Russia hits Kyiv with missiles; Putin warns West on arms
Russia took aim Sunday at Western military supplies for Ukraine, launching airstrikes on Kyiv that it claimed destroyed tanks donated from abroad, as Vladimir Putin warned that any Western deliveries of longer-range rocket systems would prompt Moscow to hit “objects that we haven’t yet struck," Associated Press reported.
The Russian leader’s cryptic threat of military escalation did not specify what the new targets might be. It came days after the United States announced plans to deliver $700 million of security assistance for Ukraine that includes four precision-guided, medium-range rocket systems, as well as helicopters, Javelin anti-tank systems, radars, tactical vehicles and more.
Military analysts say Russia hopes to overrun Ukraine’s embattled eastern industrial Donbas region, where Russia-backed separatists have fought the Ukrainian government since 2014, before the arrival of any US weapons that might turn the tide. The Pentagon said last week that it will take at least three weeks to get the US weapons onto the battlefield.
Ukraine said the missiles aimed at the capital hit a train repair shop. Elsewhere, Russian airstrikes in the eastern city of Druzhkivka destroyed buildings and left at least one person dead, a Ukrainian official said. Residents described waking to the sound of missile strikes, with rubble and glass falling down around them.
“It was like in a horror movie,” Svitlana Romashkina said.
The Russian Defense Ministry said air-launched precision missiles were used to destroy workshops in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, including in Druzhkivka, that were repairing damaged Ukrainian military equipment, according to Associated Press.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s General Staff said Russian forces fired five X-22 cruise missiles from the Caspian Sea toward Kyiv, and one was destroyed by air defenses. Four other missiles hit “infrastructure facilities,” but Ukraine said there were no casualties.
Nuclear plant operator Energoatom said one cruise missile buzzed close to the Pivdennoukrainsk nuclear plant, 350 kilometers (220 miles) to the south, seemingly on its way to Kyiv. It warned of the possibility of a nuclear catastrophe if even one missile fragment had hit the facility.
The missiles that struck Kyiv destroyed T-72 tanks supplied by Eastern European countries and other armored vehicles, the Russian Defense Ministry said on the Telegram app.
Ukraine’s railway authority subsequently led reporters on a guided tour of a rail car repair plant in eastern Kyiv that it said was hit by four missiles. The authority said no military equipment had been stored there, and Associated Press reporters saw no remnants of any in the facility’s destroyed building.
“There were no tanks, and you can just be witness to this.” said Serhiy Leshchenko, an adviser to the Ukrainian president’s office.
However, a government adviser said on national TV that military infrastructure also was targeted. AP reporters saw a building burning in an area near the destroyed rail car plant. Two residents of that district said the warehouse-type structure that billowed smoke was part of a tank-repair facility. Police blocking access to the site told an AP reporter that military authorities had banned the taking of images there, Associated Press reported.
Speaker Sapkota holds meeting with PM Deuba
Speaker Agni Prasad Sapkota held a meeting with Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba at the latter's residence in Baluwatar on Sunday.
During the meeting, the duo discussed appointment of chairman at the State Affairs and Good Governance Committee of the House of Representatives and the leadership of Public Accounts Committee.
Likewise, they also discussed the pending bills including the Citizenship Bill and the appointment of deputy speaker, the Speaker's Secretariat said.
CPN (Unified Socialist) submits names of its ministers to Prime Minister Deuba
The CPN (Unified Socialist) submitted the names of its new ministers to Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba.
A Secretariat meeting held on Sunday recalled the ministers representing the party in the Deuba-led government and recommended the new names.
According to a leader, party Chairman Madhav Nepal submitted the list of the names to Prime Minister Deuba this afternoon.
Here is the list of new ministers:
1. Metmani Chaudhary- Ministry of Urban Development
2. Bhawani Khapung- Ministry of Health and Population
3. Jeevan Ram Shrestha- Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation
4. Sher Bahadur Kunwar- Ministry of Employment and Social Security
5. Hira Chandra KC- State Minister for Health
The party has recalled Ram Kumari Jhankri, Birodh Khatiwada, Kishan Shrestha and Prem Ale from the government.
President Bidya Devi Bhandari will administer the oath of office and secrecy to the ministers at Sheetal Niwas tomorrow.
Policies and programs being presented in Madhesh Provincial Assembly today
The Madhesh province government is going to present its policies and programs of the coming fiscal year 2022/23 in the provincial assembly meeting today.
Chief of the Province Harishankar Mishra is scheduled to present the policies and programs of the provincial government for the new fiscal year in the meeting of the provincial assembly to be held at 4:00 pm today, said Ranjit Kumar Yadav, secretary of the provincial assembly secretariat.
In the policies and programs, priority has been given to agriculture, education, health and other programs. A meeting of the Council of Ministers of the Madhes province government held on Saturday had approved the policy and program for the coming fiscal year 2022/23 to be presented in the provincial assembly meeting.
Similarly, the Madhes province government will present the budget for the fiscal year 2022/23 in the forthcoming provincial assembly meeting on June 15, according to Minister for Home and Communications Bharat Prasad Shah.