Russia could “do something particularly disgusting” and “cruel” next week in Ukraine, when the latter celebrates its Independence Day, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned on Saturday evening.
Russia could “do something particularly disgusting” and “cruel” next week in Ukraine, when the latter celebrates its Independence Day, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned on Saturday evening. “Russia might strive to do something particularly disgusting, particularly cruel,” Mr Zelensky said in his traditional address. “One of the key objectives of the enemy is to humiliate us”, to “sow despondency, fear and conflict”, but “we must be strong enough to resist any provocation” and “to make the occupiers pay for their terror,” he added.
An adviser to the presidency, Mykhailo Podoliak, estimated that Russia could intensify its bombardments of Ukrainian cities during August 23 and 24. “Russia is an archaic state that binds its actions to certain dates, it’s a kind of obsession. They hate us and will try to increase (…) the number of bombings of our cities including kyiv with missiles from cruise,” he said, according to the Interfax-Ukraine news agency.
The six months of the Russian invasion
Ukraine celebrates its independence from the USSR in 1991 on August 24. This year, this date will also mark the six months of the Russian invasion which killed tens of thousands of people and caused massive destruction in this country. In this context, the kyiv authorities announced on Sunday the ban on all public gatherings from August 22 to 25 in the capital. The governor of the Kharkiv region (center-east) for his part announced on Saturday a long curfew planned from the evening of August 23 to the morning of August 25. “Let’s be as vigilant as possible during our independence day,” Governor Oleg Synegoubov said on Telegram.
After failing to take kyiv, the Russians concentrated their efforts in the industrial east and the agricultural south of Ukraine. The pro-kyiv governor of the Donetsk region (East) Pavlo Kyrylenko reported on Sunday that four civilians were killed and two others injured the day before by Russians in this territory. In the Kharkiv region (center-east), a woman has been killed and two other civilians have been injured since Saturday evening in Russian bombardments, the regional prosecutor’s office said on Sunday.
The Odessa region (south) was targeted by five Russian Kalibr-type cruise missiles launched from the Black Sea, said the spokesman for the regional administration Serguiï Bratchouk. Two were shot down by anti-aircraft defense and three others hit a silo with no casualties, he added. “The enemy is trying to continue its offensive in the Donetsk region” and has succeeded in occupying part of the locality Blagodatné in the Mykolaiv region (South), for its part declared the Ukrainian army in its morning report on Facebook . She also warned of the risk of Russian strikes from Belarus, an ally of Moscow.