The Ukrainian presidency said on Friday that the latest Russian bombings in Ukraine left 10 civilians dead and another 20 wounded, a day after the country suffered a new wave of rocket attacks.
At least two civilians were killed in the southern city of Kherson, recaptured by Ukrainian forces in November, and two more in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk province.
The bombings followed US and German announcements about plans to send main battle tanks (Leopard 2 and Abrams) to help Ukraine defend itself and neutralize Russian forces. Other Western countries have said they will soon be sending combat vehicles as well.
The sending of heavy weapons and armored vehicles led Moscow to accuse the West of “engaging in a new level of confrontation” with Russia.
Donetsk governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said the Russian army used high-burning phosphorus munitions in shelling the town of Zvanivka, about 20 kilometers north of Bakhmut, which has become the center of a grueling confrontation in recent months.
The bombing also damaged several apartment buildings and two schools in the nearby town of Vuhledar, Kyrylenko said.
For his part, the governor of the neighboring Lugansk region, Serhii Haidai, said a Ukrainian bombing raid hit two Russian bases in the occupied cities of Kreminna and Rubizhne, killing and wounding “dozens” of Russian soldiers, statements yet to be released. passed. be confirmed by an independent source.
Further south, Russian forces have resumed shelling the city of Nikopol, along the Dnieper River and near the Russian-controlled Zaporijia nuclear power plant, damaging residential buildings, gas pipelines, power lines and a bakery, local authorities said.
Also this Friday, the Russian government announced that the four Russian-annexed regions of eastern and southern Ukraine will officially change to Moscow time.
These are Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson and Zaporijia, which Moscow integrated into the territory of the Russian Federation at the end of September 2022, despite not having full control over the four regions and opposition from Kiev and the international community.
Russia’s Ministry of Industry and Trade said the time zone change will soon take place as part of “stepwise synchronization of Russian legislation” in the annexed regions.
The four regions “will become part of the second time zone, in which Moscow time operates,” the ministry said on the Telegram social network, quoted by the official Russian agency TASS. The relevant bill has already been submitted to the government of the Russian Federation, according to the ministry.
Compared to Moscow, Kiev has a time difference of one hour less. Russia does not change the time in summer, when Kiev and Moscow have the same time.
With more than 17 million square kilometers, Russia is the largest country in the world and has 11 time zones, 10 of which refer to the same landmass, according to the specialized ‘site’ timeanddate.com. The exception is the Russian territory of Kaliningrad, located between Poland and Lithuania, next to the Caspian Sea.
The Russian military offensive on Ukrainian territory, launched on February 24 last year, plunged Europe into what is considered the most serious security crisis since World War II (1939-1945).
Source: DN
