Ukraine parliament cancels session over threat of Russian attack

Kyiv shuttered parliament on Friday for one day, citing a potential Russian missile attack after President Vladimir Putin issued a warning to the West by launching a new intermediate-range missile at Ukraine.

Moscow’s 33-month invasion of Ukraine escalated this week with Russia’s first launch of a nuclear-capable mid-range ballistic missile at the city of Dnipro on Thursday.

The Kremlin said Friday that a hawkish address by Putin, in which he threatened to strike the West and said he was “ready for any scenario,” had been “understood” in the United States.

Putin had said Moscow reserved the right to strike countries that allow Kyiv to hit Russian territory with their weapons, after the US and the UK gave the green light for Kyiv to do so.

NATO and Ukrainian officials are due to meet Tuesday in Brussels to discuss the escalation, diplomatic sources told AFP.

In Kyiv, which is frequently targeted by Russian drones and missiles, parliament cancelled its usual Friday questions to the government over fears of a strike.

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The central area where it is located houses the  presidency, the central bank and other government buildings. It has until now been spared of bombings — unlike the rest of the capital — and access is strictly controlled by the army.

Several MPs said they were working remotely and that Friday’s session had been scrapped.

‘Increased risk of attacks’

“There are signals of an increased risk of attacks on the government district in the coming days. Also in Kyiv and Ukraine in general,” MP Yevgenia Kravchuk told AFP.

The presidency, however, assured its office was working “as usual in compliance with standard security measures: if the alarm sounds, we will be in shelters.”

The apparent heightened risk comes two days after the embassies of several countries, including the US, said they were closed, citing the threat of a Russian attack.

In Moscow meanwhile, Russian defence minister Andrei Belousov said Moscow’s advances in the war-battered eastern Ukraine had “accelerated” and also “ground down” Kyiv’s best units.

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“We have, in fact, derailed the entire 2025 campaign,” Defence Minister Andrei Belousov said of the Ukrainian army in a video published by the Russian defence ministry.

Russia later said its forces had “liberated” the frontline village of Novodmytrivka, about 10 kilometres (six miles) north of Kurakhove, an embattled civilian hub in the eastern Donetsk region that the Krmelin claims is part of Russia.

Observers of the conflict say Moscow and Kyiv racing to gain battlefield advantages ahead of January 2025, when Donald Trump — who has vowed to end the war without saying how — is due to take office in the US.

Belousov spoke a day after Putin had addressed Russians, saying the war in Ukraine, which he launched on February 24 2024, had taken on “elements of a global character.”

Putin said Russia had hit Dnipro with a new type of ballistic missile called the Oreshkin and that Moscow could launch more such missiles depending on “the actions of the United States and its satellites.”

The attack, which apparently targeted an aerospace manufacturing plant in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro, sparked immediate condemnation from Kyiv’s allies.

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‘Anything can happen’

It also shocked residents of Dnipro, which has suffered routine Russian bombardments throughout the invasion.

Vladimir Riga, 66, was on his way to work when he saw “an explosion”.

He said the attack damaged a rehabilitation centre and AFP saw workers boarding up the windows of the damaged building after the attack.

Asked if it marked a new turn in the conflict and if he feared an escalation, Riga said, “of course I am afraid. Anything can happen.”

The Russian attack also provoked calls for calm from Moscow’s allies, including China.

‘Terrible escalation’

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Friday described Russia’s deployment of the medium-range missile as a “terrible escalation.”

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The Russian attack came after Ukraine recently fired US- and UK-supplied missiles at Russian territory for the first time.

Washington said it had granted Kyiv permission to fire long-range weapons at Russian territory as a response to the Kremlin’s deployment of thousands of North Korean troops on Ukraine’s border.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has called for a strong response from world leaders to Russia’s use of the new missile.

Russian strikes meanwhile killed at least two civilians in the eastern Ukrainian city of Sumy near the border with Russia and one person in the Donetsk region city of Kramatorksk, local authorities said.

– By: © Agence France-Presse