Putin hints at his plan to attack Ukraine's capital, says ‘troops already near Kyiv’

Russian President Vladimir Putin, in a statement, hinted at another attempt to capture the Ukrainian capital city Kyiv and threatened to launch a new offensive. Ignoring the botched attack by Russia on Kyiv which changed a "three-day special military operation" into months of full-scale war, Putin stated that he was taking into consideration a second attempt. The statement was made by Putin while speaking to military bloggers and war reporters.

Russian troops "already were near Kyiv", he stated. “Should we come back there or not? Only I could give an answer,” Putin said. Moscow can try to carve out more territories of Ukraine to stop shelling into Russia, following attacks on the Belgorod and Kursk regions, explained Putin.

President Vladimir Putin termed it a "sanitary zone" at the border and said that the amount of territory Russia can capture depends "on potentials that emerge after the so-called [Ukrainian] counteroffensive".

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Russian missilesstrike southern and eastern Ukraine

Meanwhile, southern and eastern Ukraine were hit by deadly Russian missile strikes on Wednesday. Air defences of Ukraine fought back as Russia fired four Kalibr missiles from a ship in the Black Sea on the port city Odesa, stated Ukraine's air force, adding that three of them were shot down.

A food warehouse was hit by one missile in which three employees were killed and seven others were wounded, said Oleg Kiper, the head of the region's military administration. "There may be people under the rubble," he added.

Meanwhile, six people suffered injuries after a business centre was hit. A residential complex in the city centre and a shop were damaged "as a result of air combat and the blast wave", he stated.

Belarus receives delivery of Russian nuclear weapons

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko stated that his country is taking delivery of tactical nuclear weapons from Russia, some of which were claimed to be three times more powerful compared to the atomic bombs that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.

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"We have missiles and bombs that we have received from Russia," said Lukashenko in an interview with the Rossiya-1 Russian state TV channel which was shared on the Belarusian Belta state news agency's Telegram channel.

"The bombs are three times more powerful than those (dropped on) Hiroshima and Nagasaki," he added.

"We have always been a target. They (the West) have wanted to tear us to pieces since 2020. No one has so far fought against a nuclear country, a country that has nuclear weapons," Lukashenko said.

(With inputs from agencies)

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