Wars 2022 02/24 Monitoring Russian and Ukraine War.

[Saif]

Kyiv targeted in massive Russian drone barrage overnight

Kyiv was targeted by another ‘massive’ Russian drone attack that wounded two people, damaged buildings and sparked fires in several districts, Ukrainian authorities said on Thursday.

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Kyiv targeted in massive Russian drone barrage overnight
Agence France-Presse . Kyiv, Ukraine 08 November, 2024, 01:42

Rescuers are working at the site of a missile attack in Zaporizhzhia on Thursday. A Russian strike on the frontline city of Zaporizhzhia damaged a hospital, killed one person, and wounded 10 more, including a medic and a child, the regional governor said on social media. | AFP photo

Kyiv was targeted by another ‘massive’ Russian drone attack that wounded two people, damaged buildings and sparked fires in several districts, Ukrainian authorities said on Thursday.

Officials meanwhile in the south and east of the country said Russian attacks had killed two Ukrainian civilians in Kherson and Sumy.

Russia has systematically targeted the capital with drone and missile barrages since the first day of its invasion launched nearly three years ago on February 24, 2022.

The capital was targeted by drone attacks on six days in the first week of November and 20 days in October, officials said.

‘The attack took place in waves, from different directions, with drones entering the city at different altitudes — both very low and high,’ the city administration said.

It added that more than 36 drones had been downed over the capital and the surrounding area and that falling debris had fallen on six districts of Kyiv and wounded two people.

AFP journalists heard air raid sirens ring out over the capital beginning shortly after midnight Kyiv time and the alert lasted some eight hours.

The reporters also heard drones buzzing over the city and air defence systems working to shoot down the drones.

The attack caused a fire in a 30-storey residential building in the city centre, and residents had to be evacuated, the mayor’s office said.

The head of the Kherson region meanwhile said the body of a deceased man was recovered from the rubble of a house destroyed by the attack in a Russian attack overnight.

In the eastern Sumy region, the body of another killed person was recovered following a Russian airstrike hours earlier, the interior ministry said.​

 

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[Saif]

Russian drones, missiles pummel cities across Ukraine

Russian bombardments of Ukrainian cities overnight killed at least one person and wounded more than three dozen more authorities said on Friday, as Moscow escalated...

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Russian drones, missiles pummel cities across Ukraine
Agence France-Presse . Kharkiv, Ukraine 09 November, 2024, 00:57

Rescuers of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine work in a multi-story building, damaged after an airstrike in Kharkiv on Friday, amid the Russian invasion in Ukraine. | AFP photo

Russian bombardments of Ukrainian cities overnight killed at least one person and wounded more than three dozen more authorities said on Friday, as Moscow escalated its bombing campaign of civilian hubs.

Rescue workers were taking stock of the damage as officials in Kyiv announced that a Russian strike one day earlier in the industrial city of Zaporizhzhia had killed a toddler, his mother and grandmother.

AFP journalists in Kharkiv — Ukraine’s second-largest city — saw first responders hauling panicked civilians from Soviet-era residential buildings damaged in the strike that were littered with broken glass and rubble.

‘Throughout the evening and night, terrorists attacked our cities and communities. Missiles, drones and glide bombs were used against the Odesa, Kharkiv and Kyiv regions,’ president Volodymyr Zelensky said on social media.

‘It is important to act together and decisively at the international level every time Russia tries to destroy our lives,’ he said, appealing to allies for more military aid.

The air force said Moscow had launched five missiles, 92 drones as well as the glide bombs across Ukraine overnight. Its units downed four missiles and 62 drones, the statement added.

Authorities in Zaporizhzhia, which was struck on Thursday afternoon, said the toll from that attack had risen again to 10, while an advisor to Zelensky’s chief of staff said among those killed were three members of one family.

‘A woman with a one-and-a-half-year-old son and a grandmother died in Zaporizhzhia as a result of a Russian strike,’ advisor Daria Zarivna wrote on social media.

In Kharkiv, which Russia is increasingly targeting in night-time bombardments, 25 people were wounded in attacks on residential and commercial districts of the city.

Four people were wounded near Kyiv, which had been targeted almost daily over the last month and where AFP journalists heard air raid sirens and at least one explosion echo out over the capital.

In the historic Black Sea city of Odesa, one person was killed and nine others were wounded in an attack that damaged residential buildings, authorities said.

Later, authorities in the southern region of Kherson, which is also partly occupied, said a 74-year-old man had been killed by Russian shelling.

The latest night of deadly strikes comes at a critical moment of the war — launched by the Kremlin nearly three years ago.

Ukrainian forces are losing ground in the east of the country and concerns are mounting in Kyiv over the future of foreign military aid after the victory of Donald Trump in the United States presidential election.

Zaporizhzhia city, where authorities said more than 40 people had been wounded in Thursday’s strike, has also come under increasing Russian aerial bombardments in recent weeks.

Six people were killed in a strike on an industrial sector of the city earlier this week.

In late 2022, the Kremlin claimed to have annexed the wider Zaporizhzhia region, alongside the Donetsk region where Russian forces are advancing rapidly, despite not having full military control over them.

Russian officials in occupied Ukrainian territory in Donetsk meanwhile said that Ukrainian drones had killed two employees of a utilities company.​

 

[Saif]

Ukraine launches biggest drone attack on Moscow

Ukraine yesterday attacked Moscow with at least 34 drones, the biggest drone strike on the Russian capital since the start of the war in 2022, forcing flights to be diverted from three of the city’s major airports and injuring at least one person.

www.thedailystar.net

Ukraine launches biggest drone attack on Moscow
Russia downs 34 drones; Kyiv destroys 62 of 145 drones launched by Moscow

Ukraine yesterday attacked Moscow with at least 34 drones, the biggest drone strike on the Russian capital since the start of the war in 2022, forcing flights to be diverted from three of the city's major airports and injuring at least one person.

Russian air defences destroyed another 36 drones over other regions of Western Russia in three hours yesterday, the defence ministry said.

"An attempt by the Kyiv regime to carry out a terrorist attack using an airplane-type drones on the territory of the Russian Federation was thwarted," the ministry said.

Russia's federal air transport agency said the airports of Domodedovo, Sheremetyevo and Zhukovsky diverted at least 36 flights, but then resumed operations. One person was reported injured in Moscow region.

Moscow and its surrounding region, with a population of at least 21 million people, is one of the biggest metropolitan areas in Europe, alongside Istanbul.

For its part, Russia launched a record 145 drones overnight, Ukraine said. Kyiv said its air defences downed 62 of those. Ukraine also said it attacked an arsenal in the Bryansk region of Russia, which reported 14 drones had been downed in the region.

Unverified video posted on Russian Telegram channels showed drones buzzing across the skyline.

The 2-1/2-year-old war in Ukraine is entering what some officials say could be its final act after Moscow's forces advanced at the fastest pace since the early days of the war and Donald Trump was elected 47th president of the US.

Trump, who takes office in January, said during campaigning that he could bring peace in Ukraine within 24 hours, but has given few details on how he would seek to do this.

When Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called Trump to congratulate him on his presidential election victory, Tesla CEO and Trump supporter Elon Musk joined the call, according to media reports. Musk owns SpaceX, which provides Starlink satellite communication services that are vital for Ukraine's defence effort.​

 

[Saif]

US vows ‘firm’ response to North Korea deployment in Ukraine conflict

US top diplomat Antony Blinken warned Wednesday that the deployment of North Korean troops alongside Russian forces fighting on the Ukrainian border demanded a ‘firm response’...

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US vows ‘firm’ response to North Korea deployment in Ukraine conflict
Agence France-Presse . Brussels 13 November, 2024, 22:46

US top diplomat Antony Blinken warned Wednesday that the deployment of North Korean troops alongside Russian forces fighting on the Ukrainian border demanded a ‘firm response’.

The secretary of state was speaking at the start of a day of Brussels talks with NATO and EU officials to urgently address ramping up support for Kyiv before Donald Trump reclaims the White House — potentially jeopardising future aid.

Addressing reporters alongside NATO chief Mark Rutte, Blinken said they had discussed the fact North Korean forces have been ‘injected into the battle, and now, quite literally, in combat which demands and will get a firm response.’

The US State Department confirmed Tuesday that Pyongyang’s troops — whose entry into the conflict marks a potentially major escalation — have begun ‘engaging in combat operations’ alongside Russian forces near the border with Ukraine.

A spokesman said that of the more than 10,000 North Korean soldiers sent to eastern Russia, ‘most of them have moved to the far western Kursk Oblast, where they have begun engaging in combat operations with Russian forces’.

Rutte meanwhile stressed the crucial role played by China in helping Russia’s ‘war effort’, as well as Iranian weapons deliveries — paid for with Russian funds that were in turn helping Tehran to ‘destabilise the Middle East’.

Blinken was taking part in a meeting of the North Atlantic Council, NATO’s decision-making body, before talks with European Union top diplomat Josep Borrell, his successor Kaja Kallas and Ukraine’s foreign minister Andriy Sybiga.

His emergency trip comes as Trump’s election victory, coupled with a political crisis in Germany, heightens fears about the future of assistance for Ukraine at a key point in the fight against Russia’s invasion.

