KYIV: Ukraine said Friday it withstood a wave of Russian missiles including hypersonic Kinzhals, which were downed over the Kyiv region where African leaders were due to hold talks as part of a peace mission.
“Russian missiles are a message to Africa: Russia wants more war, not peace,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said.
The Ukrainian Air Force said it destroyed six Kinzhals, six Kalibr cruise missiles and two reconnaissance drones.
All were intercepted over the Kyiv region, the chief of the Kyiv military administration Sergiy Popko said.
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Russian President Vladimir “Putin ‘builds confidence’ by launching the largest missile attack on Kyiv in weeks, exactly amid the visit of African leaders to our capital,” Kuleba said.
The South African presidency said “the mission is proceeding well and as planned. We await the commencement of talks with (Ukrainian) President Zelensky.”
The presidents of South Africa, Senegal, Zambia and the Comoros; and representatives from Uganda, Egypt and Congo-Brazzaville were due to hold talks in Kyiv.
A part of the delegation visited Bucha, the site of an alleged massacre by Russian troops, on Friday
Moscow on Friday reported intense fighting near Southeast Ukraine settlements that had until recently been under its control, which appeared to indicate advances by Kyiv’s forces.
Russian officials—including Putin—have repeated that Ukraine’s long-expected counteroffensive was failing despite Kyiv claiming some gains.
But the Russian army said the most active fighting took place around the settlements of Rivnopil and Urozhaine, which are near a cluster of villages that Ukraine claimed to recapture over the past week.
Russia said “five attacks from units of the Ukrainian armed forces were repelled” around Rivnopil and Urozhaine.
Fighting in this area would mean Russian defence lines have fallen back a few kilometres in an areas at the border between the partially-occupied southern Zaporizhzhia and the eastern Donetsk region.
On Thursday the Ukrainian army said it continued to advance despite “powerful resistance” from Russian troops.
The area where the heavy fighting is taking place is still more than a dozen kilometres north of Russia’s heavily fortified defence lines.
Major Ukrainian military successes in the southern Zaporizhzhia region could potentially enable Ukraine’s forces to break through the land bridge that connects Russia with the Crimean peninsula it annexed from Ukraine. This would be a major reversal for Moscow.
Analysts say Ukraine is yet to launch the bulk of its forces on the battlefield and is likely still probing Russian defences. And, Putin hailed Russia’s ties with the United Arab Emirates on Friday as he met the leader of the oil-rich nation, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, in Saint Petersburg.
“The Emirates are a very good partner,” Putin said in televised comments at the start of the meeting, which took place on the sidelines of an economic summit in Russia’s second city.
Putin thanked Al-Nahyan for the role the UAE has played in prisoner exchanges between Russia and Ukraine and Russia and the United States.
Al-Nahyan said he was in favour of “de-escalation” and a “political solution” to the Ukraine conflict during the talks, in which the pair discussed their countries’ “strategic partnership”, according to the UAE official news agency WAM.
Russia and UAE have closely cooperated as members of the OPEC+ oil alliance and Dubai is one of the rare world capitals to have maintained direct flights to Moscow following the start of the Ukraine conflict in February 2022. UN nuclear chief Rafael Grossi said the situation at the Moscow-occupied Zaporizhzhia atomic power plant in Ukraine was “serious” but being stabilised as Kyiv reported progress in its counteroffensive.
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