Kiev, May 2, (dpa/GNA) - Several people were killed in Russian missile attacks and artillery exchanges in Ukraine on Monday.
According to the General Staff in Kiev, the Russian military used cruise missiles and combat aircraft. Several civilians were killed or injured in attacks in the east of the country and in central Ukraine. Numerous residential buildings and infrastructure objects were also damaged or destroyed.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called for a strengthening of his country’s air defence.
“We are working with our partners as actively as possible to make the protection of our skies even more reliable,” Zelensky said on Monday in his nightly video address.
“Last night alone, from midnight to seven in the morning, we managed to shoot down 15 Russian missiles,” Zelensky said. “But unfortunately not all of them”.
In the Zaporizhzhya region in central Ukraine, Russian and Ukrainian military forces engaged in intense artillery exchanges during the day.
At least two civilians were killed and 14 others wounded in Mikhaylovka, which is occupied by Russian troops, the Russian state news agency TASS reported, citing local authorities.
The warring parties’ statements could not immediately be independently verified.
New explosions over the occupied Black Sea peninsula of Crimea caused unrest among its population on Monday. According to Russian media, a Ukrainian drone was shot down by air defence in the west of the peninsula. At the weekend, a fuel depot in the port city of Sevastopol was set on fire by a drone attack.
The number of people injured in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region following overnight Russian missile strikes rose to 34, according to the latest figures on Monday.
“There are already 34 injured from the missile strike on Pavlohrad district,” the region’s governor, Serhiy Lysak, said on Telegram, after earlier saying 25 had been hurt.
Most of the victims have suffered fractures, bruises, wounds from splinters and smoke inhalation from fires that broke out after the rocket attacks during the night and in the early hours of the morning.
The commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s armed forces, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, reported that 18 cruise missiles had been fired at the country during the night.
“At around 2:30 am [2330 GMT Sunday], the Russian occupiers attacked Ukraine with strategic bombers, nine Tu-95s from the Olenogorsk (Murmansk) district and two Tu-160s from the Caspian Sea area,” he wrote.
Meanwhile across the border in western Russia, a goods train derailed following a blast in Bryansk, Russian regional authorities said.
“There are no casualties,” regional governor Aleksandr Bogomaz said on his Telegram channel after the incident that occurred near the town of Unecha, 140 kilometres southwest of Bryansk.
Rail traffic has been stopped temporarily on that line, Bogomaz said.
These incidents are seen as attempts to disrupt Russian supply lines of fuel and ammunition as Ukraine prepares for a long-awaited counter-offensive that is expected in the coming days.
Ukraine’s preparations for the expected spring offensive to retake Russian-occupied territories are “in the final stages,” according to Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov.
“I trust in them,” he told state television on Monday, referring to his troops. “A lot has been done for their success.” After all, he said, if there was no confidence among the leadership of the Ukrainian troops, there was no point in striking out.
“I believe that as of today we can turn into the home straight and say: Yes, everything is ready,” Reznikov stressed. “And then the general staff, the commander-in-chief and his team will decide how, where and when based on the decision and understanding of the situation on the battlefield,” he added.
He expressed confidence in the offensive’s success.
US intelligence estimates that more than 20,000 Russian soldiers have been killed in Ukraine since December, US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said on Monday.
No figures were given for those on the Ukrainian side.
The figures cannot be independently verified.
Kirby said there was “very little strategic value” for Russia in retaking the contested city of Bakhmut. “For Russia, this attempted effort, particularly in Bakhmut, has come at a terribly, terribly high cost,” Kirby said, referring to the large numbers of casualties.
Russia’s military stockpiles and armed forces were depleted, he said, while Ukrainian defences in the areas around Bakhmut remain strong.
As Kiev prepares to claw back territory seized by Russia, Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk contradicted the advice of Human Rights Commissioner Dmytro Lubinets that Ukrainians in the occupied territories should accept Russian passports if necessary.
“Who said that Russians will be in the temporarily occupied territories for a long time?” Vereshchuk wrote on Telegram on Monday.
In her opinion, it is impossible to turn Ukrainians into Russians. Deportations of Ukrainians from Russian-controlled areas are equally impossible due to the lack of “humanitarian corridors,” she added.
Vereshchuk called on Moscow and the International Red Cross to allow an orderly exit to Ukrainian-controlled territory. Moreover, the minister’s recommendations for people in the occupied territories remained.
“Do not accept Russian passports, do not cooperate with the occupiers, leave if possible, wait for the Ukrainian forces,” Vereshchuk said.
Earlier, Lubinets advised Ukrainians in Russian-occupied territories to accept Russian passports, saying survival is “the main thing.”
GNA