptune missiles produced at the plant, which Russian forces destroyed on Friday.
The Kremlin did not give any details about possible casualties among Moscow’s 510th crew and did not release photos of the destroyed ship, but Russian television presenters and experts spoke vehemently about the destruction of Ukraine after the destruction of the flagship.
Sirens for air strikes sounded at night in cities and regions, including Kharkiv, Zaporozhye, Donetsk, Krivoy Rog and Dnepropetrovsk. Explosions were also heard in the western city of Lviv as the war intensified in the east, with Russia sending additional troops to try to drive Ukrainian forces out of Donbass.
At least two Ukrainians were killed overnight in Russian airstrikes on cities in the east of the country. Authorities reported deaths in Poltava, Severodonetsk and Lisichansk. Russia also said it had struck a factory for repairing military vehicles in Nikolaev, near the southern front.
Vladimir Zelensky said up to 3,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed since Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine on February 24, with no civilian casualties yet.
In other developments:
-
Russia’s foreign ministry has banned Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the foreign minister, Liz Truss, the defense minister, Ben Wallace and 10 other politicians and members of the British government. The move was made “in view of the unprecedented hostility of the British government, in particular the imposition of sanctions against senior Russian officials,” Reuters reported, the ministry said in a statement.
-
The battle for Mariupol continues. If Moscow takes over the city, home to 400,000 people before the invasion, it will be the first major city to fall.
-
Nine humanitarian corridors have been agreed for Saturday, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Irina Vereshchuk said. Five of the nine evacuation corridors are from the east, in Ukraine’s Luhansk region, which local authorities say is under heavy fire.
Add Comment