The latest in a litany of horrors in Ukraine came this week as Russian firepower rained down on civilians in a busy shopping center far from the front lines of a war in its fifth month. The timing was probably no coincidence. While much of the ravaging war in eastern Ukraine is hidden from view, the brutality of Russian rocket fire on a shopping mall in the central city of Kremenchuk and on residential buildings in the capital, Kyiv, unfolded in full view of the world, and especially Western leaders gathered for a trio of summits in Europe. Were the attacks a message from Russian President Vladimir Putin as the West sought to arm Ukraine with more effective weapons to bolster its resistance and put Ukraine on the path to joining the European Union? Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko suggested as much when rockets hit the capital on June 26, three days after EU leaders unanimously agreed to make Ukraine a candidate for membership. It was “perhaps a symbolic attack” as the Group of Seven and then NATO leaders prepared to meet and put further pressure on Moscow, he said. At least six people were killed in the attack in Kyiv, which hit an apartment building. The former commanding general of US military forces in Europe, retired Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, went further to link the attack and the meetings. “The Russians are humiliating the leaders of the West,” he said. A day after the attack in Kyiv, as G-7 leaders met in Germany to discuss further support for Ukraine during their annual summit, Russia fired missiles at a crowded shopping mall in the central Ukrainian city of Kremenchuk , killing at least 19 people. The timing of both attacks appeared to juxtapose with European meetings of US President Joe Biden, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron, all supporters of Ukraine. Defying the evidence, Putin and his officials deny that Russia hit populated areas. Putin denied Russian forces targeted the Kremenchuk mall, saying they were headed for a nearby weapons depot. However, Ukrainian officials and witnesses said a missile directly hit the mall. It was hardly the first time that outbursts of violence were widely seen as signs of Moscow’s displeasure. In late April, Russian missiles hit Kyiv just an hour after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky held a press conference with visiting UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. “This says a lot about Russia’s true attitude towards world institutions,” Zelensky said at the time. The mayor of Kyiv called the attack Putin’s way of giving the “middle finger.” The Russian president recently warned that Moscow would strike targets it had so far spared if the West supplied Ukraine with weapons that could reach Russia. If Kyiv acquires long-range missiles, Russia will “draw appropriate conclusions and use our means of destruction, of which we have many,” Putin said. On Friday, a day after Russian forces withdrew from Snake Island near the Black Sea port of Odessa following what Ukraine called an artillery and missile barrage, Russia shelled residential areas in a coastal town near Odessa, killing at at least 21 people, including two children. While Russia’s messages can be blunt and destructive, Ukraine’s signals under Zelensky are daily focused on seeking to reinforce Moscow’s toughness in a world that is increasingly at risk of war weariness. If interest wanes, the concerted support seen at world summits could also wane. and with it the urgent need to hand over the heavier weapons that Ukraine craves. Zelenskyy tends to combine calls for more aid with reminders that all of Europe is ultimately at stake. He described the mall attack as “one of the most daring terrorist attacks in European history”. Despite Ukraine’s undeniable plight, it was a bold statement of some exaggeration in the context of the mass-death extremist attacks in Paris, Nice, Brussels, Madrid and London this century alone. For Zelensky and Ukraine, the underlying demand cannot be repeated enough: more heavy weapons, and faster, before Russia might make irreversible gains in the eastern industrial region of Donbas, where street-to-street fighting continues. In his nightly public speeches, Zelenskyy also takes care to document the traumatic toll on daily life in Ukraine, reaching far beyond world leaders to the wider world. This week, he accused Russia of sabotaging “people’s efforts to live a normal life.” Images of the mall’s trash said the rest. —— Fakahany reported from London.
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