Russia announced today, Wednesday, the success of the massive missile strikes it carried out yesterday in Ukraine, while a Ukrainian official stated that there is no plan to evacuate cities.

The Russian Defense Ministry said - in a statement - that the missile strikes destroyed all of its targets, noting that they targeted the Ukrainian military leadership and its associated energy facilities.

The ministry denied that the "high-precision strikes" included Kyiv, and said that the damage recorded in the city was a direct result of the fall of anti-aircraft missiles fired by Ukrainian forces.

Ukrainian officials described the Russian bombing as the heaviest since the start of the war on February 24, noting that the Russian forces fired about 100 missiles.

On the sidelines of the G20 summit in Bali, Indonesia, US President Joe Biden described the bombing of civilian targets in Ukraine by Russian forces as a barbaric act.

A spokesman for the Ukrainian General Staff, Alexander Stobun, said that yesterday, Russian forces launched an intensive missile attack on the military and civilian infrastructure in Ukraine.

Stopun added that the Ukrainian forces destroyed 77 cruise missiles and shot down 10 Iranian drones that were used by Russian forces in the attacks.

Due to the intense bombing, electricity was cut off for millions of Ukrainians, but Ukrainian officials said today, Wednesday, that it had been fully restored in 7 regions, including the capital, Kyiv.

Evacuation of cities

Meanwhile, Kiliro Tymoshenko, deputy director of the office of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said that the authorities do not intend to depopulate Ukrainian cities following the new Russian attacks.

Tymoshenko added, in statements to Ukrainian television, that officials and maintenance teams are working instead to stabilize the electricity network, noting that progress has been made in this regard after the intensive Russian strikes yesterday.


Battles and casualties

On the ground, the Ukrainian Staff Command stated that its forces had repelled 9 Russian advance attempts in the Donetsk region of the Donbass region (eastern Ukraine).

The governor of Donetsk said that a civilian was killed and 7 others were wounded in Russian bombing that targeted many cities and villages in the province during the past 24 hours.

In Mayorsk, which is also located in Donetsk, the Ukrainian Staff Command said that the Russian First Regional Horlivka Battalion had lost its combat capability after losing about 50% of its soldiers killed or wounded.

In Kherson (southern Ukraine), Vladimir Leontyev, mayor of the pro-Russian city of Novoya Kakhovka in Kherson Province, said that 6 civilians were killed within two days as a result of the bombing of the city by Ukrainian forces.

A few days ago, the Ukrainian forces regained the city of Kherson, about 8 months after the Russian forces took control of it, and Ukraine and its Western allies described this as a great victory.

In Russia, the governor of the Oryol province, Andrei Klychkov, said that a drone had bombed an oil depot in the province.

Erdogan speaks during a conference on the sidelines of the G20 summit in the Indonesian island of Bali (French)

grain agreement

On the other hand, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said today, Wednesday, that he believes that the grain export agreement brokered by Turkey and the United Nations between Russia and Ukraine will be extended after its expiration date next Saturday.

Erdogan added, in his remarks on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Bali, that Ankara is making efforts to extend the agreement for a year.

In Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov indicated that there were positive developments regarding the extension of the agreement, in which Russia finally suspended its participation under the pretext of its violation by Ukraine, before it changed its decision.

It is noteworthy that the agreement reached last July has so far allowed the passage of 10 million tons of Ukrainian grain.