Russia Ukraine War News Highlights: Russia strikes Kyiv for first time in weeks as battle rages in east
Russia Ukraine War Highlights: Russia struck Ukraine’s capital Kyiv with missiles early on Sunday for the first time in more than a month, while Ukrainian officials said a counter-attack on the main battlefield in the east had retaken half of the city of Sievierodonetsk. Dark smoke could be seen from many miles away after the attack on two outlying districts of Kyiv. Ukraine said the strike hit a rail car repair works; Moscow said it had destroyed tanks sent by Eastern European countries to Ukraine.
Control of Ukraine’s city of Sievierodonetsk is split in half between Ukrainian and Russian forces, Serhiy Gaidai, governor or the Luhansk region where the eastern city is located, said on Sunday. “It had been a difficult situation, the Russians controlled 70% of the city, but over the past two days they have been pushed back,” Gaidai said on Ukrainian television. “The city is now, more or less, divided in half.” Reuters could not immediately verify Gaidai’s claims.
Meanwhile, the US Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink said the US will back an international war crimes probe during a trip to the Kyiv suburb of Borodyanka, which was under siege in the earliest phase of Russia’s invasion. On Twitter Brink wrote, “Bearing witness to atrocities committed in Russia’s brutal war, including families killed in their own homes, only strengthens my resolve to do everything we can to hold the perpetrators of these awful crimes to account.”