Explosions left injured in the Ukrainian capital, while fighting and aerial alerts spread across different fronts of the conflict
Several explosions shook Kiev in the early hours of this Sunday (22), reported the Ukrainian authorities, who denounced a ballistic missile attack two days before the fourth anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
AFP journalists heard explosions at around 4:00 am local time (11:00 pm Saturday, Brasília time), shortly after a ballistic missile alert was raised in the capital, and again two hours later.
“The enemy has carried out another massive missile and drone attack against civilian homes and critical infrastructure in the region,” declared the head of the military administration of the Kiev region, Mykola Kalashnik, on Telegram.
According to him, five cities on the outskirts of the capital were affected. A woman and a child were hospitalized in Kiev after being injured by debris that fell on the outskirts of the city, Kiev Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.
Authorities in the regions of Dnipro (central-east) and Odessa (south) also reported bombings, which left two people injured in the first and hit infrastructure with drones in the second.
During the night, the Air Force declared a general alert across Ukraine due to the missile threat. The Polish army has mobilized planes to protect its airspace, as it often does in response to large-scale Russian attacks that threaten border regions.
Russia, which occupies approximately 20% of Ukrainian territory, daily bombs civilian areas and infrastructure, triggering the country’s worst energy crisis since the beginning of the invasion in 2022.
Temperatures plummeted to almost -10°C on Sunday morning in Kiev, when the city was attacked again.
In Lviv, near the border with Poland, explosions at shops in the city center killed a police officer and injured 15 others overnight, before air raid warnings were activated.
“This is clearly a terrorist act,” declared Mayor Andrii Sadović in a video posted on social media, without specifying who could be responsible.
Since the beginning of the Russian invasion, Ukrainian military personnel and authorities have been the target of explosions on several occasions, even far from the front line.
Starlink blocking
Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, triggering the bloodiest and most destructive conflict in Europe since World War II.
“It cannot be said that we are losing the war, honestly, we certainly are not. The question is whether we will win it,” Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky told AFP on Friday, despite the Russian army’s slow advance in the Donbass.
The leader also stated that his troops recovered 300 square kilometers in counterattacks underway in the south.
AFP was unable to confirm these numbers, but if confirmed, they would represent the most significant Ukrainian advances in such a short period since 2023.
According to Zelensky, the Ukrainian Army took advantage of the fact that Russian forces were prevented from using Starlink, a technology that allows them to maintain a high-speed internet connection, in early February, to carry out these counterattacks.
On the diplomatic front, several rounds of negotiations have been held since the beginning of the year between envoys from Kiev, Moscow and Washington, without any concrete progress so far.
On Tuesday, as the conflict enters its fifth year, French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer will co-chair a video conference meeting of the Coalition of Volunteers in Support of Ukraine.
*AFP
