Russia strikes south Ukraine city, presses attacks in east

PTI, Jul 17, 2022, 7:40 PM IST

Image credit: State Emergency Service of Ukrain | Via Reuters

Vinnytsia: Russian missiles hit industrial facilities at a strategic city in southern Ukraine on Sunday as a funeral was held for a four-year-old girl killed in an earlier deadly strike elsewhere in the country.

Liza, who had Down syndrome, was en route to see a speech therapist with her mother when a Russian missile struck the city of Vinnytsia in central Ukraine on Thursday.

At least 24 people were killed, including Liza and two boys aged 7 and 8. More than 200 others were wounded, including Liza’s mother, who remains in an intensive care unit in grave condition.

”I didn’t know Liza, but no person can go through this with calm,” priest Vitalii Holoskevych said, bursting into tears as Liza’s body lay in a coffin with flowers and teddy bears in the 18th century Transfiguration Cathedral in Vinnytsia.

‘We know that evil cannot win,’ he said, his voice trembling.

On Sunday, more Russian missiles struck industrial facilities in the strategic southern city of Mykolaiv, a key shipbuilding center in the estuary of the Southern Bug river. There was no immediate information about casualties.

Mykolaiv has faced regular Russian missile strikes in recent weeks as the Russians have sought to soften Ukrainian defences.

The Russian military has declared a goal to cut off Ukraine’s entire Black Sea coast all the way to the Romanian border.

If successful, such an effort would deal a crushing blow to the Ukrainian economy and trade and allow Moscow to secure a land bridge to Moldova’s separatist region of Transnistria, which hosts a Russian military base.

Early in the campaign, the Ukrainian forces fended off Russian attempts to capture Mykolaiv, which sits near the Black Sea Coast between Russia-occupied Crimea and the main Ukrainian port of Odesa.

Since then, the Russian troops have halted their attempts to advance in the city but have continued to pummel both Mykolaiv and Odesa with regular missile strikes.

Russian Defence Ministry spokesman Lt. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said on Sunday that Russian missiles destroyed a depot for anti-ship Harpoon missiles delivered to Ukraine by NATO allies, a claim that couldn’t be independently confirmed.

The Russians also sought to reinforce their positions in the Kherson region near Crimea and part of the northern Zaporizhzhia region that they seized in the opening stage of the conflict, fearing a Ukrainian counteroffensive.

The British Defence Ministry said on Sunday that Russia is moving manpower and equipment between Kherson, Mariupol and Zaporizhzhia. It said the Russians also are increasing their security measures around Melitopol.

It added: “Given the pressures on Russian manpower, the reinforcement of the south whilst the fight for the Donbas continues indicates the seriousness with which Russian commanders view the threat.” For now, the Russian military has focused its efforts on trying to take control of Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland of Donbas, where the most capable and well-equipped Ukrainian forces are located.

Ukraine says its forces still retain control of two small villages in the Luhansk region, one of the two provinces that make up the Donbas, and are successfully fending off Russian attempts to advance deeper into the second one, the Donetsk region.

The Ukrainian military’s General Staff said on Sunday that Ukrainian troops thwarted Russian attempts to advance toward Sloviansk, the key Ukrainian stronghold in Donetsk, and other attacks elsewhere in the region.

During a visit to the front lines on Saturday, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu issued an order ”to further intensify the actions of units in all operational areas”.

The Russian military said it has struck Ukrainian troops and artillery positions in Donbas in the latest series of strikes, including a US-supplied HIMARS multiple rocket launcher. The Russian claims couldn’t be independently verified.

Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy head of Russia’s Security Council chaired by President Vladimir Putin, responded to Ukrainian officials’ statements that Kyiv may strike the bridge linking Crimea and Russia, warning that that would trigger devastating consequences for the Ukrainian leadership.” “If that happens, the consequences will be obvious: They will momentarily face the Doomsday,” Medvedev said on Sunday. “It would be very hard for them to hide.” While focusing on Donbas, the Russians hit areas all across the country with missile strikes.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged Ukrainians not to fall for Russia’s attempts to scare them with warnings of horrendous missile attacks to come, which he said were aimed at dividing Ukrainian society.

“It’s clear that no Russian missiles or artillery will be able to break our unity or lead us away from our path” toward a democratic, independent Ukraine,” he said in his nightly video address to the nation. “And it is also clear that Ukrainian unity cannot be broken by lies or intimidation, fakes or conspiracy theories.” In the Kharkiv region, at least three civilians were killed and three more were injured on Saturday in a pre-dawn Russian strike on the city of Chuhuiv, which is only 120 kilometers from the Russian border, the police said.

Lyudmila Krekshina, who lives in the apartment building that was hit, said a husband and wife were killed, and also an elderly man who lived on the ground floor.

Another resident said she was lucky to have survived.

“I was going to run and hide in the bathroom. I didn’t make it and that’s what saved me,” said Valentina Bushuyeva. Pointing up at her destroyed apartment, she said: “There’s the bathroom — explosion. Kitchen — half a room. And I survived because I stayed put.”