Latest
VLAD STRIKES BACK
Russia vows to target British weapons & accuses UK of escalating war in Ukraine as tensions rage
RUSSIA last night vowed to target British weapons sent to help Ukraine and accused the UK of escalating the war.
Moscow said heavy artillery and anti-ship missiles supplied by Britain would be legitimate targets.
10
10
10
It is determined to retaliate after a UK-made Starstreak missile shot down a Russian helicopter for the first time in the conflict.
Footage showed the Mi-28N chopper being cut in two as its tail was struck by the laser-guided device travelling at more than three times the speed of sound, sending it plunging to the ground in the Luhansk region.
Russian ambassador to the UK Andrey Kelin hit back after Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said more “lethal aid” would be sent to Ukraine and Prime Minister Boris Johnson pledged a shipment of 6,000 more missiles.
The Kremlin quoted its ambassador saying of the UK: “They exacerbate the situation, making it even bloodier. Apparently, those are new, high-precision weapons.
READS MORE ON UKRAINE
“Naturally, our armed forces will view them as a legitimate target if those supplies get through the Ukrainian border.”
Britain is supplying and training Ukrainian troops in the use of the missiles as well as providing body armour, helmets and combat boots.
Most read in News
10
10
It came as Ukrainian troops were welcomed as heroes as they re-took up to 30 towns and villages in the north and east of the country from the Russians.
The Ministry of Defence confirmed Russian forces had also fled from two strategic airports near Kyiv, at Antonov and Hostomel. In Irpin, Ukraine’s defenders posed with a flag by the city’s destroyed bridge.
In Chernobyl, the nuclear power plant was back under Ukrainian control. Scores of Russian soldiers had needed medical treatment after digging trenches in the radioactive Red Forest nearby.
Last night, Deputy Defence Minister Anna Malyar said the entire Kyiv region had been liberated from the Russian occupiers.
It comes as....
- Ukrainian helicopters hit a storage facility in Belogrod with S-8 rockets, triggering a huge blaze and injuring two workers.
- A Russian soldier has died of radiation sickness from the destroyed Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
- An orangutan rescued from under-siege Kharkiv is so traumatised that keepers have given him a TV so he can hear children’s laughter.
- Russian soldiers have reportedly left burned and booby-trapped bodies of executed civilians on a highway.
The withdrawals after five weeks of bloody conflict were humiliating for Russian President Vladimir Putin, who predicted taking Kyiv in just three days.
But Russia’s retreat left evidence of horrifying war crimes — with civilians tied up before they were shot dead.
Bodies of families were left in the gutter, revealing the inhumane barbarism of Moscow's troops.
A sickening image from Bucha, near the Ukraine capital, showed six men had their hands bound behind their backs before being riddled with bullets.
Bucha mayor Anatoly Fedoruk said nearly 280 massacre victims had to be buried in a mass grave.
He said: “All these people were shot in the back of the head.”
He added they were men and women and that he had seen a 14-year-old boy among the dead.
In Irpin, also near Kyiv, bodies of at least 30 people were found. Houses, government buildings and even corpses had been booby-trapped to cause further deaths.
In communications intercepted by Ukraine’s security agency, a Russian soldier talked of a “safari” of children, including chasing a little girl and shooting her in the legs for fun.
He boasted of “trophies”, including cars and hunting rifles, looted in towns outside Kyiv.
HAUNTED SURVIVORS
Haunted survivors of the Russian occupation said soldiers had gang-raped women in front of their children. The United Nations said at least 1,276 civilians were dead in the war. But that figure is expected to soar.
Footage from Belarus — where some of Russia’s soldiers have regrouped — showed troops posting items looted from Ukraine back to their homes. Ukrainian war photographer Maksym Levin, 40, was found dead near a village north of Kyiv.
At least eight journalists have died since the invasion.
Russian troops kidnapped a deputy mayor in the Sumy region of northern Ukraine yesterday.
And the husband of Ukraine’s deputy prime minister, Olga Stefanishyna, was killed during Russian shelling as he tried to evacuate civilians from Chernihiv.
Experts said Putin’s plan, after humiliating failures around Kyiv, is now to concentrate on eastern targets to cut off Ukraine’s access to the sea. However, Russian missiles have struck two cities in central Ukraine, damaging infrastructure and homes.
Ukraine spokesman Dmitry Lunin said an airstrike hit an infrastructure facility in the city of Poltava, while in Kremenchuk there were “many attacks”.
Donetsk, Makeyevka and other rebel-controlled towns in the east are struggling with severe water shortages after shelling.
Some areas of Donetsk are only getting running water for two hours every two days.
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky said his people would not accept any outcome other than victory and rejected conceding territory as part of a peace deal. He said: “The question of territorial integrity and sovereignty is out of discussion.”
In the Russian-occupied southern Ukrainian city of Enerhodar, a peaceful protest against the war was dispersed using stun grenades. Four were injured.
In Russia, a 60-year-old woman hung a Ukrainian flag from her flat window and refused to let police in. Fire crews had to abseil down the outside of the building to remove it.
READ MORE SUN STORIES
10
Read More on The Sun
10
10
10
10
Help those fleeing conflict with The Sun’s Ukraine Fund
PICTURES of women and children fleeing the horror of Ukraine’s devastated towns and cities have moved Sun readers to tears.
Many of you want to help the five million caught in the chaos — and now you can, by donating to The Sun's Ukraine Fund.
Give as little as £3 or as much as you can afford and every penny will be donated to the Red Cross on the ground helping women, children, the old, the infirm and the wounded.
Donate to help The Sun's fund
Or text to 70141 from UK mobiles
£3 — text SUN£3
£5 — text SUN£5
£10 — text SUN£10
Texts cost your chosen donation amount (e.g. £5) +1 standard message (we receive 100%). For full T&Cs visit
The Ukraine Crisis Appeal will support people in areas currently affected and those potentially affected in the future by the crisis.
In the unlikely event that the British Red Cross raise more money than can be reasonably and efficiently spent, any surplus funds will be used to help them prepare for and respond to other humanitarian disasters anywhere in the world.
For more information visit
Topics