Russian strike kills 25 as Kremlin plans to annex Ukraine regions
India TV NewsHighlights Russia pounded Ukrainian cities with missiles, rockets, and suicide drones In Mykolaiv, a Russian missile struck a high rise and wounded eight people Ukrainian President called an emergency meeting of his National Security and Defense Council Russia-Ukraine War : Russia pounded Ukrainian cities with missiles, rockets, and suicide drones, with one strike, reported to have killed 25 people, as it moved Friday to fold more seized Ukrainian territory into Russia itself and under the protection of its nuclear umbrella, opening an internationally condemned dangerous new phase of the seven-month war. In the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia, anti-aircraft missiles that Russia has repurposed as ground-attack weapons rained down on people who were waiting in cars to cross into Russian-occupied territory, so they could bring family members back across the front lines, said the deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential office, Kyrylo Tymoshenko. The Washington-based Institute for the Study of War said the city’s fall to Ukrainian forces “is imminent,” unless Russia can ward off the collapse with speedy reinforcements, which appeared “highly unlikely.” Ukraine is also keeping close watch of its Russia-allied neighbor to the north, Belarus, which the Kremlin used as a staging ground for its ultimately defeated initial attempt at Kyiv in the opening stage of the invasion. A Russian strike on the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia killed at least 23 people and wounded dozens Heightening the tensions are Russia’s partial military mobilization and allegations of sabotage of two Russian pipelines on the Baltic Sea floor that were designed to feed natural gas to Europe.