Russian missile strike targets cities across Ukraine
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Ukrainian authorities reported blasts in the country’s northeastern, southern and western regions on Thursday morning, during a fresh wave of Russian missile strikes.
Explosions were heard in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, its mayor, Ihor Terekhov, said on messaging app Telegram, as well as in the Zaporizhzhia region, according to governor Ivan Fedorov, also on the app.
The governor of the western Lviv region, Maksim Kozytskyi, said on Telegram that air defences were working in the area.
In Other Developments:
The top US general in Europe has told Congress Ukraine will be outgunned 10 to one by Russia within a matter of weeks if more ammunition and weapons are not sent to Kyiv soon. “The Russians fire five times as many artillery shells at the Ukrainians than the Ukrainians are able to fire back. That will immediately go to 10 to one in a matter of weeks,” Gen Christopher Cavoli said. “We’re not talking about months. We’re not talking hypothetically.”
Joe Biden on Wednesday urged the US House of Representatives to vote immediately on the $60bn Ukraine bill. “There’s overwhelming support for Ukraine among the majority of Democrats and Republicans. There should be a vote now,” the president told reporters. The funds passed the Senate but have languished for months in the House, where the speaker, Mike Johnson, has refused to bring a vote to the floor.
Russia’s foreign ministry has criticised plans to hold a Ukraine peace conference in Switzerland as being motivated by elections in the US. The conference is to be held on 15-16 June and Swiss media have said Biden is expected to attend. “American Democrats, who need photos and videos of events that supposedly indicate their project ‘Ukraine’ is still afloat, are behind this,” the Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova told state-run Tass news agency.
Ukrainian politicians have sparked anger by scrapping a clause in a draft law that would have given soldiers serving for more than 36 months the possibility to be discharged. The clause was removed ahead of its second reading after pressure from the military. The reversal sparked anger across a society exhausted by years of war and risked sapping morale in the stretched armed forces.
