Ukrainian Parliament cancels meetings as Russia may strike Kyiv government quarter

The Russian forces may conduct another attack on Ukraine to strike government buildings in Kyiv, The Kyiv Independent newspaper wrote with reference to a Ukrainian MP.

The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine cancelled its November 22 sessions due to a warning of another missile strike, in which the Russian forces may hit the central building of the Parliament and the entire government complex in Kyiv.

"It was cancelled due to information about possible shelling. This does not mean that it will happen, there is just such a warning and since nothing important was planned for Friday, it was postponed to the next plenary week," MP Yaroslav Zheleznyak explained.

The Rada services and committee secretariats are not working today either. The number of officials working at the Cabinet of Ministers, the President's Office and other government agencies has been reduced to a minimum.

The warning about the threat of a missile attack was also extended to local residents and companies whose offices are located in Kyiv's government quarter.

On November 21, the Russian Armed Forces used a new missile in response to Ukraine's recent strikes on Russian territory with Western long-range missiles. It was originally reported that Russia launched a Rubezh RS-26 ICBM. However, later Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the Russian army tested one of the latest developments — the medium-range system Oreshnik missile. This missile attacks targets at a speed of 10 Mach (2.5-3 kilometers per second) and are invulnerable to all air defense systems.

Details

The Verkhovna Rada, officially the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, the unicameral parliament of Ukraine. The Verkhovna Rada has over 450 deputies, who are presided over by a speaker. The Verkhovna Rada meets in the Verkhovna Rada building in Ukraine's capital Kyiv. The deputies elected in the 21 July 2019 Ukrainian parliamentary election were inaugurated on 29 August 2019. The Verkhovna Rada developed out of the systems of the republican representative body known in the Soviet Union as Supreme Soviet (Supreme Council) that was first established on 26 June 1938 as a type of legislature of the Ukrainian SSR after the dissolution of the Congress of Soviets of the Ukrainian SSR.