Attack alert: Stops meeting

 

Russia's invasion of Ukraine
"Russian attack on Ukrainian government quarters underway"

Joachim Kerpner

Updated 17.06 | Published 14.14 

Quick version

• Ukraine's parliament cancels a scheduled meeting due to a threatened Russian attack on the government quarters in Kiev.
  
• MEPs are being asked to limit their and their families' presence in the parliament building following warnings of possible air strikes.
• Russia launched an attack on Dnipro yesterday Thursday in response to Ukraine's use of American and British long-range missiles against targets in Russia's Bryansk and Kursk regions.

Zelenskyy in the Verkhovna Rada in Kyiv, Ukraine, in October. Photo: Press Service Of The President Of Ukraine / AP

The government quarter in Kiev will probably be exposed to a Russian attack, reports the newspaper Ukrainskaya Pravda.

Therefore, the Parliament of Ukraine cancels a scheduled meeting on Friday.

           

          Here, Russian intercontinental robot hits the Ukrainian city

Citing a source, the newspaper writes that the 450 members of the country's parliament are being asked to "limit presence" in the building, both for themselves and for their family members.

During an hour on Friday, government representatives were supposed to have answered the questions of the members of parliament, but now the question time is cancelled, says the member Oleksii Honcharenko on his Telegram channel, according to the exiled Russian newspaper Meduza.

The order to limit attendance in the Ukrainian parliament comes two days after the US closed its embassy in Kiev following a warning of a possible "significant airstrike". During Wednesday, Spain, Italy and Greece also closed their embassies in Kyiv.

Zelenskyy in the Verkhovna Rada in Kyiv, Ukraine, in October. Photo: AP

On Thursday, Russia carried out for the first time an attack with a medium-range ballistic missile of the new type Oreshnik, Russian President  Vladimir Putin announced on Thursday evening. Oreschnik robots can carry nuclear weapons.

The target of the attack is said to have been the Yuzhmash munitions factory in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro.

According to Putin, the Russian attack was a response to the United States allowing and  Ukraine carrying out attacks with American and British long-range robots of the Atacms and Storm Shadow types against targets in the Russian Bryansk and Kursk regions.

 

Image from 2019. People gather outside the parliament when Vladimir Zelenskyy was sworn in as president. Photo: Evgeniy Maloletka / AP

On Wednesday, the US also gave Ukraine the green light to use landmines against Russian forces.

The escalation of weapons use during the week was followed by several ominous statements from Vladimir Putin, who claimed on Friday that Russia has the right to attack military factories in countries "that allow their weapons to be used against our facilities," according to The New York Times.

Analysts believe that Russia's use of medium-range ballistic missiles is aimed at spreading anxiety and fear in Ukraine and among its allies, as the use of Oreshnik signals that Russia can strike with nuclear weapons if it wants to - even if it did not this time.