Putin launches brutal new attack on Ukraine in horror response to peace offer
Russia staged blistering strikes across Ukraine last night – a matter of hours after after Kyiv signalled it was ready for a ceasefire.
A series of massive missile and drone attacks cast doubt on Vladimir Putin ’s readiness for Donald Trump ’s demands for peace in the three year war as a Russian double missile strike hit Kryvyi Rih – the city where Volodmyr Zelensky was born – in a fierce overnight strike.
The strike led to a woman, 47, being killed as she travelled in a trolleybus, with smoke seen rising from the site of the strike. A source in the city said: “Nine people have already been injured in Kryvyi Rih. Seven are hospitalised, three of them in serious condition ”Earlier there were reports of the death of a woman, 47, on a trolleybus.“
Civilian sites were targeted. Infrastructure, high-rise buildings, administrative buildings, buses, garages, more than a dozen cars, shops, and an educational institution were damaged. The fires that broke out due to the strikes have already been extinguished. There was confirmation that a strike on a Barbados-flagged grain ship in Odesa was by an Iskander missile. Four people were killed, and two wounded.
Oleh Kiper, military governor, said: “Unfortunately, four people died – citizens of Syria. The youngest deceased was 18, the oldest – 24 years old. Two more people were injured – a Ukrainian and a Syrian. They are being provided with the necessary assistance.” This came as there was confirmation that CIA Director John Ratcliffe had spoken by telephone to Putin’s SVR spymaster Sergei Naryshkin, head of the SVR foreign intelligence agency.
Ratcliffe and Naryshkin agreed to maintain contacts to help “ensure international stability and security” and to reduce confrontation in relations between Moscow and Washington.Naryshkin had last spoken to a CIA head in the summer of 2023. In a third strike on Dnipro, the Kremlin dictator’s forces hit ten private houses, blasting out windows in a school and kindergarten, after which one man was hospitalised. Russia also unleashed Iranian-designed Shahed drones on Ukraine ’s second city Kharkiv, as footage showed a blazing fire at a warehouse in Sumy after a Russian strike.
The strike on the Greek-managed MJ Pinar cargo vessel in Odesa appeared designed to hit both Ukraine’s exports of grain and desperately-needed supplies via Algeria to Africa. The vessel was loading 30,000 tons of wheat when the strike hit, igniting a fire on the ship. Among the dead sailors were three Syrians and one Ukrainian, with a fifth crew member and a port employee injured.
One missile is reported to have struck the seawall causing extensive damage to the pier, the terminal’s grain store, and other infrastructure. Russia also continued to press home its advantage in its Kursk region, where massive assault operations were underway around border town Sudzha which was under intense fire.
Unconfirmed Moscow reports this morning highlighted footage appearing to show Putin’s paratroopers raising the white, blue and red tricolour in the central square of Sudzha, the main town that had been in Ukrainian control in the Russian region.
The pro-Kremlin Readovka media outlet reported: “Our fighters, having cleared the square, marked another success of the assault operation, waved to the camera, and then returned to carrying out combat missions.” Another loyalist outlet Mash reported: “Our fighters with flags on Sovetskaya Square Sudzha, near the administration building in the town centre.
“The [Ukrainian] soldiers have almost completely abandoned it, retreating towards Sumy Oblast. According to our data, the city has been cleared by 80-90 percent. The Ukrainian Armed Forces have only [kept their hold on] the suburbs of Goncharovka and Zaoleshenka.”
If true, the development is a severe blow to Kyiv but not unexpected. Yet Russian Telegram source Archangel Spetsnaz also stated: “The enemy is still fighting back, the flags were for designation.” Thousands of Ukrainian troops had been reported as being encircled by Russian and North Korean forces.
Today reports stated that many had successfully retreated to Ukraine’s Sumy region. The troops carrying the Russian flag were paratroopers of the 11th Guards Brigade of the Russian Armed Forces, it was reported. Military analyst Yan Matveyev stated: “It looks like the Ukrainian Armed Forces have completely left the city.
“This means that today they will finally leave the Kursk region.” Ukrainian troops appeared to be on the retreat in the area of Russia’s Kursk region – around Sudzha – which they had held since August. Footage appears to show Putin’s troops triumphantly in the town’s main square.
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