Ukraine-Russia War: At least 53 injured in Kyiv explosions, says mayor

Kyiv has been hit by Russian missile strikes wounding 53 as Ukraine leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy urges the US and EU to unblock aid.

A volley of Russian missiles wounded dozens of people and damaged a children’s hospital in the worst attack on Kyiv in months, officials said, as Ukraine pleads for Western military aid.

AFP journalists in the capital heard several explosions before dawn and air raid sirens sounded soon after that.

Ukraine’s air force said it had downed all 10 missiles targeting the city and the health ministry said 53 people were wounded, including two children.

Most injuries were caused by “glass shards, household items and the shock wave” as missile debris fell mostly in eastern parts of the city, the ministry said.

Interior Minister Igor Klymenko said a kindergarten building was also damaged.

The Kyiv strikes came a day after a massive hacking attack on the country’s top telecoms operator, which Ukrainian officials said may have been carried out by Russian security services.

Destroyed cars next to a damaged residential building following a missile strike in Kyiv, amid Russian invasion of Ukraine. Picture: AFP

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy hailed the work of the military and pledged to bolster the country’s air defences.

“It is important for people, it is important for cities and it is important for Ukraine,” he said on social media.

“Russia has once again confirmed its title as a shameful country that releases rockets at night, hitting residential areas, kindergartens and energy facilities in winter,” he said.

A destroyed car next to a damaged residential building following a missile strike in Kyiv, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Picture: AFP

The strikes came as Mr Zelenskyy arrived in Norway to meet with leaders of the five Nordic nations, who are key donors.

Ukraine “can’t win without help,” Mr Zelenskyy told reporters following talks with Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store.

“But you can’t lose, because (all) you have (is) your country,” he continued.

With the counter-offensive launched by Ukraine in June failing to yield the anticipated results, Mr Zelenskyy is trying to rebuild support among Ukraine’s allies amid growing dissent and fatigue.

At the same time, Russian forces have been on the offensive along different parts of the front in eastern and southern Ukraine in recent days.

The attack comes just hours after Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s appeal for more US aid. Picture: Getty Images

The attack comes just hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s dramatic in-person plea to Congress in Washington to extend their support to fight back against Russia.

Mr Zelenskyy, in his third visit to Washington DC, told congressional leaders that Ukraine could win the war that was sparked by Russia’s illegal invasion. He said the talks were “very productive” but shared few details publicly, while outlining Ukraine’s success at winning back half the territory Russia had occupied since the invasion. Mr Zelenskyy said it was “insane” to suggest Ukraine could now hand back any land.

PUTIN’S ENEMY MYSTERIOUSLY DISAPPEARS

Vladimir Putin’s “number one enemy” Alexei Navalny has not been seen in several days, sparking concerns for his wellbeing.

Navalny, who is the opposition leader and vocal critic of Putin’s regime, was poisoned with a nerve agent in 2020 (allegedly by the Kremlin) and sent to jail later for fraud and other crimes, which the father of two has long denied.

Amnesty International and other human interest groups condemned the move by Russia.

His lawyers have now said they were told Navalny is “no longer listed” in the prison records and there is a possibility he has been moved to another brutal prison.

Officials have not revealed whether he has been transferred or where he may have been transferred to.

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny stands inside a glass cell during a court hearing at the Babushkinsky district court in Moscow in 2021. Picture: AFP

A few days ago, Navalny reportedly fell ill and collapsed in his cell.

“He fell ill in his cell last week. He got dizzy and laid down on the floor. The colony staff came over immediately, lowered the cot, laid Alexey down and gave him an IV,” Navalny’s spokesperson Kira Yarmysh wrote on X.

“We don’t know what it was, but given the fact that he’s not being fed, is being kept in a punishment cell with no ventilation and the time for walks has been reduced to a minimum, it looks like a hunger faint.”

It has been several days since Navalny has been in contact with his lawyers or anyone in his team.

PUTIN TO BE IN POWER TILL 2030

Russian President Vladimir Putin made his first public appearance since declaring he is running again for president for the fifth time.

If he wins the March 17 election, which he is widely expected to, Putin will be in power until at least 2030. He has been president for the past 20 years already.

The president made his appearance at the flag-raising ceremony to launch two new nuclear submarines.

Russia's President Vladimir Putin attends a flag-rising ceremony at the new Imperor Alexander III and Krasnoyarsk nuclear submarines at Sevmash shipyard in the Arctic port of Severodvinsk. Picture: AFP

The submarines are an important weapon due to Russia’s ongoing war with Ukraine. Picture: AFP

“We will quantitatively strengthen the combat readiness of the Russian Navy, our naval power in the Arctic, the Far East, the Black Sea, the Baltic Sea, and the Caspian Sea – the most important strategic areas of the world’s oceans,” he said, according to Reuters.

Security analysts believe the nuclear submarines are even more important to Putin than ever before due to the ongoing war with Ukraine.

Recently, there have been rumours of the president’s ailing health, but that was nowhere to be seen when he made his public appearance.

UKRAINE ASSASSINATES ‘TRAITOR’ IN RUSSIA

Ukraine assassinated a pro-Putin politician who defected and fled to Russia before he was shot dead outside Moscow.

