Explained: Why is Russia launching fresh attacks on Kyiv?

Kyiv had not faced Russian airstrikes since the 28 April visit of UN Secretary-General António Guterres.

For the Ukrainian capital, that enviable streak ended Sunday with Russia launching airstrikes that it claimed destroyed tanks donated from abroad.

This, even as Vladimir Putin issued an ominous new threat – warning that any Western deliveries of longer-range rocket systems would prompt Moscow to attack “objects that we haven’t yet struck.”

Let’s take a closer look at why Kyiv is facing renewed assault from Moscow.

The aerial attack comes just days after the United States announced plans to deliver $700 million of security assistance for Ukraine.  Those weapons include four precision-guided, medium-range rocket systems, helicopters, Javelin anti-tank weapon systems, radars, tactical vehicles and more.

Also read: US to provide HIMARS to Ukraine: All you need to know about advanced weapons system

In an interview with Russian state television, President Vladimir Putin said Moscow would hit new targets if the West supplies longer-range missiles to Ukraine.

As per Arab News, Putin, in excerpts of his interview quoted by Russian news agencies ahead of broadcast, warned that if the West supplies longer-range missiles, “we will strike at those targets which we have not yet been hitting,” without specifying the targets.

The Russian defence 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.

The missiles that struck Kyiv destroyed T-72 tanks supplied by Eastern European countries and other armoured vehicles, the Russian defense ministry said on the Telegram app.

What is Putin doing?

Putin is either sending a message to the US not to go any further with supplying weapons or is seemingly targeting the supply line from Kyiv to the east.

The Pentagon said last week that it will take at least three weeks to get the US weapons onto the battlefield.

When the war started on 24 February, Putin expected his military to roll through Ukraine and capture the capital of Kyiv. Since that didn’t happen, the Russian forces switched their focus to capturing Ukraine’s eastern cities of Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk and have largely ignored the capital.

On 5 June, Russia continued its push, with missile and airstrikes on cities and villages in the Donbas.

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.

Others say Putin is merely aiming to prolong the conflict to exhaust the West.

CNN’s Nathan Hodge wrote, “Nikolai Patrushev, the head of Putin’s Security Council, said in recent remarks that Russian forces aren’t “chasing deadlines” in Ukraine, suggesting Putin has a much more open-ended timeline for his war in Ukraine. Ukrainians, in contrast, fear international fatigue may set in, leading the international community to press their government to make concessions to Putin.”

“The deciding factor in Ukraine may be who has the time: A Russian dictator who is likely to hold power until he dies, or a Ukrainian people who are fighting for their national survival.”

What Ukraine said

“The Kremlin resorts to new insidious attacks. Today’s missile strikes at Kyiv have only one goal — kill as many as possible,” tweeted Ukrainian presidential adviser Mikhailo Podolyak.

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.

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.

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.

With inputs from agencies

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