The flight alert went off all over Ukraine this afternoon. Ukrainian authorities describe it as a continuous wave of attacks. According to a spokesman for the air force, around 100 Russian rockets were fired at Ukrainian targets in more than 10 cities. The targets must have mainly been facilities for critical infrastructure, such as power stations and the like. Two of the rockets are said to have landed on Polish territory. The cruise missiles were probably aimed at a power station located close to the border between Ukraine and Poland. Instead, the rockets may have hit the Polish village of Przewodów, six kilometers from the border. There they must have crashed into a grain dryer. Two people are said to be dead. Police and military experts are on the scene, according to radio channel ZET. The Polish government has called for an emergency meeting of the committee for national security and defense issues. The Russian Ministry of Defense calls the information from Poland a deliberate provocation, the purpose of which is to escalate the war. American intelligence confirms that there has been a rocket strike on the Polish side, according to the AP news agency. At the same time, a spokesperson for the White House says that they cannot confirm what has happened, but that they are in contact with the Polish government. Nato also warns that they are investigating the information from Poland. Rain of rockets The attacks against Ukraine started a little after 2 pm Norwegian time. “There is an attack on the capital. Two blocks of flats in the Petsjersk district have been hit”. Doctors and first responders are on the scene. Several rockets have been shot down by anti-aircraft batteries,” Mayor Vitalij Klitschko wrote on social media. The district is located directly north of the area where the president’s office is located. There were also rocket attacks in Lviv, Kharkiv, Mykolaiv, Chernihiv, Dnipro, Zaporizhzhya, Kremenchuk, Odesa, Poltava and Zhytomyr. “There are explosions in Lviv,” mayor Andrij Sadovyj announced on social media and asked the city’s residents to stay in shelters. Kharkiv’s mayor Igor Terekhov also confirmed the attacks against the city. Hours after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy gave a video speech to the G20 meeting in Bali, attacks against several cities in Ukraine are reported. Neighboring countries affected by power cuts Power stations, power lines and heating systems in several parts of the country were affected. This has forced a partial shutdown of the power supply. According to the government, the situation is critical in several places. Over 7 million households will be completely without electricity. In the capital Kyiv, large parts of the city are blacked out. The electricity also disappeared in parts of neighboring Moldova as a result of the Russian attacks on the Ukrainian power grid. Moldovan Foreign Minister Nicu Popescu says the rockets and bombs hitting Ukraine also affect them. He asks Russia to stop the destruction NOW. Smoke rises after a Russian rocket attack on a power station in Lviv, Ukraine, November 15, 2022. Photo: STRINGER / Reuters Topping the “record” from October President Volodymyr Zelenskyj in a video update asked Ukrainians to be prepared for even more attacks. – We are working hard. We will restore everything. We will survive, says the president. – Russia is not going to achieve anything with this bombardment, he added. According to the Ukrainian Air Force, around 100 rockets were fired at Ukrainian targets. – The attackers pass with that number from October 10, when they fired 84 rockets, a spokesman for the air force told Ukrainian television. Electricity was also knocked out during the rocket attack on Kyiv. Residents and firefighters stand outside the block of flats in the Petsjersk district that was hit by one of the rockets. Photo: SERGEI SUPINSKY / AFP Comes after Zelenskyj’s speech The rain of rockets came just hours after the Ukrainian president gave a video speech to the ongoing G20 meeting in Bali. “Russia responds to Zelensky’s powerful speech at the G20 meeting with another missile attack. Does anyone really believe that the Kremlin wants peace? They want obedience. But in the end, terrorists always lose,” the chief of staff of the administration of the President of Ukraine wrote on Twitter. Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba addressed the leaders at the G20 meeting directly. “Russia is attacking peaceful Ukrainian cities with deadly rockets. Apartment blocks and energy supply are attacked. I look forward to a principled reaction to the G20 meeting. Stand on the side of the people, not the war criminals,” writes Kuleba in his English Twitter post. In his video speech to the G20 meeting, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy asked Russia to end the war. – I am convinced that now is the time when the Russian destructive war must and can be stopped. It will save thousands of lives, Zelenskyy said. He added that there are no “excuses for the nuclear blackmail” that the Russian leadership is engaged in. This is supposed to be one of the blocks of flats hit by rockets on Tuesday afternoon. Photo: GLEB GARANICH / Reuters Norway The rocket attacks Several of the participants at the G20 meeting condemn the massive Russian attacks today. Norwegian Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt also does so. – We have recorded the news about the missile strikes in Poland. This is a very serious incident, but much is still unclear. We await further information from the Polish authorities on the matter. – However, Norway strongly condemns Russia’s repeated and illegal attacks on Ukrainian cities and civilian infrastructure. These targeted attacks are unacceptable. It will only lead to more suffering for civilians. Norway will continue our strong support for Ukraine’s fight for freedom, says Huitfeldt to news. The Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs also describes the news as very worrying. – Estonia is ready to protect every bit of NATO territory, says a statement on Twitter. Lithuania has the same message. – We stand together with Poland, says Lithuania’s President Gitanas Nauseda. Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala says that today’s powerful attack against Ukraine shows that Russia wants to destroy the country. And if it is true that Russian rockets have also hit Poland, there will be an escalation, and that they stand in solidarity with Poland. Like Poland, Hungary has called a meeting of its defense council. Chinese President Xi Jinping gives his opening speech at the G20 meeting in Bali. Photo: POOL / Reuters The G20 meeting will condemn the war According to American diplomats, the final declaration from the G20 meeting sets up a condemnation of the war. – I think you will see that most of the G20 members will make it clear that they condemn Russia’s war in Ukraine, that they see Russia’s war in Ukraine as the main source of unimaginable economic and humanitarian suffering in the world, says a senior American official to the German news agency DPA. Russia must be ready to accept the final declaration, even if the country is criticized. It is seen as a possible sign that Moscow can no longer rely on support from China. Presidents Joe Biden and Emmanuel Macron are two of several world leaders who have had meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the side of the official meeting programme. They ask China to press for Russia to end the war in the neighboring country. In his speech to the meeting, Xi Jinping warned against using food and energy as weapons. It was interpreted as a poorly concealed criticism of Russia. At the same time, he reiterated Chinese opposition to the West’s sanctions policy. President Vladimir Putin himself is not present in Bali. He canceled last week. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is now Russia’s foremost representative and the one who must face the criticism. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov meets the international press during the G20 meeting in Bali. President Vladimir Putin chose to stay at home. Photo: AP Asking Russia to pay for war damages At the same time as the Ukraine war dominates the discussions at the G20 meeting, the UN General Assembly last night adopted a resolution stating that Russia “must be held accountable for all violations of international law in or against Ukraine”. Although the resolutions adopted by the General Assembly are not legally binding, unlike the resolutions adopted by the Security Council, they have great symbolic weight. The General Assembly asks Russia to pay “compensation for the damage” that has been caused. And the assembly says a register must be created to document the Russian destruction. Latvia’s UN ambassador Andrejs Pildegovičš said when he presented the draft resolution, which Norway helped to draft, that Russia attacks civilian infrastructure knowingly and willfully. 94 of the UN’s 193 member states voted for the resolution. 73 countries abstained from voting, while 14 countries voted against, among them China, Iran and Cuba in addition to Russia. Follow the development in news’s News Centre:
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Rockets are said to have struck in Poland after an attack on Ukraine – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
