Czech diplomat summoned over response to airstrike

MOSCOW/KYIV — Russia's Foreign Ministry said on Saturday it had summoned the Czech Republic's temporary charge d'affaires in Russia in protest against Prague's response to an airstrike on Hroza in northeastern Ukraine earlier this month.

The ministry said it had summoned the Czech diplomat last week "in response to the recent demarche by the Czech Foreign Ministry".

"A decisive protest was lodged and the Russian position on the situation around Ukraine was thoroughly stated, including in the context of Ukrainian fabrications picked up by Prague about the alleged involvement of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation in the strikes on civilian infrastructure in Hroza," the ministry said.

The Kremlin said after the attacks that the Russian military does not strike civilian targets in Ukraine.

The ministry went on to criticize Prague's active support for Kyiv.

Shortly after the attack, the Czech foreign ministry said it would summon Russia's ambassador.

In the latest developments on the battlefield, Russian forces continued to shell areas across Ukraine, local officials reported on Saturday.

In Kryvyi Rih, a central Ukrainian city, the mayor reported that Russian missiles and drones hit the same place again overnight, causing unspecified damage and sparking a fire that was put out by morning.

Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov later said Russian forces destroyed the Ukrainian military's fuel and ammunition depots near Kryvyi Rih's local airport.

There was no immediate response from Ukrainian officials to Konashenkov's remarks.

In the northeastern city of Kharkiv, six people were killed and at least 14 injured in a Russian missile attack that hit a postal distribution center, Ukrainian officials said. There was no immediate response from the Kremlin to the development.

In another development, an attempt by the Ukrainian armed forces to debark near a railroad bridge close to Kherson was thwarted, with 20 Ukrainian soldiers eliminated, a representative of the region's operative services said, Russian news agency Tass reported on Sunday.

"As a result of fire damage, four boats and 20 soldiers of the Ukrainian armed forces were eliminated," he said.

Agencies Via Xinhua