Russia’s defense ministry said on Friday it had struck a military target on the edge of Kyiv overnight with cruise missiles and promised more strikes against the Ukrainian capital in response to Ukrainian attacks on Russian targets.
The ministry said its forces had also taken full control of the Ilyich Steel Plant in the besieged port city of Mariupol, which has been encircled by Russian troops for weeks.
Powerful explosions were heard in Kyiv on Friday which appeared to be among the most significant there since Russian troops pulled back from the area earlier this month in preparation for battles in the south and east.
The explosions were reported to have been heard after the Russian defense ministry announced that the Moskva, the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, had sunk while being towed after being badly damaged.
Ukraine claimed the Moskva’s damage was the result of one of its missile strikes. Russia’s defense ministry spoke only of a fire breaking out and of exploding ammunition.
The defense ministry said in its statement that its overnight missile strikes on Kyiv had struck the ‘Vizar’ factory on the edge of the Ukrainian capital which it said made and repaired missiles, including anti-ship missiles.
It pledged more strikes on Kyiv.
“The number and scale of missile strikes on targets in Kyiv will increase in response to any terrorist attacks or acts of sabotage on Russian territory committed by the Kyiv nationalist regime,” the ministry said in a statement.
It said its forces had shot down a Ukrainian Mi-8 helicopter which it said had attacked the village of Klimovo in Bryansk region on April 14 and had also shot down a Ukrainian Sukhoi-27 jet. A group of up to 30 Polish mercenaries had also been destroyed, it said.
Russia launched what it calls its “special military operation” on Feb. 24. Ukraine has put up fierce resistance and the West has imposed sweeping sanctions on Russia.
Russia pledges more missile strikes on Kyiv after overnight hit, says captured Mariupol steel plant
https://arab.news/ymnh4
Russia pledges more missile strikes on Kyiv after overnight hit, says captured Mariupol steel plant
- Ukraine claimed the Moskva’s damage was the result of one of its missile strikes
- The defense ministry said in its statement that its overnight missile strikes on Kyiv had struck the ‘Vizar’ factory on the edge of the Ukrainian capital
Archbishop of York says he was ‘intimidated’ by Israeli militias during West Bank visit
- “We were … intimidated by Israeli militias who told us that we couldn’t visit Palestinian families in the occupied West Bank,” the archbishop said
LONDON: The Archbishop of York has revealed that he felt “intimidated” by Israeli militias during a visit to the Holy Land this year.
“We were stopped at various checkpoints and intimidated by Israeli militias who told us that we couldn’t visit Palestinian families in the occupied West Bank,” the Rev. Stephen Cottrell told his Christmas Day congregation at York Minster.
The archbishop added: “We have become — and really, I can think of no other way of putting it — we have become fearful of each other, and especially fearful of strangers, or just people who aren’t quite like us.
“We don’t seem to be able to see ourselves in them, and therefore we spurn our common humanity.”
He recounted how YMCA charity representatives in Bethlehem, who work with persecuted Palestinian communities in the West Bank, gave him an olive wood Nativity scene carving.
The carving depicted a “large gray wall” blocking the three kings from getting to the stable to see Mary, Joseph and Jesus, he said.
He said it was sobering for him to see the wall in real life during his visit.
He continued: “But this Christmas morning here in York, as well as thinking about the walls that divide and separate the Holy Land, I’m also thinking of all the walls and barriers we erect across the whole of the world and, perhaps most alarming, the ones we build around ourselves, the ones we construct in our hearts and minds, and of how our fearful shielding of ourselves from strangers — the strangers we encounter in the homeless on our streets, refugees seeking asylum, young people starved of opportunity and growing up without hope for the future — means that we are in danger of failing to welcome Christ when he comes.”
