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Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Kuleba Resigns as Russian Strikes Kill 7 People in Lviv 

Local residents walk past a burning car following a missile attack in Lviv on September 4, 2024. (AFP)
Local residents walk past a burning car following a missile attack in Lviv on September 4, 2024. (AFP)
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Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Kuleba Resigns as Russian Strikes Kill 7 People in Lviv 

Local residents walk past a burning car following a missile attack in Lviv on September 4, 2024. (AFP)
Local residents walk past a burning car following a missile attack in Lviv on September 4, 2024. (AFP)

Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, one of Ukraine's most recognizable faces on the international stage, submitted his resignation on Wednesday before an expected Cabinet reshuffle. Russian strikes, meanwhile, killed at least seven people in the Ukrainian city of Lviv, a day after one of the deadliest missile attacks since the war began.

Kuleba, 43, didn't give a reason for stepping down and his resignation will be discussed by lawmakers at their next session, parliamentary Speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk said on his Facebook page. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy indicated that a Cabinet reshuffle was imminent last week as he tries to strengthen the government 2½ years into the war.

During Russia’s war in Ukraine, Kuleba has been second only to Zelenskyy in carrying Ukraine’s message and needs to an international audience, whether through social media posts or meetings with foreign dignitaries. In July, Kuleba became the highest-ranking Ukrainian official to visit China since Russia’s full-scale invasion started in February 2022. He has been foreign minister since March 2020.

More than half the current Cabinet will undergo changes, said Davyd Arakhamiia, a leader of Zelenskyy’s party in the Ukrainian parliament. Ministers will be resigning on Wednesday and new appointments will be made Thursday, he said.

Russian attacks, meanwhile, killed at least seven people and wounded 35 others in an overnight strike on Lviv, Mayor Andrii Sadovyi said Wednesday morning. A child and a medical worker were among the dead and others are in critical condition, he said.

An overnight strike also wounded five people in Kryvyi Rih, Zelenskyy’s hometown, regional head Serhii Lysak said Wednesday morning.

Zelenskyy reacted to the attacks by urging Ukraine's allies to give Kyiv “more range” to use Western weapons to strike deeper into Russian territory.

The attack happened a day after two ballistic missiles blasted a military academy and nearby hospital in Poltava in Ukraine, killing more than 50 people and wounding more than 200 others, Ukrainian officials said, in one of the deadliest Russian strikes since the war began.

The missiles tore into the heart of the Poltava Military Institute of Communication’s main building, causing several stories to collapse.

The missiles hit shortly after an air-raid alert sounded, when many people were on their way to a bomb shelter, Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said, describing the strike Tuesday as “barbaric.”

Poltava is about 350 kilometers (200 miles) southeast of Kyiv, on the main highway and rail route between Kyiv and Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, which is close to the Russian border.

The attack happened as Ukrainian forces sought to carve out their holdings in Russia’s Kursk border region after a surprise Ukrainian incursion that began Aug. 6 and as the Russian army hacks its way deeper into eastern Ukraine.

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Kremlin Says Threat from the West Forces Change to Nuclear Doctrine 

A Russian Yars intercontinental ballistic missile system drives past an honor guard during a military parade on Victory Day, which marks the 77th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two, in Red Square in central Moscow, Russia May 9, 2022. (Reuters)
A Russian Yars intercontinental ballistic missile system drives past an honor guard during a military parade on Victory Day, which marks the 77th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two, in Red Square in central Moscow, Russia May 9, 2022. (Reuters)
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Kremlin Says Threat from the West Forces Change to Nuclear Doctrine 

A Russian Yars intercontinental ballistic missile system drives past an honor guard during a military parade on Victory Day, which marks the 77th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two, in Red Square in central Moscow, Russia May 9, 2022. (Reuters)
A Russian Yars intercontinental ballistic missile system drives past an honor guard during a military parade on Victory Day, which marks the 77th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two, in Red Square in central Moscow, Russia May 9, 2022. (Reuters)

The Kremlin said on Wednesday that Russia was adjusting its nuclear doctrine because the United States and its Western allies were threatening Russia by escalating the war in Ukraine and riding roughshod over Moscow's legitimate security interests.

Russia, the world's biggest nuclear power, is making changes to its nuclear doctrine - which sets out the circumstances under which Moscow would use such weapons - due to the West's increasing support for Ukraine which Russia invaded in 2022.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, in Moscow's most detailed explanation to date, linked the move directly to the "threats" created by the West and blamed the United States for destroying the post-Cold War security architecture of Europe.

The West, Peskov said, had rejected dialogue with Russia and taken a line of attack against its security interests while stoking "the hot war in Ukraine."

"It is the United States that is the ringmaster of the process of provoking tension," Peskov said.

Peskov indicated that revision of the nuclear doctrine was at an early stage, saying that the current tensions would be analyzed carefully and then form the basis of proposed changes.

Russia's current published nuclear doctrine, set out in a 2020 decree by President Vladimir Putin, says Russia may use nuclear weapons in case of a nuclear attack by an enemy or a conventional attack that threatens the existence of the state.

Russia and the United States are by far the world's biggest nuclear powers, holding about 88% of the world's nuclear weapons, according to the Federation of American Scientists. Both are modernizing their nuclear arsenals while China is rapidly boosting its nuclear arsenal.

The war in Ukraine has triggered the biggest confrontation between Russia and the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, with both sides saying they cannot afford to lose the conflict.

UKRAINE WAR

As Russia, which now controls 18% of Ukraine, advances, Kyiv has repeatedly asked for more Western weapons and permission to use Western-supplied long-range weapons in its attacks far into the Russian territory.

The US is close to an agreement to give Ukraine long-range cruise missiles that could reach deep into Russia, but Kyiv would need to wait several months as the US works through technical issues ahead of any shipment, US officials said.

Sending Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles (JASSM) to Ukraine could significantly alter the strategic landscape of the war by putting more of Russia in range of powerful, precision-guided munitions, an important concern of the Biden administration, the officials said.

Peskov said it was obvious that Ukraine would move to striking targets deep in Russia with Western weapons.

Russia's foreign ministry said if Russia was struck with long-range weapons, the response would be immediate and "extremely painful".

"They are losing their sense of reality, they absolutely do not think about the risks of further dangerous escalation of the conflict, even in the context of their own interests," Maria Zakharova, spokesperson for the foreign ministry, said.

"We would like to warn such irresponsible politicians in the EU, NATO, and overseas - in case of appropriate aggressive steps by the Kyiv regime, Russia's response will follow immediately."