Ukraine: War ‘coming to Russia’, Medvedev nuclear threat, Ukrainian drones strike Moscow and Crimea
Deadly strike on Ukraine apartment kills four, including child
At least four people were killed and 43 injured in a Russian strike on an apartment building in central Ukraine on Monday, according to the country’s Interior Minister.
Russia hit Kryvyi Rig in the morning with two missiles, which destroyed several floors of a residential building, wrote Igor Klymenko on Telegram.
Four people were killed and 43 were injured, he said at midday, adding three residents were rescued and 30 evacuated. A 10-year-old child was among those killed.
The second missile hit a university, according to Klymenko, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy denouncing “Russian terrorism”.
Speaking to Euronews in July, Dr Jade McGlynn, Research Fellow in War Studies at King’s College London, said Moscow was deliberately “terror bombing” civilians in a bid to demoralise the population and undermine their resolve.
Ukrainian drone attacks reflect counteroffensive failure – Russia
The Kremlin called on Monday Ukrainian drone strikes an “act of desperation” by Kyiv, whose counter-offensive was “failing”, it claimed.
“It’s obvious the counter-offensive is not successful,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, claiming Ukrainian forces have had “no success” on the battlefield.
“In an act of desperation, the Kyiv regime is resorting to such terrorist strikes,” he said.
Ukraine has recaptured Russian-occupied territory in the south and east, though Zelenskyy previously said progress was not as fast as he would like.
Ukrainian forces are facing solidly entrenched Russian troops that have had months to dig in.
Russia announced on Sunday it had repelled two separate Ukrainian drone attacks overnight, which targeted a major business district in Moscow and annexed Crimea.
No casualties were reported.
Vnukovo International Airport in southwest Moscow was briefly closed on Sunday, reported Russian state news agency TASS. But flights resumed soon after.
Attacks on Moscow and the wider region – some 500 km from the Ukrainian border – have been rare since fighting began in February 2022.
Yet, in recent months, several drones have hit the Russian capital, including one against the Kremlin in May 2023.
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov condemned the attacks, saying they “would not be possible” without Western aid.
Russia will use nukes if Ukraine succeeds – Medvedev
Russia’s former PM has warned his country would have to use nuclear weapons if Ukraine’s counteroffensive succeeded.
“Just imagine that the NATO-supported ukrobanderovtsy’s offensive turned out successful, and they took away a part of our land: then we would have to, following the President’s degree of 02.06.2020, use the nuclear weapon,” wrote Dmitry Medvedev on Twitter.
“There would simply be no other way out.”
Once a West-leaning, liberal voice inside Russia, Medvedev has routinely hits the headlines for his bellicose and inflammatory statements about the Ukraine war and its Western allies.
In May, he claimed the Baltic states – Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania – belonged to Russia, adding Poland was “temporarily occupied”.
In Sunday’s Tweet, Medvedev claimed Russia’s armed forces were “defending Russia citizens and our land”.
“It’s quite clear to all decent people”.
‘War coming to Russia’ – Zelenskyy
The war in Ukraine is coming “to Russia”, said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Sunday, following a drone strike on Moscow.
“Gradually, war is returning to the territory of Russia, to its symbolic centres and military bases, and this is an inevitable, natural and absolutely just process,” he said during his daily address, on the sidelines of a visit to western Ukraine.
“Ukraine is getting stronger,” he added, warning Moscow should prepare for new attacks on its energy infrastructure this winter.
Last year, Russia systematically targeted Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. This left large numbers of Ukrainians without power and heating during the dark depths of winter.
