Russian missiles hit Kyiv as G7 summit begins

Russia targeted the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv with a series of missile attacks Sunday, as leaders of the G7 nations gather in Germany for the first day of their annual summit. The chief of Ukraine’s national police force, Ihor Klymenko, said one person died and five were wounded in a Russian missile strike that hit a residential apartment block in Kyiv.

Ukrainian air force spokesman Yurii Ihnat said “strategic bombers” were used to hit the capital, with “four to six missiles” launched. He added that on Saturday, Russia had used Tu22M3 long-range bombers from the airspace of Belarus for the first time in a Ukrainian air strike.

The mayor of Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko, said on Telegram there had been several explosions in the city’s Shevchenkivskyi district, and that search and rescue operations were launched after a fire broke out when a residential building was hit by a rocket. The same neighborhood was hit by a missile strike in early May, and was also targeted in March.

Vadym Denysenko, an adviser to the Minister of Internal Affairs, said on Ukrainian television that there are “a number of military infrastructure facilities located in the Shevchenkivskyi district of the Ukrainian capital. This is the reason why the Russians are shelling this district.”

US President Joe Biden called Sunday’s attack “more of Russian barbarism.” He declined to respond when asked whether the strikes were a deliberate provocation during the G7 summit.

Another crucial moment was that Russian President Vladimir Putin told Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko at a meeting in St. Petersburg that Russia will transfer nuclear-capable Iskander-M missile systems to Belarus over the coming months.

In a transcript of the meeting, Lukashenko expressed to Putin his “stress” and concerns and over what he alleged are flights by United States and NATO planes “training to carry nuclear warheads” close to Belarus’ border. Lukashenko asked Putin to consider “a mirrored response” to the flights or to convert Russia’s Su-35 fighter jets, that are currently deployed to Belarus, so that “they can carry nuclear warheads.”

Putin replied that although is possible to match US flights, “there is no need,” and suggested that because Belarus’ military has a large number of Su-25 aircraft that can be converted to nuclear-capable instead.

In response to this message from Belarus, President Biden and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson formally announced that the G7 countries will ban the import of Russian gold, the country’s second-largest export after energy. “The United States has imposed unprecedented costs on Putin to deny him the revenue he needs to fund his war against Ukraine.”