The Ukrainian military said it struck an airfield in occupied Crimea as the European Union sent Kyiv the first €1.5 billion in proceeds from frozen Russian assets and Ukraine’s top diplomat said China wanted to help find a “fair and lasting” deal to end the war.
After reports of explosions at the Saky airfield early on Friday, Ukraine’s military said “units of the missile forces of the armed forces of Ukraine, in co-operation with other components of the defence forces”, had hit the base in the west of the Crimean peninsula, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014.
“This is one of the operational airfields that Russia uses to control airspace, in particular the Black Sea area, and to launch air strikes on Ukrainian territory,” the military added. “It is important to note that the airfield was covered by ‘modern’ Russian air defence systems, which once again failed to protect an important Russian military facility.”
Ukraine did not say what weapons were involved in the attack, but it has used western-supplied missiles and domestically produced drones to strike Russian air bases and air defence systems in what appears to be a campaign to weaken Moscow’s air power before US-made F-16s are finally delivered to Kyiv in the coming months.
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Moscow did not comment on Kyiv’s claims, which came as the EU announced it was transferring to Ukraine the first tranche of profits from more than €200 billion in Russian assets that were frozen in the European financial system after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of its pro-western neighbour in February 2022.
“The EU stands with Ukraine. Today we transfer €1.5 billion in proceeds from immobilised Russian assets to the defence and reconstruction of Ukraine,” said European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen. “There is no better symbol or use for the Kremlin’s money than to make Ukraine and all of Europe a safer place to live.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the “illegal” move by the EU was cause for a “well thought-out” response that would “fully correspond” to Russian interests: “Of course, such steps by the European Commission will not go unanswered,” he added.
The United States announced that the correction of accounting errors in its aid for Ukraine would allow it to supply Kyiv with an additional $2 billion (€1.8 billion) in arms.
At the end of a visit to China, Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba said he had been assured of Beijing’s “unshakeable” commitment to Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and its determination to help forge a “fair and lasting” peace deal between Kyiv and Moscow.
Beijing has deepened what it calls its “no-limits” relationship with Moscow in recent years and stayed away from a Ukrainian “peace summit” last month because Russia was not invited.
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