New Russian airstrikes in Ukraine; 7 dead reported

Lviv. The day after a particularly bloody attack in Poltava, Ukraine suffered new Russian bombings on Wednesday, in which seven people died, including three children, in Lviv, in the west of the country and hundreds of kilometers from the front line.

Moscow has stepped up its attacks on Ukraine since kyiv launched a surprise incursion into Russia’s Kursk region last month, seizing hundreds of square kilometres.

“Seven people, including children, have died” in the city of Lviv, the Ukrainian prosecutor’s office said on Telegram, explaining that “search and rescue operations continue.”

A total of 53 people were also injured, according to the regional military administration. At the same time, more than 50 buildings were damaged in the city centre, including two medical institutions and two schools, according to the Ministry of Culture.

“I heard terrible, inhuman screams,” said Ielyzaveta, 27, who lives in the affected neighborhood.

Buildings in the centre were covered in soot and charred cars and debris were strewn across the ground, an AFP journalist observed.

This city in western Ukraine, almost 1,000 kilometres from the front and with a historic centre classified as a World Heritage Site, has so far been relatively spared from Russian missiles compared to other cities in the east, south and centre of the country.

Another shelling in Kryvyi Rih, the hometown of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, left six people injured early Wednesday, according to the regional administration.

Zelensky denounced “Russian terrorist attacks” and again called on the West to provide more military means to “put an end to terror.”

Russia is stepping up its massive attacks, targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure or cities far from the front.

At least 53 people were killed and nearly 300 injured in a twin missile attack on a military institute in the central Ukrainian city of Poltava on Tuesday.

According to Zelenky, the attack hit the Institute of Communications, which has been training military telecommunications specialists since the 1960s.

The Russian military said Wednesday that its attack had hit a military training center where “under the guidance of foreign instructors, specialists in communications and electronic warfare (…) were trained,” as well as “drone operators involved in attacks” on Russian soil.

Several Ukrainian bloggers and officials criticized the military command for concentrating so many soldiers in one place, and Zelensky ordered “a full and prompt investigation.”

In Russia, “three civilians” were killed and two wounded in Ukrainian shelling in Novaya Tavolzhanka, a border town in the Belgorod region, said the governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov.

Other attacks left three dead, including two minors, and 10 wounded in a market in Donetsk, a city in eastern Ukraine held by Russian forces, said the head of the pro-Russian regional administration, Denis Pushilin.

Ministerial reorganization

On the political front, several Ukrainian officials, including foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba, in office since 2020, resigned on Tuesday.

The Ukrainian parliament, the Rada, approved the resignation of four ministers on Wednesday, but the vote on Kuleba was “postponed as a matter of urgency” and could take place on Thursday, according to a parliamentary source.

In total, “more than 50% of the members of the government will be replaced,” said David Arakhamia, head of the presidential party in parliament on Tuesday evening.

The head of Ukrainian power grid operator Ukrenergo, Volodymyr Kudritsky, announced on Monday that he had been dismissed.

Zelensky justified the changes by saying that “new energy” is needed after two and a half years of Russian invasion.

In recent weeks, the Russian army has continued to advance in eastern Ukraine, particularly towards Pokrovsk, an important logistics centre less than 10 kilometres away.

Ukrainian army commander Oleksandr Syrsky admitted that the situation there is “difficult” and on Wednesday Russian troops claimed the capture of another town in this area, Karlivka.

Faced with this situation, Ukraine has ordered the evacuation of children from around 30 villages near Pokrovsk and Kramatorsk, the Ministry of Reintegration said.