Events to celebrate Ukraine’s Independence Day next Wednesday (24) were banned in the capital Kiev and the country’s second largest city, Kharkiv. The move came after President Volodymyr Zelensky and other officials warned that Russia could carry out missile attacks.
The head of state said on Saturday that the Russian government may be planning “particularly vicious” attacks during the date, which will mark 31 years since Ukraine severed ties with the Soviet Union and as war looms large. six months in duration.
“We should all be aware that this week Russia may try to do something particularly ugly, something particularly cruel,” Zelensky said in a video message.
“One of the main tasks of the enemy is to humiliate us, to devalue our capabilities, our heroes, to spread despair, fear, conflicts… We don’t show weakness,” he said.
In Kiev, the city’s military administration banned all large gatherings between Monday (22) and Thursday (25), noting that “mass events, peaceful gatherings, rallies and other events related to a large gathering of people are prohibited.” ”.
General Mykola Zhyrnov, head of the local military administration, explained that the order was imposed so that security forces could respond “in a timely manner to threats of missile and bomb attacks by Russian Federation troops on decision-making centers, facilities and military, defense industry facilities, critical infrastructure and nearby residential areas.”
Zhyrnov said he had ordered city officials to use the bare minimum of agents, civil servants and workers to secure transport and other services.
In Kharkiv, where Russian attacks killed and injured hundreds of civilians in the first months of the war, authorities announced a curfew from 7 pm (local time) on the eve of Independence Day until 7 am the following day.
“We ask that you understand these measures and prepare to stay at home and in shelters – this is our safety,” they noted in a statement.
Natalia Humeniuk, spokeswoman for the military command of southern Ukraine, warned on Sunday that “the date of our independence and the start of the Russian invasion coincide – the 24th. And there is the day of the Ukrainian flag, on the 23rd. to the fact that there will be an increase in some kind of aggression, there will be an increase in missile attacks.”
Last week, Ukrainian officials said more Russian missiles had been deployed to an air base in Belarus. Artillery shells also continue to fall near Europe’s biggest nuclear plant in southern Ukraine.
Meanwhile, media personalities in Moscow on Monday called for attacks on Kiev in response to the murder of Darya Dugina, a Russian political commentator and daughter of influential ultranationalist Alexander Dugin.
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) has blamed a Ukrainian security service agent for the car bomb explosion that killed Dugina on Saturday, Russian state news agency TASS reported, triggering calls for attacks in the capital and elsewhere. .
THE CNN cannot independently verify the FSB allegations cited by the TASS report. Ukraine has denied any involvement in Dugina’s death.
Source: CNN Brasil
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