The village of Stanytsia Luhanska suffered more than its share of explosions on Thursday. One shell crashed into a kindergarten, blasting a hole in the wall that sent soccer balls flying off the classroom shelves just as the school day started. Others blasted craters into the schoolyard and shattered windows of nearby homes.
Olena Yaryna, the school director, said:
We heard the sound of broken glass. The children were very scared. Some kids started crying immediately, and the explosions continued for the next 20 minutes.
At Valentyna Melnychenko’s nearby home, the explosions filled her living room and hall with smoke.
I switched off the TV, and there were seven more shellings and then it stopped
Three people were wounded and half the village lost power. Oleksandr Pavliuk, a Ukrainian army commander, said the explosions were intended to provoke a response and ultimately a counter-response, echoing the warnings from the United States.
Biden says diplomacy still possible; OSCE reports more attacks in east – as it happened
Russian state media say a blast has occurred in Donetsk amid multiple US warnings of false flag incidents
www.theguardian.com
Lapset sodan keskellä. Miksi heitä ei ole evakoitu toiselle puolen maata?
Satellite imagery has shown Russian armour and artillery within miles of Belarus’ border with Ukraine and Western officials have pointed out unusual military activity such as the construction of a pontoon bridge over the Prypyat river in the Chernobyl exclusion zone.
Russian officials have pledged that the troops will leave Belarus after the exercises conclude. But in contradictory remarks, Lukashenko on Thursday said that “if it makes sense to keep Russian troops here, we will keep them as long as necessary. I emphasise once again: this is our territory and this decision is up to us”.
Lukashenko criticised US deployments of troops to Poland and said he would not “ask permission”.