Russia attacked the Ukrainian president’s hometown and other targets on Sunday with suicide drones after Ukraine took back full control of Lyman City, steering the war into another dimension.
The loss of Lyman by Russia is a huge blow to the Kremlin as it seeks to escalate the war by illegally annexing four regions of Ukraine and heightening threats to use nuclear force.
The annexation f the four Ukrainian regions by President Vladimir Putin has prompted Ukraine to formally apply for fast-track NATO membership.
In southern Ukraine, Zelenskyy’s hometown of Krivyi Rih came under Russian attack by a suicide drone that destroyed two stories of a school early Sunday.
The Ukrainian air force said Sunday it fired down five Iranian-made drones overnight, while two others made it through air defenses.
Ukrainian troops have retaken swaths of regions, notably in the northeast around Kharkiv, in a counteroffensive in recent weeks that has humiliated the Kremlin and prompted rare domestic criticism of Putin’s war.
An Associated Press investigation has found out that the Russian withdrawal from northeast Ukraine in recent weeks has revealed proof of widespread, routine torture of both civilians and soldiers, notably in the strategic city of IIlium.
Nine central and eastern European NATO members who fear that Russia’s aggression could eventually target them, too have issued a letter of support on Sunday for Ukraine to join the NATO.
The leaders of Czechia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania and Slovakia issued a joint statement Sunday backing a path to NATO membership for Ukraine.