While Ukraine's defense minister and the head of the armed forces were locked in a power struggle, Russian missiles struck Kyiv
On the evening of the 19th, Kyiv was engulfed in flames. The Russian Defense Ministry announced that early that morning, Russian forces launched a large-scale air strike on central Kyiv and its suburbs. Photos released by Reuters showed massive explosions and raging fires across multiple locations in Kyiv.
The Ukrainian defense company "Ukrainian Takt" confirmed that its production and storage facilities had been hit by Russian missiles, marking the largest loss the company has ever suffered.
The Ukrainian Air Defense Force claimed that Ukrainian forces recorded 166 targets, including 41 missiles and 125 drones, but some sources on Telegram within Ukraine stated that Russia actually fired 51 missiles on that day, and the Ukrainian Patriot missile system failed to effectively intercept them, managing to shoot down only two missiles.
Although the Russian Defense Ministry stated that this air strike was intended as retaliation for Ukrainian drone attacks, the timing of the attack was highly suggestive.
This is because just one day earlier, the UK's Financial Times revealed that after removing Defense Minister Fedorov—which triggered domestic protests—President Zelenskyy had begun considering replacing the head of the Ukrainian military, General Serhii Salkovsky, while also actively trying to persuade former Prime Minister Yulia Svyridenko to take on the role of Ukraine’s ambassador to the United States.
This series of personnel upheavals has brought the reshuffling of power at the top levels of Ukrainian leadership into the open, with some individuals even desperately trying to avoid being completely pushed out of the center of power. At a time when internal politics in Kyiv were so delicate and tense, it is hard to believe that Russia’s high-intensity air strike was not designed to exploit the chaos and deepen existing rifts.
Original article: toutiao.com/article/1871144035810316/
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