Eighteen people were killed in a triple Russian strike on Wednesday in Cherniguiv, a large city in northern Ukraine, according to a new count published Thursday, with President Volodymyr Zelensky once again deploring the lack of aid from the West. In the evening, the American House of Representatives announced that it would vote on Saturday on an envelope of 61 billion dollars in aid to Ukraine, mainly military, to which President Joe Biden said he was “very favorable”.
20 apartment buildings damaged
In Cherniguiv, where official images showed pools of blood at the scene of the tragedy, Olga Samoïlenko, a resident, told AFP how she had taken refuge with her children in the corridor of their building to protect themselves, when the first missile exploded on Wednesday morning. “Our neighbors were already there. We started shouting for everyone to get on the ground. That’s what they did. There were two more explosions. So we ran to the parking lot,” said this 33 year old woman.
According to a new report from Emergency Services on Thursday morning, 18 people were killed and 77 injured, including four children. According to the authorities, social infrastructure, an educational institution, a hospital and twenty residential buildings were damaged.
AFP journalists on site saw a body being extracted from the rubble as well as the most affected building, an eight-story hotel, entire parts of which were completely destroyed. Numerous ambulances and fire trucks were visible at the scene, as well as tents set up by police and rescuers. Cars parked near the epicenter had their windshields destroyed.
Ukraine does not have enough air defense systems
Mr. Zelensky stressed that Ukraine did not have enough air defense systems to prevent this strike, undoubtedly the deadliest against this historic city located about sixty kilometers from the border with Belarus, an ally of the Russia, and about a hundred kilometers north of kyiv. “This would not have happened if Ukraine had received enough air defense equipment and if the world’s determination to resist Russian terror had been sufficient,” the Ukrainian president insisted on Telegram. The city had been heavily bombarded by the Russian army at the start of its offensive and part of the region had been occupied for several weeks.
With Western aid, particularly American, running out of steam, Ukraine faces a growing lack of means to intercept these devices. The allies’ reluctance particularly frustrated kyiv after a massive Iranian air attack on Israel this weekend, successfully repelled in particular thanks to Western military support.
For Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine should benefit from the same protection as Israel
Addressing the European Council on Wednesday evening via videoconference, the Ukrainian president said Ukraine should have the same protection as Israel against air attacks and again called for air defense systems. “Here in Ukraine, in our part of Europe, we unfortunately do not have the level of defense that we have seen recently in the Middle East,” regretted Volodymyr Zelensky, according to a statement published on his website. “Our Ukrainian skies, the skies of our neighbors deserve the same level of defense,” he insisted. “All lives have the same value.”
In Washington, Joe Biden welcomed the vote scheduled for Saturday in Congress, after months of political blockage, on massive new aid to Ukraine. “I will immediately sign this bill to send a message to the world: ‘We stand with our friends and we will not let Iran or Russia succeed,'” he said, quoted in a House statement. White.
Russian base attacked in Crimea
On the Russian side, military bloggers and media reported a Ukrainian strike during the night from Tuesday to Wednesday on the Russian military base of Djankoi, in the Ukrainian Crimean peninsula annexed by Moscow in 2014. Alleged videos of the attack, broadcast on social networks, show impressive explosions in the middle of the night.
According to the Rybar Telegram account, close to the Russian army and followed by more than a million people, 12 ATACMS tactical missiles delivered to kyiv by the United States could have hit this target, damaging equipment and a building. kyiv and Moscow have not yet made any official comments.
Finally, providing a new minimum estimate of Russian losses, the independent Russian website Mediazona and the BBC’s Russian service said they had identified by name, based on public information, more than 50,000 Russian soldiers killed since the beginning there are two years of the offensive against Ukraine. The Russian side does not communicate its losses. For his part, Volodymyr Zelensky admitted in February the deaths of 31,000 Ukrainian soldiers.