Russia unleashes missile barrage on Ukraine

From the skies above Belarus to the north and the waters of the Black Sea to the south, Russian forces unleashed a fusillade of cruise missiles across Ukraine on Saturday, Ukrainian officials said, in one of the most widespread and coordinated aerial assaults in weeks.

Even as Russia pounded civilian and military infrastructure from the air, fierce fighting raged on the eastern front, where Russian forces pressed to cut off the supply lines for thousands of Ukrainian soldiers.

The Ukrainian military said Russian warplanes had attacked positions near the eastern city of Lysychansk, the last urban stronghold still under Ukrainian control in Luhansk province, as Russian forces pressed to encircle the city.

In its battered sister city of Sievierodonetsk, Mayor Oleksandr Striuk said Saturday that

Russian troops had established full command after the Ukrainian military’s withdrawal Friday.

The missile strikes came hours before Russian President Vladimir Putin met with President Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus in St. Petersburg, Russia. Belarusian forces are also once again conducting military

drills near the border with the Kyiv, Ukraine, region.

Ukraine’s military intelligence agency called the Russian assault “a large-scale provocation of Russia for the purpose of further dragging Belarus into the war against Ukraine.” Western military analysts say it is unlikely that Belarus would join the Russian war effort, but

Lukashenko’s hold on power is dependent on the Kremlin’s support, limiting his room for political maneuvering.

Dozens of the missile strikes were launched by Russian aircraft in Belarusian airspace overnight, according to a monitoring group, Belarusian Guyun, which has been detailing Russian actions since the start of the war.

The attacks came as Ukraine is on a heightened state of alert as the Belarusian armed forces hold “mobilization” drills near Ukraine’s northern border. The drills threaten to aggravate tensions in an already volatile region and have prompted Ukraine to put its border guards on high alert.

In the early stages of the war, Belarus allowed Putin to use its territory for Russian troops to stage a shock-and-awe operation to try to capture Kyiv. The plan failed spectacularly, but with Russia now bogged down in a grinding war of attrition in Ukraine’s east, Moscow would benefit from any help Lukashenko could provide.

Tyler Hicks/New York Times A Ukrainian soldier is treated Thursday in Bakhmut after a Russian artillery strike tried to cut off key highways.