Russia threatens to step up Kyiv attacks over Ukraine sorties

KYIV • The Kremlin warned yesterday that it would step up missile attacks on Kyiv in response to Ukrainian sorties across the Russian border, a day after the flagship vessel of Moscow's Black Sea naval fleet sank in an apparent missile strike.

The threat came as Russian long-range missiles targeted a military factory near the Ukrainian capital that may have been where the Neptune missiles that Kyiv says were used against the Moskva warship were manufactured.

The Defence 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.

"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.

On Thursday, Moscow accused Kyiv of sending helicopters to bomb the village of Klimovo in Russia's Bryansk region, injuring eight people. Russia said its forces shot down a Ukrainian Mi-8 helicopter involved in the attack, as well as a Sukhoi-27 jet.

Later the same day, the head of Russia's Belgorod region said a village close to the border was shelled by Ukraine, though residents from the village and another nearby had been evacuated. Kyiv has denied the attacks, accusing Russia of staging the incidents to stir up "anti-Ukrainian hysteria" in the country.

The Moskva missile cruiser had been leading Russia's naval effort in the seven-week conflict, and the circumstances around its sinking and the fate of its crew remain murky. Russia's Defence Ministry said a blast on the vessel was the result of exploding ammunition and that the resulting damage had caused it to "lose its balance" as it was being towed to port.

The Black Sea Fleet had been blockading the besieged southern port city of Mariupol, where Russian officials say they are in full control. According to some reports, the fighting in Mariupol has subsided and residents have started coming outside in search of food, water and an escape route.

But the Ukrainian presidency said "fighting was continuing along the entire front line" in Donetsk, of which Mariupol is the second-largest city. In a report issued by the presidency, Kyiv said two people had been killed and two more wounded in the eastern Luhansk region, while three had been killed and seven wounded in the neighbouring Donetsk region. In more violence, seven people were killed and over two dozen injured in an attack on buses ferrying civilians from the war-torn east.

In a late-night address on Thursday, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Donbass is the main target for Russia. "It's Donbass that Russia wants to destroy. It is the Luhansk and Donetsk regions that Russian troops are destroying so that only stones remain and so there are no people left at all."

But rainy weather in the Donbass region could favour Ukraine's army, a senior Pentagon official said on Thursday. "The fact that the ground is softer will make it harder for them (the Russians) to do anything off of paved highways," said the official, who spoke under condition of anonymity.

The weather had already played an important role in Ukraine's north at the start of the invasion, when the fact that the ground was not sufficiently frozen forced Russian tanks to circulate in long convoys on paved roads, making them vulnerable to the Ukrainian forces' Javelin anti-tank systems.

Meanwhile, Moscow, which invaded Ukraine partly because of deepening ties between Kyiv and Nato, yesterday warned of unspecified "consequences" should Finland and Sweden join the US-led military alliance. Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev warned on Thursday that Russia would deploy nuclear weapons close to the three Baltic states and Scandinavia in such a situation.

But a Finnish Cabinet minister said yesterday it was "highly likely" that Finland would apply for Nato membership anyway.

In more sabre-rattling, Russia warned the US that there will be "unpredictable consequences" if Washington keeps arming Ukraine, The Washington Post reported. "We call on the United States and its allies to stop the irresponsible militarisation of Ukraine, which implies unpredictable consequences for regional and international security," Russia said in a diplomatic note.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS