CONFLICTSUKRAINE
Ukraine updates: Zelenskyy reports attack on Kupiansk museum
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President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said one person was killed and others were still trapped under rubble after a missile hit a museum in Kupiansk. DW has the latest.
https://p.dw.com/p/4QVy7
Russian forces struck a museum in the center of the eastern Ukrainian city of Kupiansk on Tuesday, killing one person, wounding 10 more and burying others under rubble, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
“So far we know of a dead museum worker and 10 injured. There are more people under the rubble. The recovery from the shelling continues. All necessary agencies are involved,” Zelenskyy wrote on the Telegram online messenger.
The regional governor in Kharkiv said the damage was caused as part of a barrage of S-300 missiles used to attack the city near the front lines.
Zelenskyy posted a video from the site showing a ruined building and emergency workers examining the scene.
“The terrorist country is doing everything to destroy us completely,” Zelenskyy said. “Our history, our culture, our people.”
Rescuers and police officers work at a site of a local museum heavily damaged by a Russian missile strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in the town of Kupiansk, Kharkiv region, Ukraine April 25, 2023.Rescuers and police officers work at a site of a local museum heavily damaged by a Russian missile strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in the town of Kupiansk, Kharkiv region, Ukraine April 25, 2023.
Zelenskyy shared a video showing emergency workers at the sceneImage: REUTERS
Kharkiv’s governor Oleh Syniehubov said that three people were hospitalized, seven suffered only minor injuries and two others were missing and believed trapped under the rubble.
Kupiansk, in northeastern Ukraine not far south from the Russian border, was captured by Russian forces early in the invasion but was reclaimed by Ukrainian troops as part of their surprise September counteroffensive. Fighting continues near the city, which lies just west of Ukrainian territory still under Russian control.
Ukraine asked vulnerable residents to leave the city as a precaution in March, anticipating a possible renewed Russian attack.
Here are some of the other headlines concerning Russia’s war in Ukraine on Tuesday, April 25:
Sweden asks Russian diplomats to leave on suspicion of spying
Sweden says it is expelling five employees with the Russian Embassy in Stockholm, saying they are suspected of espionage.
Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom said the diplomats’ activities were “incompatible” with their diplomatic status. He said Russia’s ambassador to Sweden, Viktor Tatarintsev, had been informed of the decision.
The Russian Embassy has so far declined to comment on the move.
A year ago, Sweden expelled three Russian Embassy staff in a similar move to several other countries.
Sweden’s SAPO domestic security agency has said that “every third Russian diplomat in Sweden is an intelligence officer.”
Ukraine says it’s frequently raiding across Dnieper river in Kherson
In another battleground city far to the south of Kupiansk, Ukrainian officials say they are frequently raiding the Russian-held eastern bank of the Dnieper river near Kherson, trying to dislodge Russian troops and hamper their combat-readiness ahead of a much-touted counteroffensive.
Yuriy Sobolevskiy, deputy head of the Kherson regional administration, said on Ukrainian television that the military was trying to lay similar groundwork to when it liberated the western bank of the Dnieper in the Kherson area in November.
“Our military visits the left [eastern] bank very often, conducting raids. The Ukrainian armed forces are working, and working very effectively,” Sobolevskiy said. “The results will come as they did on the right bank of the Kherson region when, thanks to a complex and long operation, they were able to liberate our territories with minimal losses for our military.”
Russia seized Kherson soon after its invasion but lost control of it late last year.
The US research group the Institute for the Study of War, which regularly tries to map the front lines of the conflict, also reported last week that it had noted adequate evidence to suggest Ukrainian forces had established a foothold on the eastern bank of the Dnieper in the region.
Russia deploys new T-14 Armata tanks in Ukraine: RIA
Russia has begun using its new T-14 Armata battle tanks to fire on Ukrainian positions “but they have not yet participated in direct assault operations,” state news agency RIA reported on Tuesday, citing a source close to the matter.
A Russian T-14 Armata tank pictured during a 2022 Moscow military parade. A Russian T-14 Armata tank pictured during a 2022 Moscow military parade.
The new battle tank was on show at last year’s Moscow military parade commemorating World War IIImage: Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP Photo/picture alliance/dpa
RIA said the tanks had been fitted with extra flank protection and that crews had undergone “combat coordination” at training grounds in Ukraine.
The T-14’s turret is unmanned, with crew able to control the armaments remotely from within.
The next-generation tank was designed in 2014 but integration into the military has been slow. Reports suggest problems with mass-production, combat readiness, and field maintenance.
British military intelligence said last year that there were problems with the vehicle’s engine and thermal imaging systems and that the vehicle would not yet be considered to be combat-ready by normal standards.
“Production is probably only in the low tens, while commanders are unlikely to trust the vehicle in combat,” the British military said. “Eleven years in development, the program has been dogged with delays, reduction in planned fleet size, and reports of manufacturing problems.”
Russian officials also played down the need to deploy T-14’s in the field earlier in the war, saying the older T-72’s and T-90’s remained effective. But in recent months, amid rumors the project might be scrapped and significant armor losses for Russia in Ukraine, the T-14 has regularly featured on state television and been spoken of in more positive terms.
msh/dj (AFP, AP, Reuters)
