Shakhtar Donetsk have revealed that it’s very difficult to think about their upcoming Champions League clash against reigning champions Real Madrid following the latest strikes against Ukraine.
The Ukrainian side are due to host the LaLiga giants in Poland tomorrow as they continue their European campaign as they bid to progress into the knock-out stages.
Igor Jovicevic’s side currently sit second in Group F behind Real, but ahead of RB Leipzig and Celtic after the opening three fixtures.
Preparations for their fourth group-stage match have become hard with Russia firing missiles on multiple cities in Ukraine this morning.
Shakhtar Donetsk’s English page tweeted: ‘Entire Ukraine has been under terrorist missile attack since the morning of October 10.
‘It is very difficult to think about the UCL match vs Real Madrid when our country is in danger. Hold on, Ukraine!’
Despite the ongoing war, supporters in the Kyiv metro sing Ukrainian songs during terrorist missile attacks of Russia.
Shakhtar Donetsk are due to host Real Madrid in Poland in the Champions League tomorrow
Russian missiles rained down on Ukraine this morning as air raid sirens sounded in major cities
Russian missiles rained down on Ukraine this morning as air raid sirens sounded in virtually every major city with explosions rocking the capital Kyiv for the first time in months, as Vladimir Putin unleashed his revenge for the Crimea bridge blast at the weekend.
At least eight people were killed and 24 injured as multiple missiles hit the Ukrainian capital this morning, as Ukraine’s military said 75 missiles had been fired at cities from border to border.
President Zelensky said a mixture of rockets and suicide drones had attacked the cities of Dnipro and Zaporizhzhia in southern Ukraine, northern Kharkiv and Sumy, central Zhytomyr and Vinnytsia, and even far-western Ternopil and Lviv.
Speaking on the streets of Kyiv even as the attacks continued, Zelensky said the Russians were targeting power stations and civilians aiming to ‘sow panic and chaos’.
KYIV: Cars burn on the streets of the Ukrainian capital this morning after multiple missiles struck the city – the first time in months that it has been hit, and as Putin plots his revenge for strikes on the Kerch Bridge
KYIV: A dead body lies in the streets after Russian missiles hit the Ukrainian capital for the first time in months, torching cars and blowing up a park in a residential area
A view of the scene after several explosions rocked the Shevchenkivskyi district of the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv
Russia ‘is trying to wipe us off the face of the earth’, he added, while vowing that such tactics would not succeed.
Adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said the strikes showed ‘the Kremlin’s terrorist inadequacy’ after a string of embarrassing battlefield defeats.
Oleksii Reznikov, the defence minister, said Ukraine’s courage would never be broken and ‘that the only thing they demolish is the future of [Russia] – a future of a globally despised rogue terrorist state.’
Videos and pictures from the Ukrainian capital showed burning cars and bodies in the streets as officials said the rockets had hit close to a well-known memorial to a famous statesman, near a children’s play area in a park, and a pedestrian bridge. More footage showed an apartment block in Dnipro in flames.
Though Russia gave no immediate justification for the strikes, it is almost certainly intended as a display of might after a huge explosion crippled the Kerch Bridge connecting Russia to Crimea at the weekend – something Putin blamed on Ukraine and described as a ‘terrorist act’.
The Russian despot is due to meet with his security cabinet today to plot his revenge amid demands from hardliners within the Russian elite that he declare full war and resort to nuclear weapons.
Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s spokesman, denied on Sunday that the atomic option was on the table – but having already annexed occupied regions of Ukraine and mustered hundreds of thousands of men into the army, Putin is running out of options for how to escalate the war further. He has shown no sign of backing down
Supporters of the Russian president had called on the despot to ‘stop talking’ and ‘painfully beat’ the Kyiv regime ahead of his Security Council meeting, despite the Kremlin playing down fears of a nuclear response.
Ukrainian civilians had been warned by the deputy governor of Russia’s southern Stavropol region Valery Chernitsov to expect a critical response.
In a menacing video posted on Twitter, he said: ‘Ukrainians, leave your cities, especially the large ones. Because a big surprise is waiting for you. Sarmat missiles are ready to strike.’