Kyiv orchestrated the plot to kill one of its own politicians in the latest of a series of assassinations targeting Russians and Ukrainians who backed the invasion of Russian President Putin, according to defence sources.

Ukraine’s SBU security service killed Illia Kyva in a park in the Moscow suburbs where his body was discovered this week.

Kyiv rarely comments on killings of pro-Russian figures like Darya Dugina, who was killed in a car bombing, or blogger Vladlen Tartarsky, killed in an explosion at a Saint Petersburg cafe.

But it has recently started to claim responsibility for a number of attacks and openly threatened to hunt down other “collaborators” and “traitors”.

Russian ideologue Alexander Dugin attends a farewell ceremony of his daughter Daria Dugina, who was killed in a car bomb explosion the previous week. Picture: AFP

Russian investigators confirmed Kyva had been shot but that the killer remained a mystery.

“An unknown person fired shots at the victim from an unidentified weapon. The man died on the spot from his injuries,” Russia’s Investigative Committee said in a statement.

The Russian news agency TASS cited a police officer as saying the investigation was being treated as a “Ukrainian plot” and that search operations for the killer were underway.

Speaking on national TV, Ukraine’s military intelligence spokesperson Andriy Yusov confirmed that “Kyva is done”.

“Such a fate will befall other traitors of Ukraine, as well as the henchmen of the Putin regime,” Yusov said on national television, adding the death was “justice” for “one of the biggest scumbags, traitors and collaborators”.

Russian Investigative Committee inspect wreckage of the car driven by Daria Dugina. Picture: AFP

The day before Russia’s invasion, Kyva said the country had been “soaked by Nazism” and needed “liberating” by Russia — echoing talking points regularly advanced by Russian officials and on state TV.

He had written to Russian President Vladimir Putin requesting Russian citizenship, and a court in Ukraine had sentenced him in absentia to 14 years for high treason.

Shortly before his murder, Kyva said on Telegram that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy would “be better off killing himself”.

PUTIN SEEKS ALLIES

The US Department of Justice has filed war crime charges against four members of Russia’s military accused of torturing an American during the invasion of Ukraine.

The Russians are accused of kidnapping the American from his home in a Kherson Oblast village in 2022, beating and interrogating him and holding him for 10 days in a military compound.

He was later evacuated with his wife who is Ukrainian.

It is the first such war crimes case of its kind under the War Crimes Act.

The American told federal US investigators he was stripped naked, beaten, and interrogated with a gun to his head by the Russians. He was photographed and threatened with a mock execution, according to the report.

“The evidence gathered by our agents speaks to the brutality, criminality, and depravity of Russia’s invasion,” US Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said.

Four Russia-Affiliated Military Personnel Charged with War Crimes in Connection with Russia’s Invasion of Ukrainehttps://t.co/K7X0w52RHLpic.twitter.com/3Rj305m1xf

— U.S. Department of Justice (@TheJusticeDept) December 6, 2023

It comes as Britain has announced a fresh round of sanctions against Russia’s “war machine” in Ukraine.

The new curbs bar UK firms from dealings with businesses and individuals in Russian-allied countries such as Belarus, China, Serbia, Turkey, the UAE and Uzbekistan, among others.

The 46 new sanctions focus on “individuals and groups supplying and funding (Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s war machine,” the UK’s foreign office said in a statement.

Armed groups affiliated with the Russian army like the Wagner mercenary force have been active in Ukraine and stand accused of numerous violations of international humanitarian law.

“Today’s measures will disrupt Putin’s ability to equip his military through third-party supply chains,” the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) added.

Russia's President Vladimir Putin and President of the United Arab Emirates Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan in Abu Dhabi. Picture: AFP

Meanwhile, Putin is in the United Arab Emirates for a rare visit outside the former Soviet Union, as Russia seeks to reassert itself on the global stage.

Isolated by the West over the Ukraine war, Putin is courting allies in the Middle East, where he will discuss oil, trade and the Israel-Hamas conflict.

Putin was greeted on the runway by UAE officials, Russian television showed, before heading to the presidential palace under cavalry escort.

“Today, thanks to your posture, our relations have reached unprecedented levels,” Putin told UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan on his arrival, praising high trade between the countries.

Putin is scheduled to travel to Saudi Arabia to meet with the kingdom’s de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Russia's President Vladimir Putin and President of the United Arab Emirates Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan holding a meeting in Abu Dhabi. Picture: AFP

This is only the Russian leader’s third trip outside the former Soviet Union since he invaded Ukraine, after visits to Iran and China.

Putin has since March been wanted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court (ICC) that has accused him of deporting Ukrainian children.

But neither the UAE nor Saudi Arabia have signed the ICC’s founding treaty, which means they would not have to arrest him.

During the visit, trade and oil will be on the agenda in the UAE, which a Kremlin statement said is “Russia’s main economic partner in the Arab world”.

Moscow has learned to adapt to Western sanctions, with oil revenue rebounding.

Bilateral trade between the two countries reached a record $9 billion in 2022, the Kremlin said.

– with AFP

Originally published as Ukraine-Russia War: At least 53 injured in Kyiv explosions, says mayor