Missile strikes hit cities across Ukraine on Tuesday and prompted mass power outages, a few days after a humiliating Russian retreat in the nation’s south and in the middle of the G20 summit.

The fresh bombardment, which officials said struck residential buildings in Kyiv, trespassed on days of Ukrainian jubilation over the recapture of the key city of Kherson.

Lviv in the west and Kharkiv in the east were also attacked on Tuesday, authorities said, but there were no immediate information on possible casualties.

Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko announced the attack following reports that air raid sirens were sounding across all Ukraine’s regions, saying at least half of Kyiv’s residents were without power.

“According to preliminary information, two residential buildings were hit in the Pechersk district,” he said adding “several missiles were shot down… by air defence systems.

The deputy head of the president’s office Kyrylo Tymoshenko said the missiles had been fired by Russian forces.

He distributed footage of the apparent scene of the attacks, showing a blaze at a Soviet-era, five-storey residential building.

“The danger has not passed. Stay in shelters,” he added in the statement online.

The atttacks came after Russian appointed officials in Nova Kakhovka said they were exiting the important southern city, blaming artillery fire from Kyiv forces, which have been reclaiming swathes of the south after a Russian retreat.

Their announcement comes one day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited the recently liberated regional capital of the Kherson region and announced “the beginning of the end of the war”.

Zelensky told the G20 summit in Bali on Tuesday “now is the time” to end the war.

“I am convinced now is the time when the Russian destructive war must and can be stopped,” he said via video link, according to a speech obtained by AFP. “It will save thousands of lives.”

LAGA UN KOMENTARIO

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here