A visit by several African leaders to Kyiv on Friday to discuss their peace initiative was overshadowed when Russian forces sent an aerial barrage at Ukraine’s capital, with air raid sirens sounded and explosions heard on the city’s outskirts.
(Bloomberg) — A visit by several African leaders to Kyiv on Friday to discuss their peace initiative was overshadowed when Russian forces sent an aerial barrage at Ukraine’s capital, with air raid sirens sounded and explosions heard on the city’s outskirts.
Ukraine’s air defense said it downed 12 missiles, including six ballistic Kinzhal and six Kalibr cruise missiles. At least three people were reported injured and dozens of private houses and other buildings damaged by debris, the interior ministry said. The African delegation is expected to meet with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy before traveling on to St. Petersburg for talks with Russian officials over the weekend. So far there are few details of their plan, the latest in a string of foreign offers to mediate the almost 16-month-old conflict or to host peace talks.
German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius pledged his country would give Ukraine 64 Patriot air-defense missiles. Germany “is of course ready to take on” responsibility on NATO’s eastern flank, he said in Brussels before meeting counterparts from the alliance. The International Atomic Energy Agency said Ukraine’s occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant has sufficient water to stay safe “for some time” after the Kakhovka dam blast. As its counteroffensive pushes on, Ukraine said it achieved a “partial success” in the Zaporizhzhia region and in the border area near Donetsk in the east.
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