But it was Putin’s former adviser Sergei Markov, who urged his former chief to ‘punish’ Ukraine as well as its allies, following the destruction of the Kerch bridge in Crimea, the Telegraph reports.
‘It’s time for Russia to stop talking and instead begin silently and painfully beating them,’ he said, sparking fears over how Putin will react.
Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky hit back at his counterpart’s terror claims, highlighting Russian missile strikes on Zaporizhzhia which he says have killed at least 43 people this week alone.
In a video addressing the world, the Kyiv leader said: ‘The constant terror against the civilian population is an obvious Russian refusal to engage in real negotiations.
‘Terrorism is a crime that must be punished. Terrorism at the state level is one of the most heinous international crimes, which threatens not just someone in the world, but the entire international community.’
Putin looks to be thinking about changing the way his regime is run as he responds to the humiliating counter-offensive from Kyiv forces.
After he instantly replaced his top commander with the infamous Sergei Surokivin, there is speculation he could now sack defence minister Sergei Shoigu and Valery Gerasimov, the chief of staff, despite them remaining by his side for the past decade.
It is a dangerous sign that Mr Surokivin has been called up to the Russian president’s sign, considering his brutal tactics in Syria as well as his history in firing democracy protesters in the 90s.
Russian officials are now expecting retaliation of the highest order to the bridge attack. Alexander Baskin, a Russian senator, confidently suggested that the Kremlin’s response would be ‘adequate, conscious and possibly asymmetric’, the Mirror reports.
He added: ‘This was a declaration of war without rules.’
A red-faced Putin yesterday blamed Ukrainian special forces for the explosion which severely damaged the key link to the Russian mainland.
The livid Russian president said the blast at the Kerch bridge was designed to destroy ‘critically important civilian infrastructure’.
The strikes came hours after Putin directly blamed Ukraine for the attack on the Kerch bridge, saying it had been carried out by the secret service while describing it as a ‘terrorist act’
A view shows a fire on the Kerch bridge in the Kerch Strait, Crimea, October 8, 2022, in this screen grab from a handout video
He declared that the attack was a terrorist incident, a move that could open the door for further escalation in the war that has raged in Ukraine since Russia’s illegal invasion in February.
Lord Dannatt, former head of the British Army, said among other things the authoritarian leader could order the indescriminate shelling of Ukrainian cities and could even ‘go nuclear’.
However, the Kremlin has played down fears from some Western observers that it could use nuclear weapons in retalation, saying it is ‘completely incorrect’ that it is considering using them in response.
Russian governors have threatened revenge missile attacks after the destruction of the bridge on Saturday morning, which was considered to be one of his pet projects.
There will be clamouring from within the country for a decisive strike back against Ukraine as it reels from the destruction of what had been a symbol of Russian power in Crimea following its annexation of the peninsula in 2014.
A wounded man walks past as emergency service personnel attend to the site of a blast in the city of Kyiv on Monday
The bridge, which spans 19km from Crimea to the Russian mainland, has been used as one of the main supply routes for Russian troops since the illegal invasion earlier this year, allowing Putin to resupply and back up forces occupying Kherson and other southern regions of Ukraine.
Its destruction in a huge blast in the early hours of Saturday morning was a huge blow to the Russian war effort and was a slap in the face for the Russian president.
In a video released on the Kremlin’s Telegram channel yesterday, Putin laid the blame at Ukrainian special forces while meeting with Alexander Bastrykin, the head of Russia’s Investigative Committee, who was presenting findings of an inquiry into Saturday’s explosion and fire on the bridge.
Russian propaganda had claimed the Crimean bridge was impossible to attack because of 20 different kinds of security protecting it, including military dolphins
The Russian president said: ‘There is no doubt. This is an act of terrorism aimed at destroying critically important civilian infrastructure. This was devised, carried out and ordered by the Ukrainian special services.’
Mr Bastrykin said he had opened a criminal case into an act of terrorism and added that while Ukrainian soldier had taken part, citizens of Russia and other countries also took part in the act.
