War in Ukraine: Death toll in Kyiv rises to 31 after russian strikes • FRANCE 24 English

Well, turning now to the war in Ukraine. The death toll from Thursday’s Russian missile and drone strikes on the capital rose to 31 people according to the interior ministry today. Kev is observing a day of mourning following that attack, which was of course one of the deadliest in the capital since the start of the full-scale war back in February of 2022. Now, one person was also killed in a Russian attack on the southeastern city of Zaparia earlier Friday. For more from Ukraine, then we’re going to cross to our correspondent Goliver Craig in the central part of the country. Hi there, Goliver. So, what more can you tell us then about Thursday’s attacks uh on the capital? Well, with the rescue operations now completed, according to President Zilinski, the death toll standing at 31 makes it the deadliest attack on Kiev in a little over a year. The most children killed in a single attack since the start of the war in the capital. I believe five children among the dead. And what’s happening now is analysis is coming in of what happened and why these attacks on the Ukrainian capital are getting more and more deadly. And the signs are pretty worrying. Ukrainian air defenses are not managing as well as they used to to shoot down the missiles and drones that are used. In large part, that’s because of the projectiles aimed at very on one city one night and then a few nights later a different city. So many drones more than 6,000 I believe used in the month of July which is a record that month that just finished. Also the quality of the drones is improving. The Russians have been using a new kind of adapted version of the Iranian designed Shahed drone. not in very large quantities. Um, but these adapted versions can fly more than 500 kilometers an hour. They are extremely difficult for the Ukrainian air defenses to shoot down, according to um, air defense experts who really don’t seem to have an easy short-term solution to this problem. And then the rockets, it was a rocket that did the most damage um, in destroying a part of this nstory apartment building in KF. They’re being fired from closer range. They’re getting more accurate as well and they’re getting harder to shoot down. A little bit of solace came in the news from Germany today that they’ll be supplying two more Patriot air defense um systems, those Americanmade systems, which are the best at shooting down the rockets, but they’re extremely expensive. The ammunition for them is extremely expensive. They can’t be really used to shoot down hundreds of drones per um night. And then you’ve got Donald Trump with his rhetoric criticizing Putin more strongly, raising hopes among some Ukrainians, but others are saying that at the same time as saying he’s going to soon impose tougher sanctions on Russia, he’s also saying that he’s not really expecting those sanctions to work and that it was Biden’s war anyway, not his. So Ukrainians are not really feeling very hopeful about developments on the diplomatic front either. We’ve just got about a minute left. So quickly, if you can, following those large-scale nationwide protests, yesterday’s parliamentary vote, of course, restored the independence of two key anti-corruption watchdogs. So, does this mean the problem has been solved? Absolutely not. I think that anti-corruption activists in Ukraine feel that the protesters there won a battle, but not the war. And the way that this law last week was passed in parliament clearly at the insistence of Vimir Zalinski clearly shows that he’s prepared to potentially sacrifice Ukraine’s European ambitions because this was a law that clearly was going to go against the criteria needed to join the European Union in order to save the skin of um you know his friends and associates who are accused of corruption. and that’s really changed the attitude in Ukrainian public opinion towards him and his administration. I think they feel that they’re going to have to be extremely wary going forward and we’ll see what happens with the cases against um one associate of Zilinski that is thought to have triggered uh this uh the passing of this law just next week. There’s a court date. Goliver Craig, thank you very much.

Ukraine on Friday observed a day of mourning following one of the deadliest Russian attacks on the capital Kyiv since the 2022 full-scale invasion. At least 31 people, including five children, were killed in Thursday’s bombardment. US President Donald Trump, who gave Russia a “10 or 12” deadline this week to end the hostilities, said the attacks were “disgusting”. Gulliver Cragg, our correspondant in Ukraine, has more.
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42 comments

  9. OMG! How terrible! May Our Lady of Zarvanytsia , Andrey Sheptytsky, Blessed Nicholas Charnetsky, Blessed Vasyl Velychkovsky and all Ukrainian saints, First Testament Prophets (Elijah, Ezekiel, Joel, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Amos, Malachi etc), Jewish holy men and women, St Michael, Raphael and Gabriel, all the angels, St Therese of Lisieux, St Francis of Assisi, St Clare, St Benedict, St Mary MacKillop, St Joseph, St John Paul II and St George ask the Almighty to help Ukraine. May it be freed from Russian oppression. May all who have died RIP and may relatives and friends be comforted. May the angels protect Ukrainian defenders. God is always on the side of the oppressed, never the oppressor.

  11. God bless Russian and putin Joe Biden Boris Johnson and zelensky are war criminals war in Ukraine started by UK and USA Ukraine and Russia is same country

  15. What a tragedy.
    Ukraine is an example of "Never allow your country to be used"
    Poland, Romania, the baltics, Germany and others beware.
    Sorry, I forgot to add Taiwan

  19. Why the Ukrainian people not allowing their war hero president and his friends to acquire some more properties around the world ?? Afterall they sacrificed their country to Russia !!??

  26. Ukraine & Ukrainians are so beautiful… Unfortunate they picked the wrong guy to lead the country to go to war with a much stronger country..m

  28. Lots of sad and pathetic Kremlin paid trolls here as usual. Their comments are always amusing and opposite to actual fact. Putins regime getting extremely desperate!

  29. Germany is sending Patriot missiles, not systems. A system is the missiles, command center, radar and power station. They are only getting two launchers, which only care 4-6 missiles per launcher.

  33. Mr. So Called correspondence ( Or Z spokesman). When U will show real pic with exact place? And what really was there in there?😮😮

  40. BBC NEWS reported; Ukraine are in debt of £400 Billion with America and have natural resources worth $11 Trillion. 🐯

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