The top news item of the day was Russia launching a massive salvo of long-range missiles against numerous major cities throughout Ukraine, including the capital of Kyiv. This included several strikes along Kyiv’s main downtown roads during rush hour, resulting in many injuries and several deaths. Russia also struck several power facilities, leading to power outages.
While the Russian missile strikes on key power plants did not result in a total loss of power, it did put a limit on their capacity. So, President Zelensky called for a nation-wide conscious reduction of the use of electricity to relieve the strain on the system.
One of the missile strikes on Kyiv yesterday right next to Taras Shevchenko park, a busy morn-ing commuter route as well as a cultural center point of the city. Some of the buildings which were damaged by the blast include Taras Shevchenko National University, the Khanenko Museum, the Taras Shevchenko National Museum, and the National Philharmonic. A popular play-ground was also damaged. No objects of military importance are in the area.
Another target of the Russian missile strikes was an office building in central Kyiv containing the German consulate. However, while the German government did confirm that their offices were damaged, they had been empty since the beginning of the war, so none of their diplomatic staff were harmed. This event led to increased calls by Ukrianains for Germany to provide military aid.
While Russia has been claiming that the missile salvo was a direct response to the destruction of a portion of the Crimean Bridge, an act that Ukraine has not taken direct credit for, Ukrainian officials have offered up an alternative explanation: Russia is lashing out against civilian infra-structure out of frustration with its long string of battlefield defeats around Kharkiv and Kherson. They also attack the framing of how anything Russia does can be “in response” to anything else.
Russia and Belarus have agreed to the deployment joint battle grouping located in Ukraine’s northern neighbor, potentially threatening another assault on Kyiv. However, Belarus’s illegitimate dictator Alexander Lukashenko has not made any announcement that he would join in with Russia’s war on Ukraine aside from allowing Russia to use Belarusian territory, an act which he has long resisted Russian pressure to do. The illegal Belarusian authorities have claimed that Ukraine is preparing an aggressive act against them, but have presented no evidence that this is the case.
In an op-ed for NV by American journalist and author Sarah Ashton-Cirillo, who was on the scene of the missile strike on Taras Shevchenko Park, she gives a moving plea to make the carnage that she saw the last that Ukraine has to go through. She is a long-time reporter cover-ing the siege of Kharkiv, and such sights have been common in Ukraine’s second-largest city.