ATTACKS CONTINUE AS RUSSIA BANS PM
BORIS Johnson and other British Cabinet ministers have been placed on a Kremlin blacklist and banned from entering Russia in response to sanctions against the country, reports suggest.
The Prime Minister, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace, Justice Secretary Dominic Raab and former PM Theresa May are believed to be among those on the list, according to the Russian news agency Tass.
Russia’s foreign ministry said in a statement the move was due to the “unprecedented hostile actions of the British Government, expressed, in particular, in the imposition of sanctions against top officials” in Russia.
It added: “The Russophobic course of action of the British authorities, whose main goal is to stir up negative attitude toward our country, curtailing of bilateral ties in almost all areas, are detrimental to the wellbeing and interests of the residents of Britain. Any sanctions attack will inevitably backfire on their initiators and receive a decisive rebuff.”
Meanwhile, Russian forces have resumed scattered attacks on Kyiv and western Ukraine in a reminder to Ukrainians and their western supporters that the whole country remains under threat despite Russia’s pivot towards a new offensive in the east.
Stung by the loss of its Black Sea flagship, the cruiser Moskva, and alleged Ukrainian strikes on Russian territory, Russia’s military command had warned a day earlier of renewed attacks on Ukraine’s capital and said it was targeting military sites.
Associated Press reporters documented civilian deaths in strikes this week on the eastern city of Kharkiv, and each day brings new discoveries of civilian victims in a war that has shattered European security.
In the Kyiv region alone, Ukrainian authorities have reported finding the bodies of more than 900 civilians, mostly shot dead, in towns such as Bucha after Russian troops retreated two weeks ago.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said that one person died and several more were wounded in the Saturday morning air strikes on the Darnytski district of the capital.
A spokesman for Russia’s Defence Ministry said forces used “airlaunched high-precision long-range weapons” to target an armoured vehicle plant in Kyiv.
It was the second strike in the Kyiv area in two days. Another hit a missile plant on Friday as tentative signs of pre-war life began to resurface in the capital after Russian troops failed to capture the city and withdrew to concentrate on launching a full-scale assault in eastern Ukraine.
An explosion believed to be caused by a missile struck Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, according to firefighters. The strike near an outdoor market killed one person and wounded at least 18, rescue workers said.
Meanwhile, the governor of the Lviv region in western Ukraine – far from the Russian border and an area long seen as a safe zone – reported air strikes on the region by Russian Su-35 aircraft that took off from neighbouring Belarus. Maksym Kozytskyy did not provide details about possible casualties or damage.