Ukraine explosively avenges Russia's attack on Kyiv apartment block with oil blitz

Ukraine has vowed revenge after record deadly blitzes amid warnings that Putin could break one of the last taboos of the war, because Russia is under pressure in the near and in the deep.My name is Jerome Starkey.I'm the defence editor at The Sun newspaper.And this is Frontline, your weekly roundup of the most important news from the war in Ukraine.It has been a week of massive, devastating and deadly attacks.on Ukraine.

Ukraine has replied.But this has been a week where we've seen 2000 missiles and drones launched at targets across Ukraine, some 24 people killed in an airstrike on Kiev, the capital, dozens more injured in Kiev, right across the country from the far west to the centre of the country.And that is why President Zelensky has vowed revenge.In his words, asked the armed forces and the intelligence services to put forward possible formats for our response.That is, according to Ukrainian media, code for long -range strikes.Ukraine is going to hit back.

Devastating pictures and footage of an apartment block which has effectively collapsed or part of it collapsed under one of those bombardments.During two nights last week there were consecutive bombardments of more than 700 missiles and drones in each rolling 24 hour period.Zelensky called it non -stop continuous bombardments, a terror attack deliberately designed to overwhelm Ukraine's air defences to have the most damaging and devastating impact on Ukraine.

And Russia was able to do that in part because it had been stockpiling its weapons, because it had reduced the number of airstrikes in the run up to these massive blitzes.it had been able to do that in part precisely because Ukraine agreed to a ceasefire at the time.the behest of Presidents Trump and Putin to coincide with Russia's Victory Day parade.You'll remember that was put forward by the Americans and the Russians.Ukraine had initially countered with another offer.They did agree, ultimately, in order to secure a prisoner swap of a thousand prisoners.

And that allowed President Putin's much diminished parade to go forward.But the consequence of that has been that Russia has absolutely ramped up up attacks.Ukraine has not stopped its long range strikes either, although there was a pause for that ceasefire.In the last 24 hours, we've seen massive explosions at the Ryazan oil refinery.That's some 300 miles inside Russia, plant a Gazprom gas processing plant in Astrakhan.Some 550 miles inside Russia has also been hit.

The Yaisk airfield, that's about 100 miles from the closest Ukrainian territory, also hit.and the Taman port.These are respectively on the Black Sea and on the overlooking the Kerch Strait, which links sovereign Russia to occupied Crimea.So Ukraine continuing these strikes, continuing to demonstrate that it can hit Russia in the deep almost at times of its choosing.

And it appears to be negotiating something called an airport ceasefire, an idea that Ukraine might not close Russia's airports.

That could be in order to allow Ukraine to open its airspace, but that's unclear where that will go at the moment.Also, I said Russia's under pressure in the deep, but it's also under pressure slightly closer to the front lines.And this is there's been a lot of talk this week about the land bridge.That's the swathe of territory that linkssovereign Russia to the top of Crimea.So effectively it goes from Mariupol to Berdyansk to Melitopol and then to Chonhar which is one of the bridge crossings into the northernmost tip of the Crimean peninsula.

Now The chatter is that Ukraine has achieved what's called fire control over this land bridge.So I've talked about what the land bridge is.What is fire control?

Well, effectively, fire control is a military term for being able to deliver fire to a point at a time of your choosing.insufficient sort of mass and accuracy to have an effect that you want.In simple terms, it means that they can hold the roads at risk.So the roads that Russian forces must use to traverse that land bridge are vulnerable to Ukraine's medium range drones.

And that makes supplying those troops, particularly at the western end of that land bridge and potentially in Crimea, significantly more vulnerable, because as this war has progressed, increasingly what we've really seen is it's become a conflict of choking logistics.You could argue that about Ukraine's deep strikes.That's about reducing Russia's resources, but also these medium range strikes.We saw it the way that the Russians forced the Ukrainians back out of Kursk.

They choked the supply lines.We've seen it in the way that the kill zone has expanded.from five kilometres, 10 kilometres, now at least 50 kilometres behind the front lines, so that vehicles trying to support troops on the front lines are vulnerable.That land bridge, under threat, not the first time, but threatening that land bridge, just to show how important it was, that was the goal of the 2023 summer offensive, Ukraine's first big summer offensive, which ended disappointingly because the troops, Ukraine was unable to break through the Serovkin line.those well defended Russian lines.But what they wanted to do then was to punch south through Orekhov towards the Sea of Azov to cut that land bridge.

And if they couldn't cut it, then at least to get within artillery and rocket range of it.They couldn't do that in 2023, but they've found or maybe they found another way of doing it.And that's with these medium range drones.

I mentioned that Russia may be about to break one of the last taboos of the war.That taboo has been the decision by both sides not to hit civilian decision -making centres.That's the jargon word, decision -making centres, that Russia has used for it.But what it means is not hitting the parliaments, not hitting the institutions of government.It's unclear exactly why each side hasn't done this.

