Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, has ordered shelters to be operational in the capital on a 24 hour basis, after allegations that yesterday three people who were killed by falling debris from a Russian missile attack were stuck outside of a “locked” air raid shelter. Three people including a child were killed and at least 11 people were injured in Thursday’s early morning missile attack. Residents of Kyiv have been leaving flowers, toys and sweets at a makeshift memorial at the location where Olha Ivashko, 33, and her daughter Vika, nine, were killed yesterday.
Russia again attacked Kyiv overnight, with Ukrainian forces claiming air defence shot down all 15 cruise missiles and 21 attack drones. Overnight the governor of Dnipropetrovsk region, Serhiy Lysak, said that the city of Nikopol had been struck by shelling.
The governor of Russia’s Belgorod region said on Friday that two people had been killed and two others injured when Ukrainian forces shelled a road in the town of Maslova Pristan near the Ukrainian border. “Fragments of the shells hit passing cars. Two women were travelling in one of them. They died from their injuries on the spot,” governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said.
The governor of Russia’s Bryansk region said on Friday that four houses were damaged after Ukrainian forces shelled a town near the border. There have also been reports of explosions in occupied Berdiansk, in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region, one of the areas of the country which the Russian Federation has claimed to annex.
Two long-range drones attacked fuel and energy infrastructure in Russia’s western Smolensk region overnight on Friday, but no injuries or fires were reported, the region’s acting governor said.
Mariupol’s mayoral aide Petro Andryushchenko has claimed that three people have been killed by the detonation of a landmine on the Mariupol-Donetsk H20 highway. He said the incident happened near Olenivka, the location of a prison massacre earlier in the war.
China’s special envoy for Eurasian affairs, Li Hui, said on Friday that the Russian side appreciated China’s desire and efforts to resolve the Ukraine crisis. “The risk of escalation of the Russia-Ukraine war is still high,” Li said at a news briefing about his visit to Europe. “All sides must ensure the safety of nuclear facilities and take concrete measures to cool down the temperature,” he said.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken said on Friday the country was working with Ukraine and other allies to build consensus around the core elements of a “just and lasting peace” to end the war with Russia. Washington would also encourage initiatives by other countries to bring about an end to the conflict, as long as they uphold the UN Charter and Ukraine’s sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence.
Two close allies of the Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov on Thursday publicly criticised Russia’s most prominent mercenary, casting Yevgeny Prigozhin as a blogger who “screams” all the time about his problems.
According to reports, the US is seeking to secure supplies of TNT in Japan for 155mm artillery shells as Washington rushes weapons and ammunition to Ukraine for a counteroffensive against Russian forces.
The US has said it will stop providing Russia some notifications required under the New Start arms control treaty from Thursday including updates on its missile and launcher locations, to retaliate for Moscow’s “ongoing violations” of the accord.
Ukraine has imposed sanctions on Alexander Lebedev, the former KGB intelligence officer whose son Evgeny sits in the House of Lords, in connection with Vladimir Putin’s invasion. The national security and defence council in Kyiv imposed sanctions on Lebedev Sr last October. The decision – first reported by Tortoise media – emerged on Thursday and follows a decree signed by president Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
Zelenskiy said on Thursday he had received a strong show of support from allies attending a European summit in Moldova on the question of supplying fighter jets to Kyiv to help repel Russian forces. He did not give details.
Ukraine’s ministry of renovation and infrastructure said on Thursday the UN-brokered Black Sea grain export deal had been halted again because Russia had blocked registration of ships to all Ukrainian ports. A UN spokesperson said Russia had informed officials overseeing the initiative that Moscow would limit registrations to the port of Pivdennyi, in Ukraine’s Odesa province, until all parties agree to unblock the transit of Russian ammonia.
