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'Russia has failed to gain control of air': UK on Ukraine resistance
Ukraine war: Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelensky has been constantly urging the western countries to "close the skies".
Russia has failed to gain control of the Ukrainian airspace and is "largely relying on stand-off weapons launched from the relative safety of (the) Russian airspace to strike targets," the United Kingdom's ministry of defence said on Sunday as the war enters Day 25, citing intelligence inputs. "The Ukanian Air Force and Air Defence Forces are effectively continuing to defend the airspace," it added in its latest statement.
Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelensky has been constantly urging the western countries to "close the skies" with several cities under attack from Moscow - the offensive started on February 24. US president Joe Biden, however, had suggested that closing the skies would mean a further escalation of tensions between the NATO and Russia. A defiant Vladimir Putin earlier this month had slammed the West over the punitive measures prompted by the Ukraine conflict, saying that "your sanctions are akin" to war.
Gaining control of the air was "one of Russia’s principal objectives for the opening days of the conflict", the UK said, and "their continued failure to do so has significantly blunted their operational progress."
Large parts of the war-hit country - in the north, east and south - are bearing the impact of the offensive, the UK had earlier said, sharing a map.
Mariupol is one of the worst-hit cities where an iconic theatre was damaged on Thursday in Russian shelling. The building was shelering over a thousand people, including women and children, who were displaced due to the war. Rescue operations are still contiuing to pull the survivors out of rubble.
Meanwhile, the UK - lauding Kyiv - on Saturday said "the Kremlin has been surprised by the scale and ferocity of the Ukrainian resistance.
On Saturday, Moscow had also claimed that it had used hypersonic missiles in Ukraine for the first time.
But Ukraine’s Air Forces spokesman Yurii Ihnat said on Saturday that it has not been confirmed that the missile was indeed a hypersonic Kinzhal.
