KYIV —
Russia said Saturday that it had
unleashed hypersonic missiles against an arms depot in Ukraine, the first use
of the next-generation weapons in combat, after Kyiv's embattled leader pressed
for "meaningful" talks to end a conflict now in its fourth week.
اضافة اعلان
Moscow also said its troops had broken
Ukrainian defenses to enter the strategic southern port city of Mariupol, and
destroyed radio and intelligence sites just outside Odessa.
If confirmed, the use of Russia's new
Kinzhal (Dagger) hypersonic missiles, which can elude most defense systems,
would mark a new escalation in Russia's campaign to force Ukraine to abandon
hopes of closer ties with the West.
Ukrainian air force spokesman Yuri Ignat
told AFP that the weapons depot in Deliatyn, a village near the border with
Romania, had indeed been hit but "we have no information of the type of
missile".
"There has been damage, destruction,
and the detonation of munitions," he said. "They are using all the
missiles in their arsenal against us."
Ukraine officials also admitted they had
"temporarily" lost access to the Sea of Azov, though Russia has
effectively controlled the coastline for weeks after surrounding Mariupol.
Russian President
Vladimir Putin, who
unveiled the Kinzhal missile in 2018, has termed it "an ideal weapon"
that flies at 10 times the speed of sound — analysts say Russia is leading the
hypersonics race, followed by China and the US.
'Time to meet'
Moscow's announcement came hours after
Ukrainian President
Volodymyr Zelensky again appealed for peace, urging Russia
to accept "meaningful" talks in his latest Facebook video.
"This is the time to meet, to talk,
time for renewing territorial integrity and fairness for Ukraine," he
said.
"Otherwise, Russia's losses will be
such that several generations will not recover."
Ukraine claimed Saturday that a Russian
general had been killed by strikes on an airfield outside Kherson, just north
of
Crimea, saying he was the fifth top-ranking officer killed since the
invasion began on February 24.
Fierce resistance has managed to stall
Russian forces outside Kviv and several other cities in the east, making them
vulnerable to Ukrainian attacks against supply lines.
Britain's defense ministry said Saturday
that Russia has been forced to "change its operational approach and is now
pursuing a strategy of attrition."
"This is likely to involve the
indiscriminate use of firepower resulting in increased civilian
casualties," it warned.
But as in previous negotiations there
appeared to be little progress in reaching a ceasefire, with Putin accusing
Ukraine of "numerous war crimes" during a call late Friday with
French President
Emmanuel Macron.
British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss accused
Moscow of using the talks as a "smokescreen" as it carried out "appalling
atrocities," saying she was "very skeptical" they would produce
a breakthrough.
Fighting rages
Friday's attack on the arms depot was the
latest strike in western Ukraine, which until a few days ago had remained
relatively unscathed by Russia's push toward key cities from the north and
east.
On Friday,
Russian forces destroyed an
aircraft repair plant near the airport of Lviv, where millions of people have
fled as rockets and shelling continue to rain down on Kyiv.
In Mariupol, rescuers were still
searching for hundreds of people trapped under the wreckage of a bombed theatre
where over 1,000 people had been seeking shelter when it was struck on
Wednesday.
There was still no information about
potential fatalities, Zelensky said, but 130 people had been saved so far —
some "heavily injured."
"This is no longer Mariupol, it's
hell," said resident Tamara Kavunenko, 58. "The streets are full with
the bodies of civilians."
Russian forces also carried out a
large-scale air strike on Mykolaiv in the south on Friday, killing dozens of
young Ukrainian ensigns at their brigade headquarters.
"No fewer than 200 soldiers were
sleeping in the barracks" at the time of the attack, a Ukrainian
serviceman on the ground, 22-year-old Maxim, told AFP.
"At least 50 bodies have been
recovered, but we do not know how many others are in the rubble," he said.
'Trapped'
More than 3.25 million refugees have fled
Ukraine and countless others have sought havens in the country's west, though
Putin said his forces were doing "everything possible" to avoid
civilian casualties during his latest call with Macron, according to the
Kremlin.
But Zelensky accused Russian forces of
blocking aid around hotspot areas.
"I escaped war to reach stability, only
to find myself trapped in another war," said Mazen Dammag, a Yemeni who
fled his war-torn homeland nearly six years ago for Ukraine.
He and several friends hired taxis to take
them from Odessa to
Poland, some 1,000km north, and eventually Bremen in
Germany, where he spoke with AFP by video.
Russia's ally China told US President Joe
Biden on Friday that the war "in no one's interest", but showed no
sign of giving in to US pressure to join Western condemnation of Russia.
Biden warned his Chinese counterpart
Xi Jinping of "consequences" for any financial or military aid for
Russia, a move that could turn the standoff into a global confrontation.
Putin appears undeterred by further threats
or sanctions, holding a triumphalist rally in Moscow on Friday to mark eight
years since Russia's seizure of Crimea, saying his goal in Ukraine was "to
rid these people from their suffering and genocide”.
Talks stall
In a call to German Chancellor
Olaf Scholz,
Putin accused Ukrainian authorities of stalling talks by "putting forward
more and more unrealistic proposals".
Russia wants Ukraine to disarm and disavow
all Western alliances, in particular by joining NATO or seeking closer
integration with the EU — steps that Kyiv says would turn it into a vassal
state of Moscow.
Russia's top negotiator said Friday that
Moscow and Kyiv had brought their positions "as close as possible" on
a proposal for Ukraine to become a neutral state.
But Mikhailo Podolyak, an advisor to
Zelensky taking part in the negotiations, said his country's position had not
budged.
Switzerland said Saturday that despite its
longstanding neutrality, it would impose the same sanctions against Russia as
the
EU.
President Ignazio Cassis said his country
would not stand by in the "confrontation between democracy and
barbarism," saying the war was being driven by "a devastating madness
which shatters all the principles and values of our civilization”.
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