14 Killed, Scores Injured As Russian Missiles Hit Northern Ukraine
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
KYIV (Worthy News) — At least 14 people were killed and scores injured when Russian missiles hit an eight-floor apartment building in the heart of the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv, authorities said.
Some 61 people, including two children, were wounded in the morning attack, according to Ukrainian emergency services.
Chernihiv lies about 150 kilometers (90 miles) north of the capital, Kyiv, near the border with Russia and Belarus, and has a population of around 250,000. The latest reported Russian strike came as the Ukraine-Russia war stretched into its third year.
It comes amid mounting concerns in Kyiv about a perceived lack of Western military support with Ukrainian troops struggling against the invading Russian powerful military.
In the winter months, Russia made no dramatic advance along the roughly 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) front line, but the change in weather and Ukraine’s shortage of artillery ammunition, troops, and armored vehicles has allowed Russian forces to push forward, Worthy News established.
Kyiv says a crucial element for Ukraine is the holdup in Washington of approval for an aid package that includes roughly $60 billion for Ukraine. U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson said Sunday that he would try to move the package forward this week.
PATRIOT MISSILES
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has pleaded with Western countries to provide his country with more air defense equipment, including more surface-to-air Patriot-guided missile systems.
He said the Chernihiv strike “would not have happened if Ukraine had received enough air defense equipment and if the world’s determination to counter Russian terror was also sufficient.”
Kyiv said Israel’s success against Iranian drones and missiles fired over the weekend showed it’s possible to change the realities on the ground with adequate defense systems.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, a front-runner to become the next NATO alliance secretary general, said his nation is ready to buy those systems for Ukraine as part of a multi-billion dollar military aid package.
Yet time is running out with reports that Ukrainian troops are forced to withdraw from several areas due to a lack of weapons and munition.
Ukraine’s need is now acute, according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a Washington-based think tank. “The Russians are breaking out of positional warfare and beginning to restore maneuver to the battlefield because of the delays in the provision of U.S. military assistance to Ukraine,” the ISW said in an assessment late Tuesday.
MOBILIZATION CALLS
“Ukraine cannot hold the present lines now without the rapid resumption of U.S. assistance, particularly air defense and artillery that only the U.S. can provide rapidly and at scale,” it warned.
Ahead of Wednesday’s strike, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed into law a controversial mobilization bill to boost troop numbers.
The new law toughens penalties on draft dodgers, incentivizes conscription, and obliges men to keep their military registration details with the authorities up-to-date.
A proposal on demobilizing long-serving soldiers on the front was scrapped as the death toll rose.
The war has killed and injured hundreds of thousands of people since Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, according to several estimates.
Millions of people fled their homes amid the raging battles of Europe’s bloodiest conflict since the Second World War.
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