Ukraine did, or at least two very small drones did hit the Kremlin in one of those early strikes in Moscow, really a sort of demonstration rather than an attack of any significance.They were tiny drones hitting an enormous Kremlin palace.But for example, President Zelensky's offices, palace in Kiev have not been hit.The Kremlin has not really been hit.Parliament buildings in both countries have not been hit.But Ukraine announced today that they have received intelligence that Russia is planning strikes on decision -making centres, civilian and military.

Russia has threatened, explicitly threatened this before, and that was actually in previous threats seen as a threat aimed at Ukraine's Western backers, and that often led to evacuations of embassies.And that's usually been in response to increases of Western support.So, for example, the advent of a new missile system or a new weapons system in Ukraine that Russia is unhappy with.This would suggest, I think this contributes to the sense that Russia, that Putin is feeling under pressure.He's had that Victory Day parade.He's had that short ceasefire that he needed in order for that parade to go ahead.

And the very fact he needed that ceasefire was, in fact, a sign of Russian weakness or rather proof of Ukrainian strength, because they could hold that parade under some degree of threat.But we've also seen other signs and symptoms suggesting that Putin is feeling nervous and that's increased security around him and around Moscow, suggesting that he fears his own security and the security of his regime.Always tempting to think there's going to be a coup.

I'd caution any of us from thinking that immediately, but it does appear he's under pressure.Away from the battlefield.Good news.There has been a prisoner swap today.Some 205 prisoners have been released.in each direction, so Russian prisoners going home, Ukrainian prisoners going home.

That is the first tranche of the 1 ,000 each swap agreed in exchange for that Victory Day ceasefire.

In the politics inside Ukraine, we've seen President Zelensky's former right -hand man, Andriy Yermak, appear in a corruption court.He denies any wrongdoing.He's accused or he's been linked to the corrupt purchase and construction of a luxury home outside Kyiv.This is significant.Ukraine has been historically a corrupt country.

If that corruption is touching President Zelensky's inner circle or touching President Zelensky himself, then it's really significant because it risks undermining support for him and support among Ukraine's allies for supporting him if there are fears that all this money or that any of this money being sent in to support Ukraine might be stolen.Yermak has denied any wrongdoing.He's being investigated by Ukraine's own institutions, which were involved in a power struggle, have regained their authority.

And also in the politics.interesting reports, unconfirmed reports that Germany might consider buying Ukraine's Flamingo missiles as an alternative to Tomahawk.They are both long range cruise missiles.Tomahawk is significantly more capable, more resilient.

But nonetheless, this is to do with the ongoing row between Germany and Donald Trump.Most European NATO nations are being forced to consider alternatives to some extent to American weapons because of how erratic Donald Trump's policies towards Europe and NATO have been.

As ever, if you have any questions, please ask them in the comments below and I'll do my best to answer as many as I can next time.I'm going to get through three today.Interceptor drones.One of you asking if they cost two and a half thousand dollars each, isn't that still an extravagant way to shoot down Shahid drones?

Well, Potentially, yes.I mean, potentially these drones can be manufactured for even less than that.

But it's two and a half thousand dollars extravagant if that drone could kill someone, if that drone could destroy a home or a vehicle.

The destructive power of a single Shahed drone, I would argue that if it explodes, on its target or anywhere near sort of a collateral target is likely to be in excess of the cost of the interceptor drone.So and relative, of course, to the cost of a Patriot million dollars, then, in fact, these are incredibly efficient weapons to use.

Question number two, why do we not see the brutality of this war on mainstream media?I think it's a very good question.There's a couple of reasons.Fundamentally, the real horrors of this war, which are often recorded by the FPV drones, which show soldiers being killed, which show soldiers being maimed, which show the aftermath of civilian casualties.

It is horrific.And certainly the sort of taste and decency guidelines in what you call mainstream medialegacy media, newspapers and newspaper websites prohibit us from showing that sort of level of gore fundamentally because It's deeply disturbing and we are read by adults and children alike.You can find it if you really want to find it.I would urge you extreme caution.I've seen too much of it and try and avoid seeing it.

I don't think you need to see it to understand the horrors of what's happening.

And final question today.If an embassy was hit, if a foreign embassy was hit, would that be considered an act of war?

Short answer, possibly.It would depend on a couple of things.It would depend on the intent.of the strike.And let's say Russia hit an embassy in Kyiv, you could be certain that they would claim it was an accident, they would obfuscate, they would create uncertainty to try and wrongfoot the response.There are precedents for this throughout history, but perhaps the most memorable is in 1999, when America bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade.

Now, The official story and the most credible story perhaps is that that was an accident, but there were credible investigations at the time suggesting that it wasn't an accident.And in fact, the Chinese embassy had been rebroadcasting signals and gathering intelligence on American weapons for the benefit of the forces that America was fighting.What was the aftermath?Well, they didn't go to war.America didn't go to war with China.There was a pretty tense standoff, ferocious condemnation from Beijing.

America paid four and a half million dollars in compensation to the families of the Chinese victims and later 28 million dollars in compensation.Bear in mind, this was over 20 years ago to rebuild the damaged embassy.Thank you for your questions.

If you've got any, please ask them in the comments below.If you'd like to follow my defence work,

in the UK, then you can follow me at Jerome Starkey on Twitter or X and look forward to seeing you next time.