The southern city of Mykolaiv in Ukraine experienced huge explosions on Saturday (July 2), making it the latest missile target of the invading Russian army. Over the past week, the Russian military has stepped up missile attacks on multiple cities in Ukraine. Its missiles have hit an apartment building and a shopping mall in other cities, directly killing dozens of Ukrainian civilians.
On June 18, 2022, the Russian army had already shelled the city of Nikolayev. The picture shows firefighters trying to extinguish a fire caused by shelling. Air raid sirens were in effect on Saturday, and Nikolaev Mayor Oleksandr Senkevych warned citizens not to go out.
"A powerful explosion occurred in the city! You can't leave the air-raid shelter!" Senkevich said on social media.
Reuters said in a report that the exact cause of the explosion in the city of Nikolayev was not known for a while, but Russia said on Saturday that Russian troops attacked the command post of the local Ukrainian garrison.
Ukrainian officials said that while the Russian army bombarded the urban area with overwhelming artillery fire on the battlefield in eastern Ukraine and gradually encroached on occupied Ukrainian army positions, it also intensified missile attacks on other targets in Ukraine far away from the front line and deliberately attacked civilian facilities in Ukraine.
Moscow argued that the Russian army only attacked military targets and denied launching attacks on civilian facilities. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov (Dmitry Peskov) claimed that "Russian armed forces never attack civilian targets."
On Friday (July 1), a missile launched by the Russian army at 1 a.m. hit the A nine-story apartment building in Sergiyivka, a village near Odessa, killed at least 21 people. On Monday (June 27), Russian missiles struck a crowded shopping mall in central Ukraine, killing at least 19 people.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy condemned the Russian missile attacks in a routine video chat on Friday night as "a deliberate and targeted Russian terrorist campaign, not an accidental missile launch or a coincidence."
Russian media reported that the Russian army used precision-guided weapons to destroy multiple Ukrainian military command posts in Nikolayev and the Donbas region of Donbas, and hit the southern Other military targets in the Zaporozhye region as well as in the northern Kharkov region.
Since Russian President Putin invaded Ukraine under the pretext of demilitarization and denazification on December 24 under the guise of "special military operations", tens of thousands of Ukrainian civilians have been killed by Russian artillery fire. More than 10 million people have been displaced, and more than 6 million of them have crossed into neighboring countries and become refugees. Many cities in Ukraine were also razed to the ground by Russian artillery fire.
In the village of Sergiyivka, which was hit by a Russian missile attack near Odessa and hit a nine-story apartment building, local residents are still assisting rescue workers in clearing the rubble at the scene. They also designated Saturday as a day of mourning for the victims.
The day before Russian missiles attacked Sergiyivka's apartment building, Russia announced its withdrawal from the strategically important Black Sea island Snake Island, claiming that this was to express Russia's "gesture of goodwill." However, the Ukrainian military stated that after the Ukrainian army launched large-scale air strikes and artillery attacks on Snake Island Russian troops, the Russian defenders suffered serious casualties and losses and were forced to evacuate Snake Island, which is flat, lacks cover, and is easy to attack and difficult to defend. .
Snake Island was attacked and occupied by the Russian army in the early stages of the Russian army's invasion of Ukraine. But over the past few months, Ukrainian forces have been launching artillery bombardments, air strikes and counterattacks against Russian forces occupying Snake Island.The Russian army also used Snake Island to block Ukrainian ports, preventing Ukraine, known as Europe's granary, from exporting food, thus exacerbating the soaring global food prices and food crisis caused by Russia's aggressive actions.
Moscow, which is also a major food exporter, denies that its aggressive actions have caused the food crisis, and blames Western sanctions for affecting its exports of food and other materials.
Putin met with Indonesia's president on Thursday and had a phone call with India's prime minister on Friday. He assured the leaders of Indonesia and India, two major food importing countries, that Russia would continue to supply them with food.
The Russian offensive, whose main purpose is to seize the Donbass region of Udong, is still continuing. Donbas region consists of Lugansk and Donetsk oblasts. After the Russian army captured Severodonetsk city in Luhansk region last week after fierce fighting, the city of Lisichansk across the river from Severodonetsk city became the last place for Ukrainian troops in Luhansk region. stronghold. The current war situation in the city is quite critical. The Russian army is not only bombing the city indiscriminately, but is also about to complete the siege of the Ukrainian defenders.
According to the governor of Donetsk region , the Russian army's shelling of the state on Friday also caused 4 deaths and 12 injuries.
The Ukrainian military reported that the Russian army carried out large-scale shelling on Ukrainian army positions in Kharkiv in the north and Sumy and Chernihiv close to the border on Friday.
President Zelensky said that troops in eastern and southern Ukraine urgently need more weapons support. The United States has stated that as the latest batch of military aid, it is transporting two sets of surface-to-air missile systems produced by and Norway, four sets of anti-artillery radars and a large amount of ammunition to Ukraine.
