by Max Hunder and Pavel Polityuk
Kyiv (Reuters) – Russian missiles hit the Ukrainian city of Vinnitsya from far behind the front line on Thursday, killing at least 12 people, including a small child, and injuring dozens, Ukrainian officials said.
The attack comes a day after a breakthrough in talks between Moscow and Kyiv to unblock Ukraine’s grain exports, highlighting how far the two countries remain from any peace deal despite progress being made in those talks.
“There are the wounded and the dead, there is a small child among them,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told the Telegram messaging app. “What is this but a clear act of terrorism?”
The Russian Defense Ministry, which denied attacking civilians, did not immediately comment on the attack. Russia, which launched what it calls a “special military operation” against Ukraine on February 24, says its aim is to disrupt Ukraine’s military infrastructure to protect its own security.
Vinnitsa is about 200 km southwest of the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, and is away from the main front lines in eastern and southern Ukraine in a conflict that the West and Ukraine are calling an unprovoked war of aggression.
Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said the Russian attack hit the parking lot of the nine-story “Yuvelirniy” office building around 10:50 am (4:50 GMT).
The agency released photos showing gray smoke rising from the twisted remains of burned cars and smoldering rubble nearby.
Video footage posted on Telegram by Ukrainian politician Oleksiy Goncharenko showed thick black smoke rising from a tall building.
FIGHT ON THE EASTERN FRONT
At the forefront of the war, hundreds of kilometers to the east, Ukraine said it repulsed Russian ground attacks after Moscow focused its fire on two cities it saw as stepping stones to take control of major cities.
After the initial lightning strikes failed, Russia turned to a campaign designed to wear out the Ukrainian forces and minimize casualties on its side while bombarding the cities it wanted to capture.
Ukraine has begun attacking targets in Russian-controlled territory with the help of Himars mobile rocket systems, which it has recently procured from the United States, and says it has destroyed ammunition stores and reduced Russia’s capability.
Daniil Bezsonov, a Russian-backed official in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, said on Thursday that the armed forces and Russia are focusing their fire on the cities of Siversk and Soledar in eastern Ukraine.
source: Noticias
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