KYIV: Russian forces fired dozens of missiles at Ukraine on Thursday in a blistering series of strikes targeting the country’s energy infrastructure a day after Germany and the United States pledged to supply modern tanks to Kyiv.
The latest wave of attacks came as Moscow said that it perceived the tank deliveries to Kyiv by the United States and Germany, “as direct involvement in the conflict.”
Kyiv city’s military administration said on Thursday that 20 missiles of various types had been detected in the city’s airspace this morning but that all “aerial targets were destroyed” by the air defense units.
The latest Russian strikes killed one person and wounded two more in the capital, Kyiv’s mayor Vitali Klitschko said on social media. A 55-year-old man was killed by fragments of a missile that was intercepted by Ukrainian air defense systems, local officials said.
Ukrainian energy operator DTEK said it was working on emergency power cuts around the capital and also in the southern Odessa and Dnipropetrovsk regions.
Kyiv to receive Leopard tanks in late March
Leopard tanks that Berlin pledged to send Ukraine will arrive in “late March, early April”, German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said.
He said that training of Ukrainian troops on German Marder infantry fighting vehicles will begin in the next few days, adding that it would be “a little later” for the Ukrainian soldiers who will be trained on the Leopard.
