April 16 (Reuters) – Russian forces struck the capital Kyiv and Lviv in western Ukraine on Saturday, carrying out their threat to launch more attacks on Ukrainian towns, after the sinking of the Russian flagship in the Black Sea.
One person was killed and several others injured during the strikes on the Ukrainian capital, said Saturday the mayor of Kyiv, Vitali Klitchko, during a televised conference.
An explosion was heard in the early hours of the day in the district of Darnytskyi, in the south-east of Kyiv. According to Moscow, the strike hit a factory repairing armored vehicles. Kyiv’s mayor said rescuers and medics were working at the site, but gave no further details.
According to the Ukrainian army, Russian warplanes took off from Bilorussia and also struck the Lviv region, near the Polish border, where four cruise missiles were shot down by Ukrainian air defenses.
Russia also said it struck a military maintenance facility in the southern city of Mykolav.
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Russia pledged on Friday to launch new strikes on Kyiv and said it used cruise missiles against the Vizar factory on the outskirts of Kyiv, which it said manufactured and repaired missiles.
These attacks follow the sinking, Thursday, of the Moskva, flagship of the Russian fleet in the Black Sea.
The United States has become convinced that the cruiser Moskva sank after being hit by two Ukrainian missiles, a senior American official said on Friday.
The presence of Russian warships in the Black Sea, armed with missiles, raises the possibility of increased strikes against Ukraine’s defense industry and logistical infrastructure, the Ukrainian military said on Saturday.
She also added that the Russian Navy was active in the Sea of Azov to block the port of Mariupol. Ukraine announced on Friday that it was fighting to try to break the siege of the city of Mariupol where fighting is raging around the port and the Ilitch steelworks.
Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky also announced on CNN on Friday that between 2,500 and 3,000 Ukrainian soldiers had died since the start of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, adding that 10,000 others had been injured.
According to the leader, 19,000 to 20,000 Russian soldiers have been killed since the start of the war. Moscow, for its part, had reported last month the death of 1,351 Russian soldiers and 3,825 wounded.
Reuters could not independently verify the figures put forward by the two parties. (Reuters editorial; French version Camille Raynaud and Kate Entringer)