10 10 in the early morning, a series of breaking news reported by Wu Tong News Agency showed that Russian retaliation was comin
10 10 in the early morning, a series of breaking news reported by Wu Tong News Agency showed that Russian retaliation was coming.
From the center of the capital Kiev to the western city of Lviv, explosions continued. People can't help asking: Has the conflict escalated?
media coverage
The Wu Tong News Agency 10 morning report was updated in a few minutes:
An explosion sounded in Kiev, the capital.
The Russians carried out a large-scale missile attack on dnipropetrovsk.
Hearing Lviv's explosion, Russian missiles hit a key infrastructure.
The capital heard the explosion again. In the face of Ukrainian rocket attacks, Zelensky asked people to stay in shelters.
Mikhail Podolyak, director of the Office of the President of Ukraine, said that Russia had once again demonstrated "the nature of its terrorism" through its deliberate missile attacks on peaceful cities, and Ukraine needed air defense systems, MLRS and long-range projectiles.
Ukrainian Defense Minister Reznikov said: "Bombing will not shake our courage, nor will it shake the determination of our allies." In the morning, the capital Kiev and the whole Ukraine were attacked by Russian large-scale missiles.
The facts that keep coming show that this is a large-scale attack involving many cities in Ukraine.
The earliest attack occurred at around 8 o'clock on the day of 10. The BBC reported that at least two explosions occurred in the center of Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, which was the first time that Russian troops attacked Kiev in several months.
Zaluzhnyi, commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian armed forces, then said on the social platform that the Russian army fired 75 missiles at Ukraine, of which 4 1 was intercepted and destroyed by the Ukrainian air defense system.
As for the target of the attack, the pictures released by Uzbekistan show burning cars in the streets, craters next to children's play facilities in the park and broken windows in high-rise buildings. Gerasenko, adviser to the Ukrainian Interior Minister, said that one of the missiles landed next to a statue on Vladimir Street in Kiev.
The civilian target mentioned by Uzbekistan is obviously not the whole truth.
The Russian statement shows the other side of the truth.
For example, Gerashchenko said that the statue of Vladimir Street, Russia said that missiles attacked Vladimir Street where the office of the Ukrainian National Security Agency was located, and the office of Ukrainian President Zelensky was also nearby.
media coverage
Has the conflict escalated?
You could say that. Because the attack shows the following characteristics that have not been seen before.
First of all, the center of Kiev was attacked for the first time since the beginning of Russian special military operations. At the beginning of the conflict, when Russian soldiers arrived at the gate of Kiev, they didn't have the target of bombing the city center.
It was not just the Ukrainian National Security Agency building on Vladimir Street that was attacked in the city center. According to Kiev Mayor Kritchenko, the explosion occurred in the capital Shevchenko district, which is a large area in the center of Kiev, including the historic old city, offices of various government departments and some major landmarks of the city.
Moreover, the attack time started from the morning rush hour.
"Russia deliberately chooses such a time, and such a goal is to cause the greatest harm." Ukrainian President Zelensky said.
According to western media, the attack in the morning of 10 made Kiev residents return to the bomb shelter for the first time in several months, and the city's subway system stopped serving, and these subway stations became shelters again.
Although air raid sirens continue in many cities in Ukraine, in Kiev, people have become accustomed to calm, and many Ukrainians have begun to ignore the danger of war and continue their normal lives. But this situation changed on Monday morning. The explosion occurred during the morning rush hour, and at least one of the vehicles that collided near Kiev National University appeared to be a commuter minibus.
Many places in Kiev were attacked by missiles.
Some symbolic landmarks may also become targets. The landmark building in the center of Kiev, the footbridge known as Kritchenko Bridge, was also attacked. The video shared by the adviser to the Ukrainian Minister of the Interior shows that the bridge was obviously the target, so a huge explosion occurred.
