KIEV/KHERSON, Ukraine (Reuters) – Russia rained missiles on cities across Ukraine on Tuesday, amid growing signs that the retreating Russian forces were retreating further from the Dnipro River. river to the south.
Air raid sirens blared and explosions blared after one of the largest volleys of missiles ever fired at nearly a dozen major cities. This follows the pattern of recent weeks when Moscow raged far from the front after losses on the battlefield.
In the capital Kyiv, flames erupted from a five-story apartment building, where authorities found one of two houses they said had been attacked. Reuters journalists who arrived on the scene saw residents huddled in the smoldering ruins. The mayor said one death was confirmed and half of the capital was without power.
Other attacks and explosions were reported in cities from Lviv and Zhytomyr in the west to Krivi Ry in the south and Kharkov in the east. Local officials reported a power outage during part of the attack.
The widespread offensive came four days after Russian troops abandoned the southern city of Kherson and six weeks after President Vladimir Putin declared the city a permanent part of Russia.
Russia said last week that its troops would occupy a defensible position on the opposite bank of the Dnipro River. However, video images taken in the town of Oreshky, across the collapsed bridge from Kherson, appeared to indicate that Russian troops had abandoned bunkers there as well.
Further east, he said, Russian-installed administrators are poaching civil servants from the region’s second-largest city, Nova Kakhovka, which sits on the riverbank next to a huge strategic dam.
Ukrainian military spokesperson Natalia Khmenyuk said Moscow appears to have repositioned the artillery 15 to 20 km (10 to 15 miles) away from the river to protect it from Ukrainian counterattacks. Told.
“On the left bank of the Dnipro, we see enemy activity 15 to 20 kilometers from the bank,” she said. The Russians still had artillery that could attack Kherson from these new positions, but “we also have something to answer,” she said.
No
A day after visiting Kherson to celebrate the victory, President Volodymyr Zelensky told world leaders that he would not stop the Ukrainian military operation to drive Russian forces out of the country.
In a video-linked speech to the G20 major economies summit in Indonesia, he said, “We expect Russia to wait, build up its power, and then launch a new round of terrorism and global destabilization. I will not allow it,” he said.
“I am convinced that now is the time when Russia’s destructive war must and can be stopped.”
[1/10] Locals gather near homes hit by Russian missile strikes during the Russian attack on Ukraine on November 15, 2022 in Kyiv, Ukraine. REUTERS/Gleb Garanich
Tuesday’s airstrikes followed a pattern Russia has maintained since it launched long-range missile and drone strikes on Ukrainian cities in mid-October, after setbacks on the battlefield. Moscow says it is attacking its energy infrastructure. Kyiv says such strikes will only harden the resolve of its citizens.
“Russia is responding to Zelensky’s powerful speech at the G20 with a new missile strike. Does anyone seriously think the Kremlin really wants peace? It wants submission. But in the end, terrorists always lose.”
empty road
Before withdrawing from Kherson last week, Russia is moving troops across the Dnipro River to better defend territories, including the strategic approach to Crimea, which Russia has held since 2014. was saying
But the video, shot in Oreshky, across the river from Kherson, showed no signs of a Russian presence, with a two-hour drive to Crimea on the main road.
The driver speeded down miles of deserted highways without encountering any Russian checkpoints or flags. Several bunkers set up along the road appeared abandoned. The location of the video was confirmed by Reuters based on visible landmarks.
In Nova Kakhovka, the Russian-installed government said Tuesday that civil servants had left to escape shelling and were “relocated to a safer location in the area.”
There were no confirmed reports that Ukrainian forces crossed the river to pursue Russian forces. But some analysts said Ukraine could try to gain an edge on the battlefield rather than take a so-called “operational halt” following recent progress.
“Ukraine has the initiative and the momentum to tell Russia where and when the next battle will take place,” said former British military intelligence officer Philip Ingram.
The war was a central focus of the G20 summit in Bali, Indonesia, where Western leaders blamed Moscow. Russia is a member, Ukraine is not, but Russian President Vladimir Putin has stayed home.
At the summit, Zelensky laid out a peace proposal for Russia to withdraw all troops, release all prisoners and reaffirm Ukraine’s territorial integrity.
He proposed an indefinite extension of the program to protect Ukrainian grain exports to feed poor countries, and to expand it to the port of Mykolaiv.
Western powers pushed for a summit declaration condemning the war, despite Russia’s opposition and lack of unanimity. The 16-page draft circulated said, “It is causing catastrophic damage and exacerbating the existing fragility of the global economy.”
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, head of the Russian delegation in Putin’s absence, accused the West of trying to politicize the declaration.
Reported by Jonathan Randay, Tom Balmforth, Reuters Bureau. Written by Peter Graff.Edited by William McLean and Alex Richardson
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