Ukraine prepares for Russian cruise missile attack, with warships poised to launch attack – World News

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi had predicted Russia would step up its deadly attacks ahead of Thursday’s EU summit in Brussels, Belgium

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Ukraine: Large fire sweeps through school after Russian attack

Ukraine is preparing for a wave of cruise missile attacks as six Russian warships line up and ready to launch an attack, Kyiv warned today.

The threat came as Ukrainian agents smashed up a secret Moscow spy ring and arrested two key Ukrainian figures in the capital for being on the Kremlin’s payroll.

And in eastern Ukraine, both sides took up positions in the Donbass as officials warned the next few days of street-to-street fighting would be the “bloody” ever.

Each of the six Russian warships is armed with six Kalibr cruise missiles and “are most likely preparing for a massive missile launch on the territory of Ukraine,” a Ukrainian official said.

With a range of around 1,000 miles, it is possible that Kyiv and western cities will be hit by the supersonic weapons.

The Daily Mirror has expressed fears that the Kremlin is preparing to step up rocket attacks on cities across Ukraine, including Kyiv, which remains the number one target.

On Tuesday, Luhansk region governor Serhiy Gaidai said Russian forces had gained some territory in the east, but commented on the current situation: “It’s a calm before the storm.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had predicted that Russia would step up attacks ahead of Thursday’s EU summit, which will discuss Kiev’s desire to join the bloc, and the main threat came from Severodonetsk.

Gaidai said Russian troops controlled most of Severodonetsk, apart from the Azot chemical plant, where more than 500 civilians, including 38 children, have been taking refuge for weeks.

On Tuesday, the first batch of German self-propelled howitzer artillery systems arrived in Ukraine in the first batch of heavy weapons promised by Berlin.

It can hit targets 25 miles away and will give the Ukrainians a shot if they can race against time to get them to the front lines.

In Odessa, Ukraine’s largest Black Sea port blocked by the Russian Navy, a Russian missile this week destroyed a food warehouse.

Ukrainian intelligence officials have detained a senior government official and a business leader suspected of being part of a suspected Russian spy network, the Security Service of Ukraine said on Tuesday.

The Security Service (SBU) did not name the two suspects, but identified them as a senior official in the Secretariat of the Cabinet of Ministers and a department head at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

A statement said the SBU had conducted a “multi-stage special operation” to neutralize the suspected spy ring.

It said: “As a result, the head of a department of the Secretariat of the Cabinet of Ministers and the head of one of the directorates of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry were arrested in Kyiv.

“These officers passed various intelligence information to the enemy:

from the state of our defense capabilities to state border precautions and personal data of Ukrainian law enforcement officials.”

The two main suspects sat in front of a Ukrainian flag in a video and admitted to collaborating with Moscow.

The SBU said Russia paid the suspects thousands of dollars per mission, one of them said he had been working for Moscow since 2016, the other since 2019.