KYIV POUNDED
First Russian missiles in months rain down on capital as British-Ukrainian fighter faces death penalty in Donetsk
MISSILE strikes yesterday pounded targets in Kyiv for the first time in five weeks – with one Russian rocket passing ‘critically low’ over a nuclear power plant.
Explosions shook two of the Ukrainian capital’s suburbs early yesterday morning with an adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky saying railway infrastructure was attacked.
Russia said it was targeting tanks and armoured vehicles supplied by the West.
Plumes of dark smoke rose from Kyiv’s Darnytskyi and Dniprovskyi districts as mayor Vitali Klitschko said at least one person needed hospital treatment. Nobody is believed to have been killed.
Yesterday morning, the charred, blackened wreckage of a warehouse-type structure in Darnytskyi could be seen smouldering and soldiers blocked access to a large railway yard.
The missiles were the first to hit the capital since late April. Russia said it destroyed T-72 tanks and armoured vehicles that had been supplied to Ukraine by eastern European countries.
Several Russian media sources also stated yesterday that captured British-Ukrainian fighter Aiden Aslin could be facing the death penalty at the hands of the Donetsk-based puppet regime.
The former care worker, 28, from Newark in Nottinghamshire, was taken prisoner while defending Mariupol. Fellow British volunteer fighters Shaun Pinner, 48, and Andrew Hill, 35, have also been warned they could face the death penalty.
All three have been paraded for the cameras in violation of the Geneva Convention. Two British aid workers have also been abducted by pro-Russian forces.
The attacks on Kyiv came as Russian forces launched missile strikes from the Black Sea on the port city of Mykolaiv, leaving a huge grain silo ablaze.
One Russian missile was spotted flying ‘critically low’ over the major Pivdennoukrainsk nuclear power station in the southern Mykolaiv region, Ukrainian state-run nuclear power operator Energoatom said in an announcement on messaging app Telegram.
Ukraine’s air force said it destroyed one of the incoming cruise missiles – believed to have been launched 1,000 miles away over the Caspian Sea – at around 6am local time (4am BST).