At least seven people were killed on Wednesday in Russian strikes in Ukraine, particularly targeting infrastructure, with Russia reaffirming its intention of “not taking a break” in the war. “We are not going to pause in our special military operation,” the expression used by Moscow to describe the conflict, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told the UN Security Council on Wednesday. “Europe wants to get a break, to use it to supply weapons” to Ukraine, he added. The day before, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he was “ready” for a moratorium on strikes against energy sites if Moscow did the same.
The Ukrainian capital, which has around 3 million inhabitants, has been the target of particularly intense drone attacks for several days, in a context of a marked intensification of long-range strikes on both sides of the front. On Wednesday, at least two people were killed in kyiv and 43 others injured in bombings which notably damaged a gas station, a business center and stores, according to municipal authorities. Ukrainian Railways Director Oleksandr Pertsovsky said kyiv's rail network was "under fire", and called on passengers using the busy Central Station to exercise "maximum" vigilance.
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Explosions rang out during the night and during the day with plumes of smoke visible in several areas of the city. In the southern Odessa region, a Russian strike hit a cargo ship flying the flag of Antigua and Barbuda and killed its Ukrainian captain, Governor Oleg Kiper reported. This attack also targeted warehouses used in particular to store medicines and food products, he said on Telegram. The Russian Defense Ministry, for its part, claimed to have struck a bulk carrier which was transporting “cargoes for military use” to the port of Odessa, as well as a warehouse of components for drones in a locality in the region. In Oleksandrivka, in the eastern Donetsk region where most of the fighting is taking place, four people were killed and four injured in a strike that hit a residential building, according to Ukrainian human rights delegate Dmytro Lubinets.
“Paralyze the economy”
President Volodymyr Zelensky accuses Russia of seeking to “paralyze the economy and destroy people’s lives,” more than four and a half years after the Russian invasion of the country began. The head of Ukrainian diplomacy, Andriï Sybiga, also accused Moscow on Wednesday of targeting “the main Ukrainian data centers” and of “seeking to disrupt the flow of information”. On Wednesday, around 100,000 households experienced problems accessing the internet due to Russian strikes, according to kyiv.
Ukraine has itself intensified its strikes in Russia, notably repeatedly targeting refineries and oil depots in recent months, warehouses of e-commerce giants Wildberries and Ozon, as well as cargo ships operating from Russian ports in the Black Sea. On Sunday, on the last day of parliamentary elections in Russia, Ukraine launched more than 1,600 drones and missiles on the country, sparking the promise of a response from the Russian authorities.
Russian attacks target warehouses, ships, factories and gas stations and have largely shut down Ukraine's metallurgical sector and its agricultural exports, inflicting significant economic losses at a time when kyiv faces a budget deficit described as "astronomical" by Mr. Zelensky. The Ukrainian budget for the year 2027, adopted last week by the government, foresees a need for external financing of 45.8 billion euros and military spending at a record level.
226 ships hit in the Black Sea since 2022
At least 226 civilian and commercial ships have been hit in the Black Sea since Russia's invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022, most of them this year according to the Turkish Chamber of Maritime Commerce Imeak. These attacks in the Black Sea were deemed “unacceptable” on Tuesday by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
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At least 45 merchant ships have been attacked in the past 12 months in areas of the Black Sea that were previously not listed as being exposed to the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, the specialist company Ambrey said on Wednesday.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday urged Moscow and kyiv to stop their reciprocal strikes on energy infrastructure, while Donald Trump has criticized Volodymyr Zelensky in recent weeks for worsening the global shortage of diesel by targeting Russian refineries.