Trump has in the past voiced admiration for Russian president Vladimir Putin and scoffed at the $175 billion the United States committed for Ukraine since the start of the war in 2022.

The 78-year-old tycoon, who will be inaugurated on January 20, spoke with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky after winning re-election following a first stint as president between 2017 and 2021.

He has boasted he can end the war in a day, likely by forcing concessions from Ukraine, although his newly named national security advisor, Mike Waltz, said Trump may also pressure Putin.

The Washington Post reported the Republican leader also held a phone call with Putin and discouraged an escalation by Russia. The Kremlin denied the report.

US media reported Trump might pick Republican Senator Marco Rubio to replace Blinken as secretary of state.

Rubio is seen as supportive of Kyiv but has also said Washington should show ‘pragmatism’ rather than sending billions of dollars more in weapons as the war hit a ‘stalemate’.

The Biden administration has made clear it plans in its remaining weeks to push through the more than $9 billion of remaining funding appropriated by Congress for weapons and other security assistance to Ukraine.

Mark Cancian, senior advisor at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, expected the United States to focus in particular on sending vehicles, medical supplies and small-arms ammunition, which Ukraine needs and the United States can provide.

‘Between now and the end of the administration, they’re going to try to ship everything they can that’s available,’ Cancian said.

Despite Kyiv’s pleas it seems unlikely, however, that Washington will lift its veto on Ukraine’s use of long-range missiles to strike deep into Russian territory.

Trump in his first term aggressively pushed Europe to step up defence spending and questioned the fairness of the NATO transatlantic alliance — robustly defended by Biden.

‘Whatever approach the US leadership takes towards Ukraine, Europe will have to step up, and we will have to take the lead in supporting Ukraine’s defence efforts and macro financial stability,’ said Olena Prokopenko of the German Marshall Fund of the United States.

‘Unfortunately, Donald Trump’s win comes at arguably the worst possible time in terms of Europe’s political and economic shape and its ability to promptly coordinate’.​

 

[Saif]

Russia launches drone, missile barrage on Kyiv

Russia escalated its attacks on Kyiv early Wednesday, launching waves of drones and missiles in its first combined aerial assault on the capital in more than 70 days, authorities said...

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Russia launches drone, missile barrage on Kyiv
Agence France-Presse . Kyiv, Ukraine 14 November, 2024, 04:09

Russia escalated its attacks on Kyiv early Wednesday, launching waves of drones and missiles in its first combined aerial assault on the capital in more than 70 days, authorities said.

The attack came as the US State Department echoed warnings from Ukraine that North Korean troops have begun ‘engaging in combat operations’ alongside Russian forces on the border between the warring countries.

Ukraine’s air force said its units had downed four missiles and 37 drones launched by Russia over eight regions of Ukraine overnight and into Wednesday morning.

‘It is important that our forces have the means to defend the country from Russian terror,’ president Volodymyr Zelensky said in response to the attack.

Ukraine has for months been appealing to its Western allies to provide more air-defence systems to fend off Russian attacks on cities and critical infrastructure.

The large-scale bombardment comes at critical moment on the battlefield. Russian forces are advancing in the east and concerns are growing over future aid after US Donald Trump’s victory in presidential elections.

AFP journalists heard explosions ring out over the city and saw dozens of Kyiv residents seeking shelter in an underground metro station in the centre of the capital.

Kyiv officials said one man was wounded by falling debris from a downed drone in the suburb of Brovary, while emergency services distributed images of firefighters battling flames at one impact site.

A separate drone attack in the Ukrainian-controlled southern region of Kherson, which the Kremlin claims is part of Russia, killed a 52-year-old woman, the regional head said.

Multiple air raid sirens rang out early Wednesday as authorities announced missiles were closing in on Kyiv, which was home to nearly three million people before Russia invaded in February 2022.

‘As missiles were approaching Kyiv, the enemy simultaneously launched a ballistic missile attack on the capital. The enemy attack ended with another drone strike,’ city authorities said.

The attack is the latest in an uptick in escalating strikes on Ukrainian cities mainly in the south of the war-battered country.

A Russian strike this week on Kryvyi Rig, Zelensky’s hometown, killed a 32-year-old mother and her three children.

The Kremlin has repeatedly denied its forces target civilians in Ukraine, a claim its spokesman repeated Wednesday in response to a question over whether Russian forces were working to minimise civilian casualties.

‘Russian forces treat the civilian population with great care. Strikes are conducted only on military targets,’ Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, adding that Russia would continue its attacks.

Last week, Moscow and Kyiv launched record overnight drone attacks on each other.

Russian ground forces have been making rapid advances in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, which the Kremlin claims is part of Russia.

