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Presumed Ukrainian bullet fragment in Belarus
Photo: BELTA / via REUTERS
What has happened in the past few hours
According to Kiev, the massive Russian rocket attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure have led to power outages in large parts of the country.
"Tonight there will be power outages in most regions of Ukraine," said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a video address on Thursday evening.
The situation is "particularly difficult" in the Kyiv region and in the capital itself, in the western region of Lviv and in the Odessa and Cherson regions in the south of the country.
However, the Ukrainian air defense intercepted 54 of the 69 shells fired, said the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian armed forces, Valery Zalushny.
According to the regional governor, at least one person died in the shelling in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv.
The Ukrainian Air Force said: "The enemy is attacking Ukraine on several fronts, using cruise missiles launched from planes and ships."
Commander-in-Chief Saluschny spoke in the online service Telegram of "rocket terror against the peaceful population".
In addition to the dead in Kharkiv, several people were injured in recent Russian airstrikes, Ukrainian officials said.
In the capital Kyiv, three people were injured by the shelling, Mayor Vitali Klitschko reported on Telegram.
Among other things, two houses were hit by fragments of rockets fired in eastern Kiev.
40 percent of the capital's residents are affected by power outages.
According to the Presidential Office, two people were injured in an attack on a medical facility in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson.
According to official information, 21 rockets were intercepted over the southern region of Odessa. In the port city itself, the energy infrastructure was damaged and the electricity was switched off as a precaution.
This time, the Russian shelling reached far into western Ukraine.
Rockets fell in the rural Carpathian region of Ivano-Frankivsk, nearly 1,000 kilometers from Russia and near the borders with Romania and Slovakia.
According to the mayor, 90 percent of households in the western city of Lviv were without electricity after several explosions.
There was a risk of a water supply failure.
According to the Ukrainian armed forces, they have attacked Russian bases in the vicinity of the industrial and port city of Berdyansk in the south-east of the country.
Around 50 Russian soldiers were "liquidated" in the process, the General Staff in Kyiv said.
The information could not be independently verified.
The military in Kyiv did not provide any information about the weapon systems used to attack Berdyansk.
The city on the Azov Sea lies almost 100 kilometers behind the current front lines.
That says Kyiv
According to President Zelensky, Russia is getting closer to an international tribunal with every further rocket attack against Ukraine.
"With each such missile attack, Russia is only driving itself deeper into a dead end," Zelenskyy said in his daily video address on Thursday evening.
The "status of the world's greatest terrorist" will have an impact on Russia and its citizens for a long time to come.
"And every rocket only confirms that this all has to end with a tribunal, that's exactly how it will be," Zelenskyy said.
In his talks with foreign heads of state and government, the Ukrainian leader is trying to win their support for an International Criminal Court modeled on the Nuremberg Tribunal, before which politicians and the military from Moscow are to answer for the war of aggression against Ukraine.
After finding a missile on the territory of Belarus, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense offered to cooperate in the investigation of the incident.
In a statement published by the ministry in Kyiv on Thursday evening, it said that the authority was ready for an “objective investigation of the incident”.
State media in the Belarusian capital Minsk had reported that a missile launched by the S-300 air defense system had fallen on Belarusian territory on Thursday morning.
The Ministry of Defense in Kyiv pointed out that Ukraine was attacked by a wave of Russian cruise missiles on Thursday.
"Therefore, a provocation on the part of the terrorist state of Russia cannot be ruled out, which has chosen a flight path for its cruise missiles in such a way as to provoke their launch in the airspace over Belarus," it said.
That would be a similar incident as in November when Polish territory was hit.
The Belarusian long-time ruler Alexander Lukashenko was informed about the incident.
The Belarusian Foreign Ministry summoned the Ukrainian ambassador and expressed "strong protest".
The incident must be investigated immediately, as such incidents could have "catastrophic consequences" and should not be repeated, the ministry said.
Belarus is not directly involved in hostilities in Ukraine.
However, Lukashenko has given Russian troops the military bases in the country for attacks on Ukraine.
Concerns are growing in Ukraine that Russia could launch a new attack from Belarus.
Such a find of a missile could be used by Belarus and Russia as an excuse to take action again from there.
Moscow says so
In Moscow on Thursday, President Vladimir Putin inaugurated several new warships, including a submarine capable of firing nuclear missiles, in a ceremony via video message.
Putin announced the production of more ships and praised the capabilities of the Russian Navy.
Despite the modernization that Putin has set as a priority, the Russian army is still considered to be inadequately equipped and poorly organized.
It has suffered a series of setbacks in its invasion of Ukraine.
humanitarian situation
According to the Ukrainian presidential adviser Alona Verbytska, thousands of soldiers and civilians have been missing since the war began in Ukraine.
"Russia has currently confirmed 3,392 Ukrainian prisoners of war, but 15,000 people are currently missing in Ukraine, including many civilians," she told the editorial network Germany (Friday).
The fate of these people is completely uncertain, said Verbytska, who works as an ombudswoman for the rights of Ukrainian soldiers.
"We don't know what happened to them," she said.
"Are they also in Russian captivity, were they abducted from Russian-occupied areas or were they possibly killed long ago?" This uncertainty is terrible, especially for the relatives.
Ukrainian authorities have repeatedly pointed out that entire families, including children, are being deported to Russia from the occupied territories.
International reactions
Britain has donated more than 1,000 metal detectors and 100 bomb disposal kits to Ukraine.
"Russia's use of landmines and attack on civilian infrastructure underscores the shocking ferocity of Putin's invasion," British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said in a statement.
Manufactured by German company Vallon, the metal detectors and kits are helping Ukraine "clear land and buildings safely while reclaiming their rightful territory."
Wallace also announced that Britain would continue to provide £2.3 billion in military aid to Ukraine in 2023.
US President Joe Biden has signed his government's new budget law, which, among other things, provides for billions in aid for Ukraine.
With his signature, Biden put into effect the $1.7 trillion budget approved by both chambers of Congress on Thursday evening (local time).
Around 45 billion US dollars have been earmarked for supporting Ukraine.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has called on Germany and the other alliance states to continue supplying arms to Ukraine.
"It may sound paradoxical, but military support for Ukraine is the fastest way to peace," the Norwegian told the dpa news agency.
The background is that Russian President Vladimir Putin must be convinced that he will not achieve his goal of taking control of Ukraine.
Then there could be a peaceful negotiated solution that would ensure Ukraine's survival as an independent democratic state.
what is happening today
Russian President Putin and China's head of state Xi Jinping want to have a conversation via video line on Friday.
According to the Kremlin, the exchange of views will focus on "the most important regional problems" - both those "closer to Russia" and those "closer to China".
In the face of international condemnation of Russia's offensive in Ukraine and Western sanctions, Putin wants to strengthen ties with Beijing and boost economic cooperation.
The two countries see themselves as a geopolitical counterweight to the United States and its allies.
jok/bbr/dpa/Reuters