Russian attacks kill dozens of Ukrainians from NATO summit

Russian attacks kill dozens of Ukrainians from NATO summit

CNN reports that Russia killed dozens of Ukrainian civilians in less than 48 hours on Monday and Tuesday, which has been the deadliest for many months. Among the victims of the Russian attacks were a five-year-old boy and an eleven-year-old girl who fell in the middle of the preparations for an important NATO meeting in the Netherlands.

Details of the attacks in Dnipro and Kyiv

Ukrainian officials announced that on Tuesday in Dnipro, the largest city in the southeast of the country, 15 people were killed by the impact of a Russian ballistic rocket. On Monday, nine people died in an attack on a residential building in Kiev. Another two dozen were killed in attacks in various regions of the country, including Sumy, Cherson, Donetsk and Odesa.

massive destruction in Dnipro

Local civil servants reported in Dnipro of a scale of destruction that was not recorded in previous attacks on the city. Mayor Borys Filatov said that almost 50 buildings were damaged, including schools, medical facilities, municipal institutions and residential buildings. "This is an unprecedented degree of destruction that the city has never experienced in the entire period of the extensive war. The number of victims is so high that even the emergency services did not come after," he added.

injured and damage

According to the authorities, more than 170 people were injured, of which around 100 until Tuesday evening remained in urban hospitals. A passenger train with around 500 people was also damaged by the attack. "We have over 2000 broken windows in residential buildings and various municipal facilities in the entire city," noted Filatov.

causes of the attacks and international reactions

President Wolodymyr Selenskyj was at the Haag at the NATO summit on Tuesday and met several European leaders on the sidelines of the event before addressing the Dutch parliament. Although Ukraine is not a NATO member, it strives for membership. Russia tried to prevent this because it sees NATO's eastern expansion as a threat to its own security after the Cold War.

Selenskyj indicates Russia's connections to Iran

Selenskyj emphasized the connections between Iran and Russia during the current conflicts in the Middle East. Iran has strongly supported Russia since the beginning of Ukraine's unpredictated invasion by President Vladimir Putin in 2022. The Iranian state has supplied Moscow with weapons, including short-range missiles and thousands of Shahed drones. According to the American official, he also set up a drone factory in Russia.

Russia's military intensification

Moscow has strengthened its air raids to Ukrainian cities in the past few weeks after successfully raising the domestic production of its most frequently used drone, the Iranian-designed Shahed. Selenskyj indicated that Russia has used a total of 28,743 Shahed drones against Ukraine since 2022, 2,736 of them this month alone.

political situation and peace talks

Selenskyj said during the summit that there were no signs that Putin wanted to end his war against Ukraine. "Russia rejects all peace suggestions, including those from the United States. Putin thinks only. That is a fact. Maybe he connects his political survival with his ability to continue killing," said Selenskyj. The conversations between Russia, Ukraine and third countries have largely stalled after Moscow refused to move away from its maximum demands.

plans for future meetings

During the summit, the British Defense Minister John Healy emphasized that it was crucial not to lose sight of Ukraine while "all eyes are on the Middle East". Selenskyj was in London on Monday, where he was the British Prime Minister Keir Strander and King Charles III. met. Officials in Kiev reported that the attack on the residential building in Kiev killed several family members. Lusy Alekseenkova, a journalist of a Ukrainian television station, said that her brother, his wife and father of her sister-in-law were killed in the attack, her 16-year-old nephew being the only survivor.

The same attacks led to a mother and her eleven -year -old daughter killed, Tymur Tkachenko, the head of the Kiev military administration, reported, and added that it took many hours to recover the little girl's body.