Kyiv: Russian forces pounded areas around Ukraine’s capital and another city throughout Tuesday night, regional leaders said Wednesday. This development came just hours after Moscow pledged to scale back military operations in those places. The shelling further tempered optimism about any progress in talks aimed at ending the punishing war.
Russia did not spell out what exactly it planned to do differently. While the promise initially raised hopes that a path toward peace was coming into view, Ukraine’s president and others cautioned that the remarks could merely be bluster.
Ukrainian officials said Russian shelling hit homes, shops, libraries and other ‘civilian infrastructure’ in the northern city of Chernihiv and on the outskirts of the capital, Kyiv.
The barrages came as Britain’s Defence Ministry warned that while heavy losses have forced some Russian units to return to Belarus and Russia, Moscow would likely compensate for any reduction in ground maneuvers by using mass artillery and missile strikes. The Ukrainian military, meanwhile, said Russian troops were intensifying their attacks around the eastern city of Izyum and the eastern Donetsk region, after redeploying some units from other areas.
Moscow, meanwhile, reacted coolly to Kyiv’s proposed framework for a peace deal. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said it was a ‘positive factor’ that Ukraine has submitted its written proposals but that he saw no breakthrough.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reacted with skepticism to Russia’s announcement Tuesday amid talks in Istanbul. “We can call those signals that we hear at the negotiations positive,” he said in his nightly video address to the Ukrainian people. “But those signals don’t silence the explosions of Russian shells.” That skepticism only gained ground Wednesday morning.
“The so-called reduction of activity in the Chernihiv region, was demonstrated by the enemy strikes including air strikes on Nizhyn, and all night long they were shelling Chernihiv,” said the regional governor, Viacheslav Chaus. “Civilian infrastructure facilities, libraries, shopping centres, many houses were destroyed in Chernihiv,” Chaus added.
Also read: Russia says it will cutback attacks near Kyiv
Oleksandr Pavliuk, the head of the Kyiv region military administration, said Wednesday that Russian shells targeted residential areas and civilian infrastructure in the Bucha, Brovary and Vyshhorod regions around the capital.
The General Staff of Ukraine’s armed forces noted intensified shelling and attacks in the Donetsk area. They said Russian forces were focused on trying to win control over the besieged city of Mariupol and other cities.
Donetsk is in the eastern industrial heartland of Donbas, where the Russian military says it has shifted its attention. Top Russian military officials have said twice in recent days that their main goal now is the ‘liberation’ of Donbas, where Moscow-backed rebels have been battling Ukrainian forces since 2014.
Kyiv, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine, Military, Donbas, Istanbul, Air strikes
