A Russian shipwreck in the Black Sea, a missile factory destroyed near the Ukrainian capital, Russian-targeted border villages: Recent military facts since Thursday evening raise fears of a new expansion in Ukraine.
“We know we will not be forgiven for destroying Moscow, so it is a blow to Moscow’s” imperialist ambitions, “she added. “We know that the attacks against us will intensify and the enemy will take revenge. There will be missile strikes and artillery fire,” he continued, referring to the attacks in the south, especially in the town of Mykolayiv near Odessa.
The loss of Moscow was significant because it “provided air protection to other ships during their operations, especially during bombings and landing maneuvers on the coast,” explained Sergei Brachuk, spokesman for the regional military administration in Odessa.
Zelensky fears a nuclear attack
In this context, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zhelensky on Friday ruled that the “world” should “worry” about the risk of Russian envoy Vladimir Putin seeking a tactical nuclear weapon in the corner of Ukraine due to its military setbacks.
He echoed reports of this effect by the head of US foreign intelligence, William Burns, who had realized the previous day that such a threat “should not be taken lightly.”
Russia set the tone for Friday morning. The Russian Defense Ministry warned that “the number and size of missile strikes on Kiev bases will increase in response to all terrorist attacks and sabotage carried out on Russian territory by the nationalist regime in Kiev.”
During the night, it was an arms factory in the Kyiv region affected by the Russian strike, local AFP reporters said on Friday. The Visor factory produces Neptune anti-ship missiles, which Ukrainians say are aimed at Moscow.
The AFP reports that one of its workshops, located in the town of Vyshnev, about 30 kilometers southwest of the Ukrainian capital, and the adjoining administration building were severely damaged. The windshields of about fifty vehicles parked in a nearby parking lot were smashed. On Friday, the Russians staged three strikes in the kyiv region, citing its governor Alexander Pavliuk, who did not specify whether Vyshneveh was at the factory.
Strikes in Donbass
In Donetsk, the largest region of the Donbass, “fighting is taking place on the entire front line,” the Ukrainian president said, killing three and wounding seven.
The other part of the tunnel, Lukansk, was the scene of 24 bombings, in which two were killed and two wounded, according to the same source. Russia, which has not yet launched the massive offensive announced in the Donbass, is still struggling to control the whole of Mariupol.
Only in this strategic port city in the southeast could the largest population of the war be immediately recorded. Ukrainian officials say about 20,000 people have been killed. The city of Tiyagi, which was able to reach the AFP during a press conference organized by the Russian military this week, was hit by a flood that destroyed the infrastructure and homes of half a million people who lived there when Vladimir Putin was in office. He began his offensive against Ukraine on February 24.
Kalina Vasilieva, 78, pointed to a nine-story building that had been completely burned down. “People are being burned inside,” says the retiree, who stands in the front line of a truck of Russian-backed separatists delivering humanitarian aid.
Today, for more than forty days, the fighting has been confined to the vast industrial zone near the coast, with Russian forces and Donetsk rebels gradually tightening their grip.
David Beasley, executive director of the World Food Program (WFP), visited Ukraine on Friday, asking for access to conflict zones and some “starving” besieged cities.
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