KYIV, Ukraine, Sept 6, 2023 (BSS/AFP) - A Russian strike killed at least
17 people at a market in east Ukraine Wednesday, officials said, in an attack
that President Volodymyr Zelensky described as deliberate and "heinous".
The attack came hours after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken made an
unexpected trip to Kyiv, where he vowed Washington would stand "side by side"
with Ukraine as it pressed ahead with its counteroffensive against Russia.
Projectiles tore through the centre of Kostiantynivka -- a town of nearly
70,000 people in the Donetsk region -- in one of the deadliest strikes in weeks.
"They smashed everything, all the shop windows, everything was strewn
around," an eyewitness told AFP.
"Thank God we are alive, of course. But the girls who were selling there,
they are all dead," the witness said.
Rescue workers picked through the debris and carried some of the wounded
for treatment past charred vehicles and kiosks torn to pieces in the blast,
according to images distributed by officials.
"Seventeen people were killed and 32 injured as a result of the Russian
shelling," Interior Minister Igor Klymenko said, announcing the rescue
operation had ended.
Prime Minister Denys Shmygal said a child was among those killed in the
attack, which took place about 20 kilometres (12 miles) from the front line.
"Anyone in the world who is still dealing with anything Russian simply
ignores this reality," said Zelensky.
"Heinous evil. Brazen wickedness. Utter inhumanity."
He later accused Russia of deliberately targeting civilians and said there
were no military units "anywhere near" the scene.
- 'Good progress' -
During a meeting with Zelensky, Blinken reiterated Washington's support for
Kyiv in its fight to liberate territory in the south and east.
"We are determined in the United States to continue to walk side by side
with you. And President Biden asked me to come to reaffirm strongly our
support, to ensure that we are maximising the efforts that we're making," he
told Zelensky.
"We see the important progress that's being made now in the
counteroffensive and that's very, very encouraging," he added.
Blinken is expected to announce "more than a billion dollars in new US
funding for Ukraine", said a senior State Department official.
The Kremlin dismissed Blinken's Kyiv visit, arguing US aid would not
"influence the course of the special military operation" -- Moscow's term for
its offensive.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov accused Washington of wanting to "keep
Ukraine in a state of war, to wage this war till the last Ukrainian".
Kyiv's army meanwhile said it was pressing on with "offensive operations"
towards eastern Ukraine's war-battered town of Bakhmut, which fell to Russian
forces in May, and the southern Moscow-occupied city of Melitopol.
The US has supplied key weaponry to Ukraine that allowed it to launch its
counteroffensive this summer and Blinken told Kuleba that "we've seen some good
progress".
But Ukraine has in recent weeks become increasingly frustrated with
criticism that the counteroffensive has been too slow.
Russia said Wednesday it had "improved its tactical position" near the
northwestern city of Kupiansk, where it has led a local offensive for weeks.
It also hit Ukraine's south-western Odesa region, near the border with
Romania, with drone attacks overnight, killing one person.
- 'Everything possible and impossible' -
In what was hailed as a historic move, Ukrainian lawmakers approved the
nomination of Crimean Tatar Rustem Umerov as Kyiv's new wartime defence
minister Wednesday.
Crimean Tatars are an ethnic minority hailing from the Black Sea peninsula,
which was annexed by Russia in 2014.
"I will do everything possible and impossible for the victory of Ukraine --
when we liberate every centimetre of our country and every one of our people,"
he said in a post on social media.
The 41-year-old businessman has been involved in prisoner exchange
negotiations involving Saudi Arabia and grain export talks with Turkey and the
United Nations.
"Children, prisoners of war, political prisoners, civilians... are waiting
for us," he said.
Zelensky had nominated Umerov as new defence minister after the resignation
of Oleksiy Reznikov, calling for "new approaches" in the wake of several
corruption scandals in the ministry.
"It is the highest state post ever held by a Tatar (from Crimea)," Sergiy
Leshchenko, an advisor to the presidential administration, told AFP.
- Danish PM visits -
A string of Western leaders has visited Kyiv since Moscow launched its
invasion in February 2022, pledging support in the battle against Russian
forces.
Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen was the latest to travel to the
Ukrainian capital Wednesday, after pledging to supply Ukraine with 19 F-16
fighter jets.
Denmark and the Netherlands last month announced they would provide the
advanced jets to strengthen Kyiv's Soviet-era air force.
State Department spokesman Matthew Millar said Blinken had met Frederiksen
as they travelled to Ukraine and thanked her for the "decision to donate F-16
jets to Ukraine."