Ukrainian Parliament Cancels Plenary Session Amid Concerns of Russian Airstrikes

Due to concerns over a Russian airstrike, the Ukrainian parliament canceled its plenary session on the 22nd (local time).

Volodymyr Zelenskyy, President of Ukraine / Photo by Yonhap News

Bloomberg News cited lawmaker Yaroslau Zheleznyak on the day, reporting that the plenary session was postponed to next week due to the possibility of an airstrike on the government office area in the capital, Kyiv.

With air raid alarms sounding almost daily in Kyiv, the news agency said this was the first time in recent months that the parliament took such a measure.

Some lawmakers voiced criticism. Opposition lawmaker Oleksiy Honcharenko said in a video posted on social media (SNS) that even in 2022, when Russian troops were stationed 20 km outside Kyiv, lawmakers gathered. He expressed concern that "this cancellation of the plenary session will play into the psychological warfare of Vladimir Putin (President of Russia)."

The Russia-Ukraine war recently surpassed 1,000 days since its outbreak, with tensions reaching a peak. As soon as the United States and the United Kingdom approved the use of long-range missiles, Ukraine immediately launched US-made ATACMS and UK-made Storm Shadow missiles toward Russian territory. In response, Russia retaliated with a counterattack on Dnipro, one of Ukraine's largest cities, using new missiles the day before. As the tension of the war escalated further, countries including the United States, Italy, Spain, and Greece closed their embassies in Kyiv.