Ukraine and Russia reported strikes on Wednesday that caused the deaths of several civilians on each side of their common border, where bombings have increased in recent times, prompting Vladimir Putin to promise to ensure “security” in the Russian regions targeted. In one of them, Belgorod, three people died and four were injured in a series of bombings, particularly “massive” in one of the border districts, said local governor Vyacheslav Gladkov.
The main information:
- In Ukraine, at least four people were killed and seven injured in a daytime Russian strike on Kharkiv, the country’s second city.
- In Russia, in the Belgorod region, three people died and four were injured in a series of bombings
- Russia threatens EU with ‘decades-long lawsuit’ over use of frozen assets
Four people killed, seven injured in Russian strike
Some 70 km away, in Ukraine, at least four people were killed and seven injured in a Russian strike in broad daylight on Kharkiv, the country’s second city, announced regional governor Oleg Synegoubov. The toll is likely to rise because “a dozen people could be trapped in the rubble”, he warned earlier on television, noting that, “according to initial estimates, it was a cruise missile “. A body was able to be freed and two other remains remained stuck under the rubble, continued Oleg Synegoubov, according to whom two injured people were in serious condition.
It was an industrial site which housed “a printing house”, a furniture and paint production facility which was affected, reported Serguï Bolvinov, a senior local police official. “Rescue operations are continuing” and firefighters are trying to bring the fire under control, he said. According to emergency services, the fire spread over “more than 2,000 square meters”. Located about forty kilometers from the border with Russia, Kharkiv, which had around 1.5 million inhabitants before the Russian invasion two years ago, is regularly bombed by the Russian army.
Armed incursions
In the Russian region of Belgorod, two civilians were killed and two others injured near the village of Graivoron, said Vyacheslav Gladkov, referring to a border district targeted by air attacks and ground incursions by armed groups from Ukraine. Since Wednesday morning, the area has been under “massive bombardment”, particularly from multiple rocket launchers, he said. Earlier, the governor reported the death of a civilian in Belgorod, the capital of the region of the same name, specifying that two others had been injured, including a 17-year-old girl. Residential buildings, a school and two kindergartens were also damaged, according to him.
No students or teachers were there, the regional authorities having decided this week to temporarily close schools in border areas in the face of the risk of strikes. Vyacheslav Gladkov also announced Tuesday evening that checkpoints would be set up at the entrance to several villages very close to Ukraine, the scenes of armed incursions in recent weeks. These infiltration attempts from Ukrainian territory, which the Russian army says it is repelling, are carried out by groups presenting themselves as Russian fighters allied to kyiv and opposed to Vladimir Putin.
“Ensure the security”
The area where checkpoints will be set up, around the village of Kozinka, is where the “most active actions” have been carried out by these groups, explained Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. During the Russian presidential election last week, “Ukrainian fighters tried to capture towns in the Belgorod and Kursk regions,” he said. At the same time, the Belgorod region was the prey of numerous air attacks attributed to Ukraine.
kyiv, faced with the Russian offensive for two years, had promised to bring the fighting to Russian soil in retaliation for the numerous bombings on Ukrainian territory. For his part, Vladimir Putin, who has just been reappointed, promised Wednesday to “ensure the security” of residents of border regions, including Belgorod, saluting their “courage”. “We could of course respond by hitting civilian infrastructure (in Ukraine) but we have our principles,” he said during a reception at the Kremlin. Russia still denies targeting civilian targets in Ukraine, even though cities like Mariupol and Bakhmut have been devastated since the start of the conflict. “Victory in the election is only a prologue to the victories to come,” the Russian president further declared.
Russia threatens EU with ‘decades-long lawsuit’ over use of frozen assets
Russia on Wednesday threatened the European Union with legal action “for decades” if the income from its frozen assets was used for the benefit of Ukraine, which according to Moscow would amount to “theft”. . The EU must present on Wednesday a plan aimed at seizing these revenues in order to finance the purchase of weapons for kyiv, which must be discussed during a summit of the Twenty-Seven on Thursday and Friday. “Europeans must be well aware of the damage that such decisions could cause to their economy, their image, their reputation as reliable guarantors of the inviolability of property,” warned Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov to the press. . “The people, the states, who will be involved in making such decisions, will naturally become the subject of prosecution for many decades,” he added.
The spokesperson for Russian diplomacy, Maria Zakharova, denounced an initiative which amounts to “banditry” and “theft”. “These actions constitute a blatant and unprecedented violation of fundamental international norms,” she said, promising a response from Moscow. According to the head of European diplomacy Josep Borrell, Russian assets frozen in the EU reach an amount of 200 billion euros and would make it possible to free up “three billion euros per year” to finance arms purchases for Ukraine.
The proposal provides that 90% of the seized revenues will go to the European Peace Facility (EFF), which finances arms purchases. The remaining 10% will go to the EU budget to “strengthen the capabilities of the Ukrainian defense industry.