7 dead, including a 6-year-old boy, in Russian shelling of northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv. This was reported by Reuters on its website, quoting the Interior Ministry of Kiev. Among the 90 injured were also 12 children and 10 policemen. The Russian missile hit the central square, damaging a university and a theatre. People were going to church to celebrate a religious holiday when the attack took place, the ministry said.
Zelensky then posted a video of the site after the bombing showing debris around a large Soviet-era building, with cars parked around it partially destroyed, roofs shattered and windows blown out. Chernihiv region governor Vyacheslav Chaus earlier said the city center was probably hit by a ballistic missile and called on people to “stay in hiding”. Russian forces marched through Chernihiv when they invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, from several directions, including Belarus. They were then driven back by the Kievan forces. Since then, northern Ukraine has largely been spared the fierce fighting that has raged to the east and south.
Lavrov: “No to nuclear war but a deterrent is needed”
Russia remains “fully committed to the principle that nuclear war is unacceptable”, believes that “there can be no winners in such a conflict and consequently it should never be unleashed”. This was stated by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in an interview quoted by the Tass agency. “It is necessary to prevent any military confrontation between nuclear powers, because it risks turning into a nuclear confrontation: the most important objective at the moment is for each nuclear power to exercise maximum restraint”, stressed Lavrov. The Russian Foreign Minister then stated that “the possession of nuclear weapons in the context of deterrence is today the only possible response to some significant external threats” to Russia’s security, underlining that the “development of the situation” around Ukraine confirms the validity of Moscow’s concerns in this area. “The state policy in the field of nuclear deterrence – assured Lavrov – is exclusively defensive and aimed at maintaining the potential of nuclear forces at the minimum level necessary for the guaranteed defense of sovereignty and territorial integrity, preventing aggression against Russia and its allies”.
“The multilateral meetings on Ukraine in Jeddah and Copenhagen to which Russia was not invited show that the West has no intention of negotiating anything with Moscow,” the Russian foreign minister said. At the moment “there are no prospects for talks” on Ukraine “between Russia and the West” as “Western sponsors continue to push Kiev to up the ante,” Lavrov added. “The longer the armed clashes last, the less interest Western investors have in contributing to Ukraine’s post-war recovery and the weaker their confidence in Kiev’s success on the battlefield,” according to the Russian foreign minister. Lavrov questions whether “Kiev will be able to service its public debt. Taxpayers in Western countries – the Russian Foreign Minister then states – will have no choice but to carry the burden of unpaid debt, causing more inflation and lowering the standard of living”.