In the gory theatre of the Russia-Ukraine war, any hope of China-brokered peace talks appears to have left the stage — at least for now. “Only absolute evil can unleash such terror,” said Volodymyr Zelenskyy, President of Ukraine, on Twitter this morning, after Russia launched yesterday one of its most destructive attacks in months, flattening civilian areas with cruise missiles and drones. A tweet from the Ukraine Ministry of Defence this morning called Vladimir Putin, President of Russia, a “cannibal” who eats people.
At last count, at least 23 people were killed in the city of Uman, Ukraine, when two missiles hit an apartment building while it was dark and people were sleeping. This morning, tweeting a picture of Putin next to a photo of a mother and child killed in the city of Dnipro in the missile attack, the Ukraine Ministry of Defence posted: “…remember, the cannibal negotiates and then eats again.”
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An enraged Zelenskyy said in his tweet that Uman was “absolutely peaceful, known to the whole world for hosting tens of thousands of Hasidic pilgrims every year”. He also claimed that the Ukrainian Air Force shot down “21 out of 23” Russian missiles, thereby saving many lives.
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He reiterated his urgent call for allies to help Ukraine with military equipment, stating that the Ukrainian Air Force success at taking down Russian missiles “proves once again that we can stop terror and save people only with weapons”.