During an overnight missile assault on the Kyiv district by Russia, a couple of individuals were harmed and a multitude of residential and other properties suffered damage, according to the leader of the provincial state administration’s statement on Sunday. Ukraine’s air defence network managed to obliterate two out of the three fired missiles flying over the Kyiv region, as reported by Mykola Oleshchuk, Ukraine’s Air Force commander, on the Telegram messaging service on Sunday. He left the fate of the third missile unspecified. As informed by Ruslan Kravchenko, the chief of the Kyiv district’s administration via Telegram, two individuals were injured by the falling rubble but weren’t in need of hospital care. The debris caused damage to six multi-storey flats, over 20 private residences and several properties including a fuel station, a pharmacy, an office building, and three vehicles. On Sunday, beginning at 4:50am local time (01:50 GMT), several districts in Ukraine, including Kyiv and its surrounding areas, were subjected to air raid alerts for approximately an hour. Eyewitness accounts provided to Reuters described hearing numerous explosions in and around the Kyiv region around the same time that seemed like air defence networks clashing with aerial weaponry. Concurrently, Russia’s Andrei Kartapolov, the leader of the defence committee of the Russian lower house quoted by the RIA state news agency, hinted on Sunday that Moscow might revise its nuclear weapon deployment timings if threats to Russia intensify. This communication follows President Vladimir Putin’s earlier advisories about potential changes to Moscow’s nuclear policy, which explains the situations under which these weapons may be launched. Kartapolov suggested that if the challenges and threats grow, they may reconfigure the nuclear doctrine regarding the nuclear weapon use timings and the deciding factor for their deployment. However, he emphasised that it’s premature to delve into details at this juncture. The current nuclear policy of Russia, established in 2020, dictates the conditions under which its leader would ponder on the use of nuclear armament: generally in response to a nuclear or other weapons of mass destruction assault or if conventional weapons are used that potentially threaten the state’s existence. Putin also stated that Russia has the capacity to carry out a nuclear weapons test, only if necessary but sees no urgency to take action at the moment.
The escalating discourse regarding nuclear arms is coinciding with confirmations from American and Russian officials that the conflict initiated by Russia in Ukraine in 2022 presents its most perilous stage to date.
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