Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has finally admitted Russia is at war – while attempting to blame the West.
President Vladimir Putin has consistently referred to his country’s aggression towards Ukraine since the invasion of February 24, 2022 as a “special military operation”.
However, close ally Peskov exposed the fallacy as he spoke to Russian state media, during which he sought to explain Russia’s policy towards the four regions of eastern Ukraine annexed by Moscow at the start of the conflict.
He said: “We have four new federal subjects.
“And the main thing for us is to protect the people in these regions and liberate the territory of these regions, which is currently de facto occupied by the Kyiv regime.”
Peskov warned Russia would not tolerate the existence of a state committed to recovering the four regions, as well as Crimea, seized by Putin in 2014.
He said: “We are at war. Yes, it began as a special military operation.
“But as soon as this group was formed there, when the collective West became a participant in this on the side of Ukraine, for us it already became a war.
“I am convinced of this. And everyone should understand this for their own internal mobilisation.”
Russia fired 31 ballistic and cruise missiles at Kyiv before dawn yesterday in the first attack on the Ukrainian capital in six weeks, officials said.
Air defences shot down all the incoming missiles, though 13 people including a child were injured by falling wreckage, they said.
Residents of Kyiv were woken up by loud explosions around 5am as the missiles arrived at roughly the same time from different directions, said Serhii Popko, head of the Kyiv City Administration.
Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched two ballistic missiles and 29 cruise missiles against the capital.
Kyiv has better air defences than most regions of the large country. The missile interception rate is frequently high, rendering Russian attacks on the capital significantly less successful than during the early days of the war.
Nevertheless, Ukrainian officials warn that they need considerably more Western weapons if they are to prevail against Russia’s invasion.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday threatened to “respond in kind” to Ukrainian aerial attacks in recent days on Russia’s Belgorod region near the border with Ukraine.
At an event in the Kremlin, Putin said Russia “can respond in the same way regarding civilian infrastructure and all other objects of this kind that the enemy attacks.
“We have our own views on this matter and our own plans.
“We will follow what we have outlined.”
An 11-year-old girl and a 38-year-old man were hospitalised in Kyiv, the city administration said. Eight other people sustained light injuries, according to Mayor Vitali Klitschko.
In eastern Ukraine, a missile strike targeted the Dnipro Hydroelectric Power Plant in Zaporizhzhia, although officials said there was no prospect of the dam bursting.
Dymtro Kuleba, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister, today said at least three had been killed, 13 injured and almost 1.5 million people left without electricity as a result of Russian missile and drone strikes across his country.
