Mayor Vitali Klitschko wrote in a post on Telegram: “Explosion in the city. Do not leave the shelters until the alarm goes off!”
by Chris York | February 7, 2024, 7:59 am
File photo of Kyiv. PHOTO: AF
Russian forces have launched another mass missile attack on cities across Ukraine with several explosions heard in Kyiv on Wednesday morning.
Kyiv Post reporters were woken by an air raid alert just before 6am.
Two loud explosions were heard around an hour later, and at least two more 45 minutes after that.
Kyiv authorities said air defenses were working and emergency services were called to te Dnipro district of the capital.
Mayor Vitali Klitschko wrote in a post on Telegram: “Explosion in the city. Do not leave the shelters until the alarm goes off!”
Explosions have also been reported in Kharkiv and various groups of missiles are being tracked across the country.
At the time of writing, the attack is ongoing.
This is a breaking news story and will be updated regularly…
Chris is Kyiv Post’s Head of News and has over a decade of experience as a former senior editor and reporter at HuffPost UK. He has an MA in Conflict, Development, and Security and after a stint learning Russian, is now trying to forget it and learn Ukrainian instead.
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OPINION: Is Tucker Carlson Visiting Moscow to Give Putin a Boost in Russia’s Time of Need?
Going to Moscow to interview Putin in 2024 is like visiting Berlin in 1940 to speak with Hitler. But pro-Russia Republicans think that’s just “journalism” because they want to hear “both sides.”
US conservative political commentator Tucker Carlson speaks at the Turning Point Action USA conference in West Palm Beach, Florida, on July 15, 2023. (Photo by GIORGIO VIERA / AFP)
While Russia threatens American journalists with prison and House Pro-Russian Republicans deny aid to Ukraine, former Fox News TV personality Tucker Carlson is cozying up to Putin during his current trip to Moscow.
Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson recently completed his speaking tour of Canada. Apparently, he wants to “liberate” us from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Carlson is now visiting Moscow to convene with the paragon of freedom and democracy himself: Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The last few weeks have somehow gone from terrible to worse for Russia’s dictator. A Mediazona investigation confirmed the identities of more than 43, 460 Russian soldierskilled in Ukraine. The wives of mobilized troops have begun protesting against Putin. CIA director Bill Burns also stated that the full-scale invasion has crippled the Russian economy, left Russia beholden to China, and helped the US recruit spies deep behind enemy lines.
It only gets worse.
On Jan. 25, Turkey finally ratified Sweden’s NATO membership after nearly 2 years of delays. In an interview with CNN Turk, US Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland stated that Ankara could be welcomed back into the F-35 family if it transfers its Russian-made S-400 air defense systems to Kyiv.
She also insinuated that the US and Turkey are working together to provide Turkish-built 155mm artillery shells to Ukraine.
Kathimerini reports that the White House is using the Defense Security Cooperation Agency’s Excess Defense Articles mechanism to transfer military assistance to Ukraine through Greece. In sum, Washington will provide Athens with new equipment and Greece will transfer its old hardware to Kyiv.
Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban, widely regarded as Russia’s Trojan horse in NATO, dropped his veto and voted in favor of the European Union’s €50 billion ($54 billion) Ukraine Facility to fund Kyiv through 2027.
Germany also passed its annual budget which includes more than $8 billion in military assistance to Ukraine for 2024.
Bulgaria began transferring the 100 armored personnel carriers it pledged to Kyiv last November. The Netherlands will send an additional six F-16s to Ukraine, raising the total number it will transfer to 24.
Even Ecuador announced it would provide Russian-made military equipment to Ukraine as part of an agreement with Washington, provoking a dispute with Moscow in the process.
Armenia, a CSTO member state and one of a handful of countries that supportedRussia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 became the 124th party to the International Criminal Court. Given the ICC’s arrest warrant against Putin, and both Yerevan’s criticism of Moscow as well as its pivot to France and India, the Russian dictator is unlikely to visit Moscow’s longtime ally any time soon.
Meanwhile, Bloomberg reports that a sizable amount of Russia’s oil refining capacity is likely to be offline following a Ukrainian drone strike at a Lukoil facility in Volgograd. Even worse, the Financial Times announced that the West is considering using Moscow’s estimated $300 billion in frozen assets as collateral to guarantee loans to Kyiv.
Ukraine, a country without a navy, has sunk ~20 percent [or about one-third, if you agree with Ukraine’s General Staff] of the Russian Black Sea Fleet. Last week, it destroyed the Ivanovets missile corvette with naval drones. Kyiv’s success in the Black Sea region has forced Russia to relocate its ships from Crimea to Novorossiysk.
It also enabled exports from the port of Odesa, formerly subject to a Russian blockade and dependent on a Turkish-backed grain deal, to reach pre-war levels in January 2024.
