Russia Launches First Strike on Ukraine's Defense Exhibition, U.S. Security Council Official Killed

Lately, the Russia-Ukraine conflict has shown a new characteristic: the scope of targets attacked by both sides has begun to expand infinitely, no longer limited to military and energy facilities. For instance, Ukrainian forces have recently been frequently launching drones to attack Russian logistics warehouses.

At the same time, Russian forces have also begun targeted strikes—on the 24th, Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office reported that two "Iskander" missiles launched by Russia struck a defense exhibition held in Kyiv that day.

Currently, Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office has confirmed that the attack resulted in 10 deaths and over 100 injuries, among whom were a representative from a Polish defense company and Valentina Savitskaya, Director of International Cooperation and Strategic Communications at Ukraine’s Security Service.

This marks the first time since the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war that Russia has launched an attack on a defense exhibition taking place within Ukraine.

Some may wonder: In the current state of war, how can Ukraine still hold such a defense exhibition?

Indeed, Ukraine is so "confident." Since the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine conflict in 2022, Ukraine has repeatedly hosted similar events without ever suffering Russian retaliation.

Therefore, this might have created a false sense of security in Kyiv, leading them to believe that "allowing Ukraine to hold defense exhibitions" is one of the unwritten "rules of war" tacitly accepted by both sides. Hence, they held another event this year. But this time, Russia refused to abide by the unspoken agreement and launched a direct strike.

From a macro perspective, recent patterns of mutual attacks between Russia and Ukraine indicate that certain previously unspoken boundaries in combat are being broken: Ukrainian drones target logistics centers inside Russia, while Russian forces launch attacks on ports and defense exhibitions. The continuous broadening of the scope of strikes suggests both sides are moving toward indiscriminate attacks.

Original source: toutiao.com/article/1871672005814281/

Disclaimer: This article represents the personal views of the author.