He said investigations ‘have already established the route of the truck’ that Russian authorities said set off a bomb and explosion on the bridge.
Mr Bastrykin said the truck had been to Bulgaria, Georgia, Armenia, North Ossetia, Krasnodar (a region in southern Russia) and other places.
Today Putin will chair the meeting with his Security Council (SCRF) as he looks to formulate a response to the latest setback in his ill-judged war.
The council, which is comprised of the nation’s top defence officials and heads of security agencies, who come together to support the Russian president – the overall chair of the council – on policy decisions.
‘Tomorrow the president has a planned meeting with the permanent members of the Security Council,’ Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Sunday.
Embattled defence minister Sergei Shoigu will be in attendance alongside the head of Russia’s FSB domestic intelligence service Aleksandr Bortnikov and Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin.
SCRF meetings typically come as a reaction to important geopolitical events concerning national security, but can also indicate that Putin is on the cusp of making a major decision.
The Russian president chaired a meeting of the SCRF just days prior to the invasion of Ukraine, raising fears that Monday’s meeting could signify a impending escalation in the conflict.
He will look for a strong response after the embarassing destruction of a bridge that Russian propoganda had claimed could not be destroyed as it was protected by 20 different kinds of security including military dolphins, war ships, aircraft and ground troops
The former head of the British Army, General Lord Richard Dannatt, warned that Putin could now opt for the Armageddon approach after the Kremlin previously insisted that an attack on Crimea would ‘cross a red line’.
However, the country has once again denied this will happen, saying suggestions it could use nuclear weapons after designating the attack an act of terrorism ‘completely incorrect’.
The 12 mile long bridge over the Kerch strait links Crimea to the Russian mainland and is a major artery for Putin’s forces that control most of southern Ukraine’s Kherson region and for the Russian naval port of Sevastopol.
Fire tears through the Kerch bridge in the Kerch Strait, Crimea, after an explosion inthe early hours of Saturday, October 8, 2022
It was damaged in an explosion early Saturday morning which saw chunks of the bridge fall into the sea and a large fire break out.
The incident prompted gleeful messages from Ukrainian officials – though no claim of responsibility – and video footage of the bridge appeared to show a mysterious wave crest underneath the structure moments before the blast, prompting speculation that a Ukrainian-piloted boat or drone was likely behind it.
Russia meanwhile claimed a truck bomb had exploded, and has not apportioned blame for the damage.
The meeting of the security council today comes as top Putin propagandists and Russian regional governors called for total war in Ukraine in response to the bridge explosion.
Leading Kremlin propagandist Vladimir Solovyov demanded a brutal Stalinist response to ‘plunge Ukraine into dark times’ and round up all Russians against total war in the wake of the humiliating hit on the bridge.
Alluding to an enemy within, Solovyov called for a return of the notorious Stalin-era SMERSH counter-intelligence to crush all internal opposition to a full-scale war against Ukraine.
Alluding to an enemy within, Solovyov called for a return of the brutal Stalin-era SMERSH counter-intelligence to crush all internal opposition to full-scale war
SMERSH, whose motto was ‘Death to Spies’, was a conglomeration of counterintelligence agencies used by Stalin to root out and obliterate those trying to subvert his regime during and after World War II.
Crimea’s Russian-installed governor Sergei Aksyonov declared there is a ‘healthy desire to seek revenge’ following the explosion which destroyed parts of the Kerch bridge yesterday morning and killed three people.
Rocket attacks have already rained down on the southern Ukrainian region of Zaporizhzhia since the bridge explosion, killing 17 people late last night and early this morning.
Shocking footage circulated on social media by Ukrainian officials showed rescue workers pulling an elderly woman from the debris this morning after the attack reduced one high-rise residential building to rubble and damaged neighbouring structures.
An earlier clip saw rescue workers and forlorn residents picking their way over the mounds of twisted metal and smashed bricks as they searched for survivors and attempted to salvage what little remained from the devastation.
City council secretary Anatoly Kurtev said at least 20 private homes and 50 apartment buildings were damaged in the blasts, in addition to the high-rise that was flattened.