New Delhi: Russian forces kidnapped the mayor of Ukraine’s Melitopol, Ivan Fedorov, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other officials said. The Russian forces expanded their offensive in Ukraine during the day as they conducted airstrikes in new areas in the country’s west, while Russian President Vladimir Putin approved the recruitment of “volunteers” from Syria and elsewhere to join the fight.
Russian forces bombarded cities across the country and appeared to be regrouping for a possible assault on Kyiv, with satellite images showing them firing artillery as they closed in on the capital. The governor of the Kharkiv region, along the Russian border, said a psychiatric hospital had been hit, and the mayor of the city of Kharkiv said about 50 schools there had been destroyed.
Russia on Friday announced that the military airfields of Lutsk and Ivano-Frankivsk, in western Ukraine closer to the Polish border, have been “put out of action”.
Keen to avoid a direct military intervention in non-NATO Ukraine that they fear could trigger World War III, the US and its allies on Friday announced further steps to increase the economic pressure on the Kremlin to rein in its forces.
On Friday, three missiles struck residential buildings in Dnipro’s central city, demolishing a shoe factory and killing one security guard. Since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, Dnipro has been considered a safe haven, with few strikes. Officials said home for the disabled near Kharkiv was also bombed, with 330 people inside at the time.
(SMIT SONI)