Police stand next to part of a missile that landed on a street in a Russian strike in kyiv.
Russia launched ‘massive’ attack on Kyiv overnight, Ukrainian official says
Russia carried out a “massive” attack on the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, on Tuesday evening using drones and missiles, Serhii Popko, head of the Kyiv city military administration, said on Wednesday.
“kyiv has not seen such a powerful attack since spring,” Popko wrote on Telegram.
Popko said that several groups of drones flew towards Kyiv “from different directions”, and missiles were then launched towards the city from Tu-95MS strategic bombers.
Air defense forces destroyed more than 20 “enemy targets”, he added.
Two men aged 26 and 36 were killed, while three others were more or less seriously injured by falling debris, according to the Kiev city military administration. Two of the injured were hospitalized.
Earlier on Wednesday, the mayor of Kyiv said fire and rescue services were working at wreck sites in Darnitsky and Shevchenkivskiy districts.
Ukrainian public broadcaster Suspilnehas also reported explosions in the southern city of Odessa early Wednesday after the head of its regional military administration, Oleh Kiper, warned of Russian rocket attacks and asked residents to stay away. ‘shelter.
Russian missile strikes kill at least two in kyiv
At least two people were killed and two others injured following Russian missile attacks on kyiv early Wednesday, Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko said.
“Fire and rescue services continue to work at the wreckage sites. In particular in the Darnitsky district and in four districts of the Shevchenkivskiy district of the capital,” Klitschko said.
Ukrainian public broadcaster Suspilne reported explosions in the southern city of Odessa on Wednesday after the head of its regional military administration, Oleh Kiper, warned of Russian rocket attacks.
“Russian terrorists are attacking the Odessa region with rockets,” he said, asking residents to stay safe.
Ukrainian military boats destroyed and several drones intercepted (Russian Defense Ministry)
The Russian Defense Ministry claimed that four Ukrainian military fast boats with personnel on board were destroyed in the Black Sea.
He also announced that several drones were intercepted over various Russian regions in the early hours of Wednesday.
“On August 30, at around midnight Moscow time, an aircraft of the Black Sea Fleet Naval Air Force destroyed four high-speed military boats with landing groups of Ukrainian special operations forces totaling up to to 50 people,” the Russian Defense Ministry said in a post on Telegram.
The Defense Ministry also added that three Ukrainian drones were intercepted over Bryansk region, one over Orel region and one over Kaluga region in the early hours of Wednesday.
Sevastopol Governor Mikhail Razvozhaev reported that Russian air defense forces repelled Ukrainian drone attacks in the Sevastopol Bay region of occupied Crimea in the early hours of Wednesday.
Over 1,300 schools destroyed in Ukraine
More than 1,300 schools have been totally destroyed in government-controlled Ukraine since the invasion began last year, UNICEF said.
Others were also badly damaged, the UN agency added.
US announces additional $250 million security assistance package for Ukraine
The United States is providing an additional $250 million security assistance package to Ukraine, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced on Tuesday.
Blinken said the assistance package included air defense missiles, artillery munitions, Javelin systems and rockets, as well as mine clearance equipment.
The United States will also provide ambulances with “spares, services, training and transportation,” Blinken said.
“This set of arms and equipment, valued at $250 million, is being executed as part of withdrawals previously intended for Ukraine,” he added.
“Russia started this war and could end it at any time by withdrawing its forces from Ukraine and ending its brutal attacks,” Blinken said, adding, “In the meantime, the United States and our allies and partners will remain united alongside Ukraine, for as long as it takes.”
Ukrainian ME: Prigozhin’s fate shows that possible peace negotiations with Russia would be in vain
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Tuesday that the fate of Wagner chief Eugene Prigozhin proved the futility of potential peace talks with Russia.
“Prigozhin was in conflict with Putin,” Kuleba told a news conference in Paris alongside his French counterpart Catherine Colonna.
“They agreed on security guarantees, then Putin killed him. There is no reason to believe that Putin would behave differently in other negotiations,” he added.
The Kremlin has denied any involvement in the plane crash that claimed the lives of Prigozhin and other Wagner lawmakers.
While in Paris, Kuleba also met with a number of major French companies in the military-industrial complex and discussed “specific Ukrainian-French cooperation and co-production projects”, he said in a message on social networks.
Ukraine calls Pope Francis’ speech to Russian youth ‘imperialist propaganda’
Ukrainian officials criticized Pope Francis’ address to Russian youth, calling it “imperialist propaganda”.
The pontiff gave a video address to the 10th All-Russian Assembly of Catholic Youth in St. Petersburg on Friday, during which he urged young people to see themselves as descendants of the Russian Empire.
“Never forget your heritage. You are the descendants of the great Russia: the great Russia of the saints, of the rulers, the great Russia of Peter I and Catherine II, this educated empire, of great culture and great humanity. Never abandon this heritage,” the pope said.
“You are the descendants of the great Mother Russia, go forward with her. And thank you – thank you for your way of being, for your way of being Russian.
Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleh Nikolenko called the pope’s speech “imperialist propaganda”.
“It’s the kind of imperialist propaganda, ‘spiritual ties’ and ‘need’ to save ‘Great Mother Russia’ that the Kremlin uses to justify the murder of thousands of Ukrainians and the destruction of hundreds of towns and villages Ukrainians,” Nikolenko said. said in a Facebook post.
The pope’s mission should be “precisely to open the eyes of Russian youth to the devastating course of the current Russian leadership” and he instead promotes “Russian great power ideas, which are, in fact, the reason for the aggression Chronicle of Russia”. Nikolenko added.
Last year, Russian President Vladimir Putin compared himself to Peter the Great at an exhibit dedicated to Russia’s first emperor, using the comparison to justify Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Sviatoslav Shevchuk, head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, said in a statement that Peter the Great and Catherine the Great are the “worst examples of imperialism and extreme Russian nationalism”, warning that the pope’s words “could be perceived as support for the Greek Catholic Church”. nationalism and imperialism which are today at the root of the war in Ukraine.
“As a Church, we want to affirm that in the context of Russian aggression against Ukraine, such statements inspire the neocolonial ambitions of the aggressor country,” Shevchuk added.
The Vatican rejected the interpretation of the pope’s words as a eulogy of imperialism.
“The Pope intended to encourage young people to preserve and promote all that is positive in the great Russian culture and spirituality, and certainly not to exalt the imperialist logic and the governmental personalities, cited to indicate certain historical reference periods. “, says the statement from the Vatican.
