Russia strikes Kyiv again after several weeks, and Putin warns the West about missile supplies

*Paromita Das
Russia launched missiles at Kyiv for the first time in more than a month, while President Vladimir Putin threatened to strike new targets in Ukraine if Western nations provided the country with longer-range missiles.

Serhiy Gaidai, governor of Luhansk province, where the city is located, said Ukrainian forces are holding their ground in Sievierodonetsk, the main battlefield in the east where Russia has concentrated its forces.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Sunday that he traveled to Lysychansk, south of Sievierodonetsk, and Soledar – rare outings for him outside Kyiv since the Russian invasion began on February 24 and possibly the closest to the frontline yet.

“The most important thing is that you all deserve to win. However, not at any cost “In a video released on Sunday night, Zelenskiy, dressed in his trademark khaki T-shirt, told Ukrainian troops.

Soledar is in the Donetsk region, while Lysychansk and Sievierodonetsk are in the Luhansk region. Both regions are part of Donbas, Ukraine’s industrial heartland, which Russia claims it wants to “liberate.”
One person was hospitalized in the Kyiv attack, but there were no immediate reports of deaths. After Russia’s attack on two outlying districts on Sunday, dark smoke could be seen from many miles away.
Ukraine said the strike hit a rail car repair shop, while Moscow said it destroyed tanks sent to Ukraine by Eastern European countries.

The head of the Ukrainian railway, Oleksandr Kamyshin, confirmed four missiles had smashed into the Darnytsia rail car repair facility in eastern Kyiv. but claimed there was no military hardware at the site.

The strike served as a stark reminder of war in Kyiv, where normal life has mostly resumed since Russian forces were driven from the city’s outskirts in March.
Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said on Twitter that the “missile strikes at Kyiv have only one goal – kill as many as possible.”

Ukraine claimed Russia used long-range air-launched missiles fired from heavy bombers as far away as the Caspian Sea in the Kyiv strike.

A Russian cruise missile flew “critically low” over Ukraine’s second largest nuclear power plant, according to the country’s nuclear power operator.
‘They crack like nuts.’

The attack on Sunday was the first major strike on Kyiv since a missile killed a journalist in late April.

Russia has recently concentrated its destructive power on front lines in the east and south, though it occasionally strikes elsewhere as part of a campaign to degrade Ukraine’s military infrastructure and obstruct Western arms shipments.

According to the TASS news agency, Putin warned the West that if the US began supplying Ukraine with longer-range missiles, Russia would strike new targets.

The US announced last week that it would send advanced medium-range rocket systems to Ukraine. Putin said in an interview with Russian state television that the rockets Washington has promised so far are comparable to Soviet-era weapons Ukraine already has.

If Washington launches longer-range rockets, “we will strike at those targets that we have not yet hit,” he said. He downplayed the impact of Western drones, claiming that Russia was “cracking them like nuts.”
However, Governor Gaidai previously stated that Ukrainian forces were still pushing Russian forces back from Sievierodonetsk, about 85 kilometers east of Sloviansk.

The claims were unable to be independently verified. Both sides claim to have inflicted significant casualties in Sievierodonetsk.
On Sunday, Ukrainian forces repelled seven attacks in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, destroying four tanks and shooting down a combat helicopter.

According to Ukraine’s military general staff, Russian forces are “conducting intensive artillery and mortar shelling of our positions” in the Kharkiv region of Donetsk.

According to the report, Russia was targeting civilian infrastructure in several towns. Moscow maintains that it does not target civilians.

Pope Francis described the war as “the negation of God’s dream” in a Sunday address in Rome.