Russia Smashes Kyiv – A Russian missile slammed into the top floor of a 9-story apartment building in Ukraine’s capital Kyiv early Sunday morning, killing one person and injuring several more, according to Ukrainian officials.
The attack in Kyiv was just one of dozens of long-range Russian strikes over the weekend that targeted places in northern and western Ukraine that are not often hit. Some Russian attacks were aimed at military facilities.
But others, like the one in Kyiv, hit civilian areas and had no apparent military objective.
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The Russian barrage came as President Biden and other leaders of the Group of Seven nations were meeting in Germany. Biden said the G-7 nations would ban imports of Russian gold in the latest move designed to squeeze Russia’s economy.
Ukrainian officials, meanwhile, said Russia’s airstrikes were a direct message to the leaders at the summit.
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba posted a tweet saying the “G7 summit must respond with more sanctions on Russia and more heavy arms for Ukraine.”
In Kyiv, the Russians hit the top of a residential building in the center of the city just after 6 a.m. local time, rattling the capital and sending a plume of smoke into the sky.
In a separate attack, two Russian missiles hit near the central Ukrainian city of Cherkasy, killing one person and wounding several more, Ukrainian officials said.
Most of the recent fighting in Ukraine has been in the country’s east, where Russian troops are trying to take over all of the Donbas region.
Ukrainian forces now hold only a few remaining cities and towns in the area. There is also daily fighting in the south, though Russia has not been attempting to make any major advances in this region, and the fighting is at a lower level.
However, Russia unleashed more than 40 long-range airstrikes over the weekend. The Russians fired from neighboring Belarus, north of Ukraine, and hit targets in northern and western Ukraine.
Fresh Sanctions
Russian gold will no longer be allowed to enter the UK, Canada, US and Japan in the latest round of sanctions imposed on the country.
The new measures, designed ratchet up the pressure on Putin’s war machine, were unveiled as nations meet for the 48th G7 Summit in Germany on Sunday.
Gold is a major Russian export, worth £12.6 billion to the Russian economy in 2021. Its value to the Russian elite has also increased in recent months with oligarchs rushing to buy gold bullion in an attempt to avoid the financial impact of western sanctions.
London is a major global gold trading hub and UK sanctions, which will be the first of their kind to be implemented against Russia anywhere in the world, will have a huge impact on Putin’s ability to raise funds.
Given’s London central role in the international gold trade and the parallel US, Japanese and Canadian action, the UK Government says this measure will have global reach, shutting the commodity out of formal international markets. At the G7, the Prime Minister will urge other leaders to join us to further isolate Russia from the international financial system.
UK import restrictions now apply to over £13.5 billion worth of Russian exports. The UK has also sanctioned more than 1,000 individuals and more than 100 entities since Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
Commenting on the move, the Prime Minister said: “The measures we have announced today will directly hit Russian oligarchs and strike at the heart of Putin’s war machine.
“Putin is squandering his dwindling resources on this pointless and barbaric war. He is bankrolling his ego at the expense of both the Ukrainian and Russian people. We need to starve the Putin regime of its funding. The UK and our allies are doing just that.”
Russia Smashes Kyiv
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