Russian media 10 also commented that as the saying goes, "your life is no longer the same now." Today, Ukraine has begun a new stage of existence. The center of Kiev is no longer safe, and cruise missiles fly directly into the center of the capital. Kiev people are running in the city and hiding in the basement. Obviously, the Kremlin's earlier policy of "not attacking big cities" has been torn to pieces.
Second, many cities, especially the key cities in the central and western regions, have suffered unprecedented attacks on their infrastructure.
In the past, Russian military used missiles to attack Lviv and zhitomir, mainly targeting military targets, and rarely targeting infrastructure such as communications and electricity. But this time things have changed.
In the western city of Lviv, the mayor, Andrei Sadovi Viyi, said that Russian missiles had attacked "a critical infrastructure", causing power outages in parts of the city and turning off one-third of the traffic lights. Insufficient power supply led to the interruption of urban hot water supply. The city has always been a refuge for many people fleeing the war in the east and is considered as a safe rear area.
Officials in the northeastern city of Koh Samui said that after the missile attack, the whole area was blacked out. Mayor Ihor Terekhov said that Kharkov was hit three times. The attack destroyed the city's water and electricity supply.
In Dnepro, western journalists saw many people killed in a factory in the suburbs, and a telecom building in the city was hit.
Zelensky said in his cable account that Russia "is trying to destroy us and wipe us off the face of the earth".
media coverage
"Donetsk in Ukraine started from Kiev today", and some Russian media commented that Ukrainian cities were attacked by large-scale missiles due to terrorist attacks in Russia. Russian troops carried out "retaliatory strikes" on key infrastructures in Lviv, Ternopol, Ivano-Frankov, Rovna, Khmelnitski, zhitomir and Odessa. It can be said that this is the first time that western Ukraine has been hit hard.
On the other hand, it can be said that the conflict has not escalated because the nature of special military operations has not changed.
Earlier, some Russian analysts speculated that Putin might announce the upgrading of special military operations to "anti-terrorist operations", and even some analysts might declare war, but this is not the case. According to reports, Russian Presidential Press Secretary peskov said that the Kiev attack was part of Russia's special military action.
The Russian Defense Ministry announced on Monday that the goal of carrying out a large-scale attack on Ukraine with high-precision weapons on Monday has been achieved. All designated targets were killed.
Later that day, Putin delivered a speech at the National Security Conference of the Russian Federation, confirming that Russian troops today "carried out large-scale and high-precision long-range strikes against Ukrainian military facilities, energy and communication targets with long-range precision weapons". He said that if Kiev continues to carry out terrorist attacks on Russia, Moscow will respond severely.
media coverage
These statements are actually saying that the large-scale attack on 10 is revenge for the bombing of the Crimean bridge. This round of retaliation has ended and will not become the normal attack mode. How to act in the future depends on Kiev's actions.
The Russian army did not escalate the conflict, but also had its own difficulties. The Russian army has to act, otherwise it will be difficult to appease the domestic people. However, the partial mobilization of Russian troops has not been completed, and the difficulty of insufficient front-line troops has not been solved. Russia wants to control the course of the war at its own pace and is unwilling to be interrupted by unexpected events.
However, the west and its support for Ukraine may be reluctant to let Russia go as planned. In particular, this round of long-range strike, although large-scale, needs to evaluate its input-output ratio. The Russian media itself said that due to the strict review by the Ukrainian military, the actual effect is unknown. There is no evidence that the buildings of the Ukrainian National Security Agency and the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence were hit, and no familiar landmarks were destroyed. Militarily, the actual impact on the whole war situation is limited. In short, it is difficult for the Russian army to shock Ukraine this time, and Ukraine will certainly take more actions in the future to try to dampen the morale of the Russian army.
This is the real danger. Russian bombing has set many precedents, and Ukrainian troops have also set many precedents. The scope and means of attack by both sides are expanding under the precedent, and it is likely that one day it will escalate into a more tragic war.
I hope both sides will listen to China's position: it is important for all parties to stick to the direction of dialogue and negotiation and jointly promote the relaxation of the situation.