1 killed, 10 wounded as Russian forces hit Ukrainian museum

KYIV: A Russian missile hit a museum building in a Ukrainian city on Tuesday, killing one of its workers and wounding 10 other people, part of a relentless barrage that comes as Ukraine is readying its forces for an expected spring counteroffensive.

Ukrainian officials said the Russian military used S-300 air defense missiles to attack Kupiansk in the Kharkiv region, hitting the museum of local history in the city center.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy posted a video from the site that shows the ruined building and emergency responders examining the damage.

“The terrorist country is doing everything to destroy us completely,” Zelenskyy said. “Our history, our culture, our people. Killing Ukrainians with absolutely barbaric methods.”

Kharkiv regional Gov. Oleh Syniehubov said that three people were hospitalized and seven received minor injuries. Two others were still believed to be under the rubble but the authorities didn’t specify their condition. Emergency responders were working to recover them.

Kupiansk was captured by Russian forces in the earlier stages of the Russian invasion but was reclaimed by Ukrainian forces in a surprise counteroffensive in September that saw the Russians driven out of broad swaths of the Kharkiv region.

A woman also died in Russian shelling of the town of Dvorichna, near Kupiansk, and two civilians were killed in the eastern Donetsk region, according to the Ukrainian presidential office.

The Ukrainian military is now preparing for a new massive counteroffensive, relying on the latest supplies of Western battle tanks and other weapons and fresh troops that were trained in the West.

Zelenskyy on Tuesday met with the top military brass to discuss the battlefield situation as well as prospects for new weapons supplies and the preparation of troops.

“We have to accelerate the pace of weapons supply because every day of delay is the lives of our soldiers,” Zelenskyy said on Facebook.

Ukraine’s military intelligence chief, Maj. Gen. Kyrylo Budanov, in an interview with RBC-Ukraine released Monday, described the planned counteroffensive as a “landmark battle in Ukraine’s modern history” that would see the country “reclaim significant areas.”

The Kremlin, meanwhile, has regularly reminded the West about Russia’s nuclear arsenal in a bid to discourage the U.S. and its allies from ramping up weapons supplies to Ukraine.

In the latest such statement, Dmitry Medvedev, deputy head of the Security Council chaired by Russian President Vladimir Putin, warned Tuesday that “the world is likely on the verge of another world war” and declared that Moscow wouldn’t hesitate to use nuclear weapons if it faced an existential threat.

Medvedev pointed at Russia’s nuclear doctrine envisaging that it could atomic weapons in response to a nuclear attack or an attack with conventional weapons that threatens “the very existence” of the Russian state.

“Our potential adversaries shouldn’t underestimate that,” Medvedev said.