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Antonio Guterres raises alarm over ‘harmful escalation’ after hours-long Russian drone and missile barrage this week.
United Nations Secretary-Normal Antonio Guterres has condemned a Russian drone and missile assault towards Ukraine this week that has been described as the most important such assault within the three-year battle.
In an announcement on Saturday, Guterres’s spokesperson stated the Russian strikes “disrupted the ability provide to the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Energy Plant, as soon as once more underlining the continued dangers to nuclear security”.
“The secretary-general is alarmed by this harmful escalation and the rising variety of civilian casualties,” the assertion learn.
Ukrainian officers stated Moscow fired more than 500 drones and 11 missiles on the capital Kyiv in a single day into Friday in an assault that killed one particular person, injured a minimum of 23 others and broken buildings throughout the town.
The sounds of air raid sirens, kamikaze drones and booming detonations reverberated till daybreak.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy referred to as the assault “intentionally huge and cynical”.
Russia has been stepping up its long-range assaults on Ukrainian cities as United States-led efforts to achieve a ceasefire to finish the battle have stalled.
On Saturday, Ukraine’s prime navy commander, Oleksandr Syrskii, warned of a doable new Russian offensive within the Kharkiv area, part of northeastern Ukraine that has seen heavy preventing since Russia invaded in 2022.
Moscow has been slowly grinding its manner alongside a number of components of the Ukrainian entrance line in latest months, throwing forth steady waves of infantry because it seeks to press dwelling its benefit in troops and munitions.
Russian forces have already pushed into northern Ukraine’s Sumy area over the previous months, carving out a small foothold there.
Russia fired 322 drones and decoys into Ukraine in a single day into Saturday, Ukraine’s air power stated. Of those, 157 had been shot down and 135 had been misplaced, seemingly having been electronically jammed.
Ukraine has additionally ramped up its retaliatory strikes in Russia, with the Ministry of Defence saying it shot down 94 Ukrainian drones in a single day into Saturday, together with 45 additional drones within the morning and early afternoon.
4 Ukrainian drones additionally had been shot down whereas approaching Moscow on Saturday, in line with Mayor Sergei Sobyanin. In the meantime, a girl was killed in a Ukrainian drone assault within the Rostov area, the performing governor stated.
Individually, the Ukrainian navy stated in an announcement on social media on Saturday that its particular forces struck Russia’s Borisoglebsk navy airfield within the Voronezh area, hitting a glide bomb retailer and a coach plane.
The navy stated that different plane had been additionally seemingly hit, with out giving particulars.
The governor of Voronezh, Alexander Gusev, wrote on Telegram that greater than 25 drones had been destroyed over the area in a single day. He stated an influence line was quickly broken, however made no point out of a navy airfield.
The assaults come as Ukraine’s Zelenskyy stated on Friday that he had a “crucial and fruitful” cellphone dialog with US President Donald Trump in his efforts to strengthen Ukraine’s air defences.
The US president additionally spoke to his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, a day earlier in a dialog that he stated was disappointing.
“I’m very dissatisfied with the dialog I had at present with President Putin, as a result of I don’t assume he’s there, and I’m very dissatisfied,” Trump stated after the decision on Thursday. “I’m simply saying I don’t assume he’s seeking to cease, and that’s too unhealthy.”
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov stated on Friday that it was “preferable” to realize the objectives of Russia’s invasion by means of political and diplomatic means.
“However so long as that’s not doable, we’re persevering with the particular operation,” he stated.
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