Russia is trying to stop the flow of Western weapons into Ukraine by bombing railroad stations and other supply-line targets, Russian officials said.
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Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu complained that the West is “stuffing Ukraine with weapons,” and Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said the rail infrastructure attacks were meant to disrupt the delivery of Western weapons to Ukraine.
A senior U.S. defense official said there has been “no appreciable impact” on Ukraine’s effort to resupply its forces, despite the Russian attacks on infrastructure around the city of Lviv. The city has been a major gateway for NATO-supplied weapons, due to its proximity to the Polish border.
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Meanwhile, air raid sirens sounded in cities across the country on Wednesday night, and attacks were reported near Kyiv, the capital; in Cherkasy and Dnipro in central Ukraine; and in Zaporizhzhia in the southeast. In Dnipro, authorities said a rail facility was hit. Videos on social media suggested a bridge there was attacked.
There was no immediate word on casualties or the extent of the damage.
Responding to the strikes in his nightly video address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said: “All of these crimes will be answered, legally and quite practically – on the battlefield.”
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Latest developments:
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Belarus announces start of military exercises
Belarus announced it was starting military exercises Wednesday, insisting it had no plans to threaten any neighbors.
Russia used Belarus as a staging ground in its invasion, and the U.S. government has wanted citizens not to travel to Belarus and closed its embassy there due to its involvement in the invasion.
The military exercises would assess the readiness and capability of the country’s armed forces, and the military’s ability to operate on “unknown terrain in a rapidly changing situation,” the Belarusian Defense Ministry said.
It said the maneuvers “do not threaten the European community in general and any neighboring countries in particular.”
— Celina Tebo