Russia earlier this month named General Sergei Suvorikin as overall commander of what Moscow calls its “special operation” in Ukraine. Suvorikin served in Syria and Chechnya where Russian forces pounded cities in a scorched earth policy against its foes.
Nicknamed “General Armageddon” by the Russian media because of his alleged toughness, his appointment was followed by the biggest wave of missile strikes against Ukraine since Moscow invaded on Feb 24.
Russia carried out its latest strikes on Tuesday after the United States warned it would hold Moscow accountable for any war crimes.
Moscow denies targeting civilians. Its defence ministry has said it is carrying out attacks on military targets and energy infrastructure across Ukraine using high-precision weapons.
In the port city of Mykolaiv, a Reuters witness said they had heard three explosions in the early hours of Tuesday.
A missile had completely destroyed one wing of a building in the downtown area, leaving a massive crater, they said. A fire crew was seen pulling the dead body of a man from the rubble.
“In Mykolaiv, the enemy destroyed a residential building with S-300 missiles. A person died. There was also a strike at the flower market, the chestnut park. I wonder what the Russian terrorists were fighting against at these absolutely peaceful facilities?” Zelenskyy said.
The Russian strikes followed advances by Ukrainian forces in the east and south and came after an Oct 8 blast on a bridge linking mainland Russia to Crimea – the peninsula Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
US President Joe Biden’s press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Monday that the White House “strongly condemns Russia’s missile strikes” and spoke of Putin’s “brutality”.
Putin sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine on Feb 24 in what he called a “special operation” to root out what it calls dangerous nationalists.
Ukrainian forces have mounted stiff resistance, with the help of arms supplied by the United States and its allies, who have also imposed sweeping sanctions on Russia in an effort to force it to withdraw.
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