The list of bad news for Putin goes on and on.
Instead of building on the momentum, aligning with the White House, the Senate, and America’s allies, and helping Ukraine win the war, pro-Russia Republicans repeatedly throw the Kremlin lifelines.
On Feb. 3, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson announced that Congress would vote on assistance to Israel in a bill separate from the US-Mexico border deal and military aid to Ukraine.
Carlson’s pro-Russia Republican associates advance Putin’s interests in Congress. The self-proclaimed “free-speech absolutist” himself normalizes the Russian dictator who spent a quarter century invading his neighbors, jailing his critics, and exterminating his opponents. Business as usual.
From denying Bashar al-Assad’s chemical weapons attacks against civilians to suggesting that the US blew up the Nord Stream pipeline, Carlson has parroted the Kremlin’s talking points, disinformation, and propaganda for years. He also whitewashed, justified and supported Russia’s invasion of Ukraine under the pretext of countering “NATO expansion” since the beginning of the war. Carlson even dared to blame America for it.
Putin’s propagandists themselves, the same regime mouthpieces who call for genocide in Ukraine, nuking London, Warsaw, and Berlin, and destroying America, have championed Carlson for standing firmly with Russia against the West.
Anyone who watches Russian television is aware of how they adore Carlson, refer to Trump as “our president,” and celebrate every time the Republican party sabotages military aid to Kyiv.
Despite supporting Russia’s war against Ukraine, America, and the West and visiting Moscow in the year 2024, Carlson still portrays himself as an American “patriot.”
Meanwhile, international journalists and Russian expats who criticize Putin, oppose the war, or campaign for a democratic Russia are spied on by the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) and banned from entering the country for life. Some are even murdered abroad.
Today, two American journalists are imprisoned in Russia without due process for simply practicing journalism. Radio Free Europe’s Alsu Kurmasheva is liable for imprisonment of up to five years for “failing to register as a foreign agent” and spreading “false information” about the Russian military. The Wall Street Journal’s Evan Gershkovich, who spent nearly a year in pre-trial detention, faces up to 20 years in prison on bogus charges.
Traveling to Moscow to interview a dictator like Putin in the year 2024 is like visiting Berlin in 1940 to speak with Hitler. America wasn’t officially at war with Nazi Germany, but it was possible – some might even say inevitable – given Washington’s diplomatic and military support for Great Britain. To pro-Russia Republicans, that’s just “journalism” because it’s important to hear both sides of the story.
America’s most infamous news anchor is no stranger to controversy. He stirred it for years. This increased viewership and drove ratings at Fox News. Carlson’s lies eventually cost his employer $787 million in a settlement deal with Dominion Voting Systems. Naturally, he also lost his job.
Whatever his reasons for visiting Moscow, this episode will likely cost America, Ukraine, and the West a lot more than that.
The views expressed are the author’s and not necessarily of Kyiv Post.
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The invaders will be thanking this man for their progress in Avdiivka:
“Anyone who watches Russian television is aware of how they adore Carlson, refer to Trump as “our president,” and celebrate every time the Republican party sabotages military aid to Kyiv.”
Trump has stated that Carlson is a candidate for VP. It is certain that whoever does get that job will have the same virulent hatred of Ukraine that Trump has.
Breaking :
Russia’s Closing Grip on Avdiivka Now Deemed ‘Critical’. :-
https://www.kyivpost.com/post/27704
Haley lost in Nevada. Looks like Zelensky is going to fail miserably with his strategy. Even before the US blockade the military aid provided was not enough to enable Ukraine win this war.
No fault can be attributed to Zel or Ukraine.
EXCEPT for the failure to build an army of sufficient size to defend against such a gigantic horde of savages.
Zel and Zal’s strategy initially was to prevent Ukraine from an exact repeat of putler’s genocide on Chechnya, which was the explicit intention.
After winning the battle for Kyiv against all odds, it expanded into a new strategy to defeat orc nazi vermin and return their land to its legal borders.
Zal produced a list of what was required. Almost exactly 20% of that actually turned up.
That is why the counteroffensive failed.
Specially: no modern jets, no long range AAM’s and only 20% of the required HIMARS launch systems.
Furthermore, the Storms, although brilliant, need to be supplied in huge numbers. Unfortunately it takes several days and £375k just to produce one.
The US has 1,000’s of long range fires; including ATACMS. Who knows when or if they will arrive?
The Scholz strategy appears to be: “we will provide you with good stuff to help you defend yourselves, but the the potential winners; namely Taurus missiles, will not be provided.”
At the moment the US’s Ukraine policy is entirely in the hands of Trumpkov. We are getting a taste of his presidency before it even happens.
Just to hold off the vermin, the UK, Poland and Germany need to send ground forces to Ukraine this year. The chances of that appear to be zero.