WESTERN PERSPECTIVE
Kyiv hit by massive Russian drone attack as city marks its founding
Ahead of the anniversary of its founding in 482 A.D., Kyiv suffered the largest drone attack since the start of the war with Russia, Ukrainian officials said Sunday.
Ukraine’s air force said in a statement on Telegram that a “record number” of 54 Russia-launched, Iranian-made “Shahed” drones were launched at the city overnight, although it added that it had shot down 52 of them. NBC News was not able to independently verify these figures.
The attack was primarily directed at military facilities and critical infrastructure in the center of Ukraine, including Kyiv, the statement said.
In a separate Telegram post, the Kyiv City Military Authority said the attack “was carried out in several waves, and the air alert lasted more than 5 hours.”
It added that it was “the most massive drone attack on the capital since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, namely with the ‘Shahed’ barrage of ammunition.”
Shahed drones are self-detonating aerial weapons in which the munition can loiter over a target until instructed to attack, destroying the weapon in the process. Iran is believed to have sent hundreds of these weapons to Russia since the beginning of its invasion last February.
At least one person was killed and another was taken to hospital after being hit by falling debris from buildings that were struck, the military authority said.
A shopping mall and a three-story warehouse also caught fire as a result of the debris, causing 10,800 square feet of destruction, it added.
Vitali Klitchko, Kyiv's mayor, also said on Telegram that buildings had caught fire in the historic neighborhood of Perchersk in the city center, which is famous for its monastery containing the relics of saints.
Bolstered by sophisticated Western-supplied systems, Ukraine has been adept at thwarting Russian air attacks — both drones and aircraft missiles. Earlier in May, Ukraine prevented an intense Russian air attack on Kyiv, shooting down all missiles aimed at the capital.
The most recent attacks came as Kyiv prepared to mark the anniversary of the city’s official founding. The day is usually celebrated with live concerts, street fairs, exhibitions and fireworks, but scaled-back festivities are planned for this year's anniversary celebration.
“The history of Ukraine is a long-standing irritant for complex Russians,” said Andriy Yermak, the head of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's office, said on Telegram on Sunday. “Ancient Kyiv, Ukrainian Kyiv … UAV attack.”
The attack's came as speculation ratcheted up about a long-anticipated counteroffensive from Ukrainian forces.
“We are preparing the battlefield for the new phase of the war. It’s going on now. It is a large number of measures in different sectors of the front line,” Mykhailo Podolyak, a senior adviser to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told NBC News Saturday.
Conceding that preparation was well underway, Podolyak also praised a slickly produced video posted on Telegram Saturday by Valerii Zaluzhnyi, the commander in chief of Ukraine’s armed forces.
It showed Ukrainian troops training, swearing an oath and preparing for battle, alongside the caption “The time has come to return what is ours.”
If Ukraine’s top general is suggesting that, he’ll have a good reason, Podolyak said, adding that it showed “that Ukraine may be almost ready to start a big operation aimed at the liberation of its territories.”
RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE
Moscow warns West against ‘playing with fire’
The US and its allies are “playing with fire” by doubling down on their support for Kiev amid the conflict with Moscow, including by planning to provide Ukraine with F-16 fighter jets, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said.
“Of course, it’s an unacceptable escalation” Lavrov said regarding potential deliveries of American-made warplanes to Kiev in an interview with Russia 1 TV on Sunday. “I think there are reasonable people in the West who understand this. But everything is being dictated by Washington, London, and their satellites inside the EU.”
According to the minister, it is Poland and the Baltic States – Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia – that are “executing on the ground the aim set by the US to weaken Russia, deliver it a strategic defeat.”
Some in the West “are already discussing ‘decolonization’ of Russia, meaning the dismembering of our country,” Lavrov said, warning that “this is playing with fire. There can be no doubts about that.”
“I hope reasonable people will step away from unconditional support for the neo-Nazi regime that the West itself created,” he added.
The foreign minister suggested that the words of the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, who acknowledged earlier this week that “in the near term,” Ukraine will not be able to recapture the territories it lost to Russia, were a “step forward to understanding the reality on the ground.”
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has been pressing his Western backers for F-16 warplanes for months, arguing they are crucial for defending Ukrainian airspace amid Russia’s missile campaign targeting military facilities and energy infrastructure.
At the G20 summit last week, US President Biden Joe Biden said that Washington would support efforts by the UK, the Netherlands, and other European countries to train Ukrainian pilots to fly the F-16. White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan stated at the event that the US “will work with our allies to determine when planes will be delivered, who will be delivering them, and how many.”
Several outlets reported that the jets will not be provided by the US, but that the Biden administration would instead allow its allies to transfer their F-16s to Kiev.
Moscow has repeatedly warned that deliveries of more sophisticated weapons to Ukraine by the US and its allies could cross its ‘red lines’, leading to a major spike in the hostilities. Russia has said that the provision of arms, intelligence sharing, and training to Kiev’s troops makes Western nations de facto parties to the conflict.
NBC News/RT