Summary of the day
Russia’s president Vladimir Putin has threatened to strike at “decision-making centres in Kyiv” with his country’s new Oreshnik intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) missile. Putin said officials were drawing up a list of targets, and Russia would continue combat tests of the missile
Speaking at the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) summit in Astana, Putin also boasted that Russia was producing ten times as many advanced missile system as Nato countries collectively were able to manage. He said that overnight Russia had used 90 missiles of and 100 drones to strike 17 targets in Ukraine, which he described as “military facilities, defence industry facilities and their support systems”
Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy claimed that Russia had used cluster munitions, overnight, which he described as “a very vile escalation of Russian terrorist tactics”
Ukrainian authorities said the attacks had been aimed at energy infrastructure, and earlier today at least one million people had been left without power. Ukraine’s energy company Ukrenergo said the emergency blackouts had ended, but warned of “four rounds of blackouts” occurring before the end of the day
Kyiv said on Thursday that Russian forces had shot dead five Ukrainian soldiers who had surrendered in the eastern Zaporizhzhia region, marking the latest war crimes allegations levied against Moscow. Both Moscow and Kyiv have accused each other’s armies of committing atrocities
Putin told reporters in Kazakhstan was outraged by the assassination attempts on incoming US president Donald Trump, and he believes that the Biden administration is trying to create difficulties for Trump in US-Russian relations
Ukrenergo, Ukraine’s energy company, has now warned of four rounds of power blackouts during the day.
