84-year-old Valery Shashkov is moving painfully around his apartment in the Ukrainian capital. The floor is covered in broken glass. The wave caused by the impact of a Russian missile has broken the windows and scattered furniture around. "Something must have hit me on the head", Shashkov told the "Reuters" news agency. "I'm still in shock. It was as if something hit me, I didn't understand what was happening at all."
"Russia wants to exhaust the Ukrainians"
The elderly man says there was blood everywhere and that shortly after the first blow there was another explosion. "I looked out the window. "I saw people running down the stairs to the courtyard and I followed them," Shashkov said.
Shmailo was lucky. He narrowly escaped the latest large-scale airstrike against Ukraine on Thursday night. With more than 40 missiles and nearly 700 drones, Russia attacked the capital Kiev, as well as other major cities in the country - Odessa, Dnipro, Kharkiv. According to information from the DPA agency, the total number of victims is 18. About 100 are injured, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced.
Russia is pursuing a clear strategy: to exhaust the Ukrainian civilian population with bombing, Dmytro Shmailo, director of the Center for Security and Cooperation, commented on Ukrainian television. "Air alert around the clock, constant pressure aimed at paralyzing our economy and educational institutions." says Shmaylo.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Speaks of War Crimes
This is continuous terror against the civilian population, politicians and observers in Ukraine are convinced. Such attacks should not be accepted as the norm, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sibiga wrote on social media, emphasizing that these are war crimes that must be stopped.
However, the ferocity of the Russian attacks should no longer surprise anyone, says publicist Vitaly Portnikov on his YouTube channel. "The purpose of these attacks is both political and economic. Ukraine must be intimidated and convinced to submit to the Kremlin's demands and renounce its statehood." He points out that attempts to destroy Ukraine's energy infrastructure continue. "Kherson and Nikolaev are without electricity as a result of the attacks," Portnikov continued.
The latest Russian attack comes just days after the Ukrainian president complained about a critical shortage of air defense missiles. Since the start of the war with Iran, demand for missiles for the "Patriot" systems, which can be effectively used to defend against ballistic missiles, has increased significantly. Zelensky called on his partners to fulfill their promises to deliver military aid.
Author: Rebecca Barth (ARD)