Countrywide air alert in Ukraine due to missile threat

Kathmandu: Ukraine’s military said an air raid alert had been declared across the country, reporting inbound missiles targeting several regions.

Ukraine’s air force in a message on Telegram ‘Air raid alert has been declared all over the territory of Ukraine due to a missile threat’ and added in other messages that missiles were detected headed for Kharkiv, Odesa and eight other regions. “Kharkiv, go to the shelters!” the air force said in a Telegram message.

The latest missile salvo comes a day after US president-elect Donald Trump named staunch loyalist and retired general Keith Kellogg as his Ukraine envoy, charged with ending the two-and-a-half-year Russian invasion. Trump campaigned on a platform of securing a swift end to the Ukraine war, boasting that he would quickly mediate a ceasefire deal between President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

But his critics have warned that the incoming Republican will likely leverage US military aid to pressure Kyiv into an agreement that leaves it ceding occupied territory permanently or agreeing not to join NATO. “I am very pleased to nominate General Keith Kellogg to serve as Assistant to the President and Special Envoy for Ukraine and Russia,” Trump said in a statement on social media.

Ukraine received almost $60 billion from Washington for its armed forces since Russia launched a full-scale invasion in February 2022, but with the more isolationist Trump taking over the White House, supporters fear the spigot will run dry.  ‘The United States would continue to arm Ukraine and strengthen its defenses to ensure Russia will make no further advances and will not attack again after a cease-fire or peace agreement,” Kellogg’s research paper for the Trumpist America First Policy Institute think tank said.

Ukraine is facing an “existential” recruitment crunch, a senior administration official told reporters. ‘The simple truth is that Ukraine is not currently mobilizing or training enough soldiers to replace their battlefield losses while keeping pace with Russia’s growing military’  said the official, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby later clarified that the White House would not make the huge flow of US military aid to Kyiv dependent on a conscription age change.

RSS/ AFP