Kremlin launches new missile assault on Ukraine

As Moscow launches a new barrage of strikes on Ukrainian cities, Russia’s foreign minister reminds western countries to ‘take seriously’ nuclear war threats.

Military medics assist a Ukrainian troop to an ambulance outside Bakhmut after Russia launched a fresh wave of missile attacks on Monday. Picture: Getty Images

Ukrainian cities faced a new barrage of missile attacks on Monday as Moscow accused NATO of being involved in a direct military confrontation with Russia that could spark a nuclear war.

Air raid sirens wailed across Ukraine as Russia launched about 70 missiles, including Kalibr cruise missiles fired from warships in the Black and the Caspian seas. Russian strategic bombers were also involved in the attacks, the Ukrainian air force said.

At least two people were killed when missiles destroyed a number of buildings in the Zaporizhzhia region in southern Ukraine, officials said. There were also blasts near Kyiv, as well as in Odesa, the Black Sea port city, and in Kryvyi Rih, in southern Ukraine.

There were power outages in Sumy, in northern Ukraine, after missiles hit energy facilities. In Kyiv, people rushed to take cover in metro stations but there were no immediate reports of direct strikes on the capital. Ukraine said its air defence systems had shot down 60 of the missiles.

The attacks were the latest in a series of massive Russian missile strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure that began in October and which are aimed at breaking the country’s morale.

Fragments of one of the Russian rockets were also believed to have fallen in an orchard in neighbouring Moldova. “A new wave of missile attacks is taking place in Ukraine, which has direct consequences for our country,” said Natalia Gavrilita, Moldova’s prime minister. The former Soviet state, which is not a member of NATO, shares a power grid with Ukraine.

As missiles hurtled towards Ukraine, Sergei Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Minister, said NATO’s support for Kyiv meant that the western military alliance was now directly involved in the conflict.

“This is fraught with [the danger of] a direct clash of nuclear powers with catastrophic consequences,” Mr Lavrov said. He also accused western countries of refusing to “take seriously” Moscow’s warnings of nuclear war.

Prime Minister of Moldova Natalia Gavrilita says the new wave of attacks has direct consequences for her country. Picture: AFP

President Vladimir Putin vowed in September that Moscow would use nuclear weapons to defend four regions of Ukraine that Russia claims as its own territory. He later appeared to backtrack on the threat, saying there was no reason to deploy nuclear forces in Ukraine.

Mr Lavrov was speaking just hours after Kyiv appeared to have carried out its deepest strikes into Russian territory since the start of the war with attacks on military airbases hundreds of miles from the front that killed three people and damaged two long-range bombers.

The nuclear-capable Tu-95 bombers, known as Bears by NATO, were damaged when a suspected drone fell on to a runway at the Engels-2 airfield near Saratov, about 724km from Ukraine, independent Russian media said.

A huge explosion that illuminated the sky could be seen at the airfield about 6am local time, according to a video posted by Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to the Ukrainian interior minister. Locals also said that the blast could be heard miles away. Two people were said to have been injured.

In a separate incident, a blast killed three people and injured five others at the Dyagilevo military airfield near the city of Ryazan, about 193km south of Moscow. An unidentified military aircraft was also damaged.

Russian state media said a fuel tanker exploded but did not say what caused the blast. Both airbases were used for attacks on Ukrainian energy facilities.

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says NATO’s support for Kyiv means the western military alliance is now directly involved in the conflict. Picture: AFP

“Some sources report that this morning planes based on Engels and Ryazan airfields were scheduled to bomb Ukrainian energy infrastructure yet again,” Mr Gerashchenko wrote on Telegram. He also posted footage of the explosion near Ryazan. Kyiv has not confirmed that it was responsible for the blasts, however.

The attacks would be among Ukraine’s most ambitious yet. Ukraine said in October that it was developing a drone with an estimated range of 1000km, a potential game-changer in the nine-month war. The so-called kamikaze drone is believed to carry a 75kg bomb.

The blasts will raise Russian concerns that they are increasingly vulnerable to Ukrainian strikes.

Ukrainian special forces are thought to have carried out a number of cross-border attacks on oil refineries, ammunition depots and communications networks. Some Russian towns and cities have put up signs directing locals to bomb shelters amid reports that the US could supply Ukraine with longer-range weapons.

While Ukrainians struggle to keep warm, the war is also leaving some Russians in the cold after council workers who maintain central heating systems were sent to the front. Some are thought to have been captured by Ukrainian forces near Kherson.

– The Times