On Wednesday, the defence ministry in Moscow said its troops had wrested control of the village of Rivnopil, where an estimated 98 people lived prior to the invasion.

As the Kremlin’s forces advance westwards, Kyiv has warned that Russia has amassed a force of 50,000 troops — including North Korean soldiers — to push out Ukrainian forces from the Russian border region of Kursk.

In Brussels, US secretary of state Antony Blinken on Wednesday warned about the deployment of North Korean troops alongside Russian forces fighting on the Ukrainian border.

Blinken said he discussed with NATO chief Mark Rutte the fact that North Korean forces have been ‘injected into the battle, and now, quite literally, in combat which demands and will get a firm response.’​

 

[Saif]

Biden clears Ukraine for long-range missile strikes inside Russia

US President Joe Biden has cleared Kyiv to use long-range American missiles against military targets inside Russia, a US official told AFP on Sunday, hours after Russia targeted Ukraine's power grid in a deadly barrage...Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has long pushed for auth

www.thedailystar.net

Biden clears Ukraine for long-range missile strikes inside Russia

Photo: AFP

US President Joe Biden has cleared Kyiv to use long-range American missiles against military targets inside Russia, a US official told AFP on Sunday, hours after Russia targeted Ukraine's power grid in a deadly barrage.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has long pushed for authorisation from Washington to use the powerful Army Tactical Missile System, known by its initials ATACMS, to hit targets inside Russia.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, was confirming reports from The New York Times and The Washington Post that the major policy shift -- long demanded by Ukraine -- was in response to North Korea deploying troops to help Moscow's war effort.

Poland was among the first to welcome the development.

"With the entry into the war of North Korea troops and (Sunday's) massive attack of Russian missiles, President Biden responded in a language that (Russian President) V.Putin understands," Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski posted on X.

"The victim of aggression has the right to defend himself," he added.

News of Biden's decision came hours after Ukraine announced nationwide emergency power restrictions from Monday after Russia's massive attack, which killed 19 civilians and further damaged the country's already fragile energy grid.

The latest deaths, including one child, came in a strike Sunday evening in the northeast town of Sumy.

State power company Ukrenergo announced the power cuts on Sunday, with Ukraine's much-feared winter approaching.

Russia's latest barrage brought swift international condemnation.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres denounced the attack, which his spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement had targeted "energy and critical civilian infrastructure".

EU chief Ursula von der Leyen described the attack on the power grid as "horrible" in comments to Brazil's Globo News.

"We will stand by Ukraine for as long as it takes," she added. "Ukraine can count on us."

Zelensky said Moscow launched 120 missiles and almost 100 drones, targeting Kyiv as well as southern, central and far-western corners of the country.

The attack, which officials said was one of Russia's largest, came as Moscow's assault neared its 1,000th day, which will be marked at the United Nations on Monday, attended by Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga.

Civilians were killed in the Mykolaiv, Lviv, Kherson, Dnipropetrovsk and Odesa regions.

Biden's announcement -- and the latest devastation -- came at a time when Moscow has been steadily advancing in Ukraine's east. The imminent return of Donald Trump to the White House has raised fears over the future of US support for Kyiv.

Many fear a third winter of war will be the toughest yet. Previous Russian attacks have already destroyed half of Ukraine's energy production capacity, Zelensky has warned.

Sunday's barrage came two days after German Chancellor Olaf Scholz called Russian President Vladimir Putin for the first time in almost two years, urging the Kremlin chief to end Moscow's devastating offensive.

Ukraine was quick to criticise Berlin's initiative as "attempt at appeasement". On Sunday, it said the latest attack was the Kremlin's real answer.

"This is war criminal Putin's true response to all those who called and visited him recently," Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga said.

"We need peace through strength, not appeasement."

Scholz on Sunday defended the call, insisting that Berlin's backing for Kyiv was unwavering.

"Ukraine can count on us," he said before flying to a G20 meeting in Brazil, adding that "No decision will be taken behind Ukraine's back."

But Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk joined the backlash on Sunday.

"No one will stop Putin with phone calls. The attack last night, one of the biggest in this war, has proved that telephone diplomacy cannot replace real support from the whole West for Ukraine," Tusk wrote on X.

And French President Emmanuel Macron, speaking from the Mercosur summit in Argentina, said Putin "does not want peace" in Ukraine and "is not ready to negotiate" an end to the war.

"It's a matter for Chancellor Scholz who he speaks to," said British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. "I have no plans to speak to Putin."

He added that the deployment of North Korean troops alongside Russian forces showed Moscow's "desperation", but also had "serious implications for European security".

Moscow said it had hit all its targets, saying it had aimed for an "essential energy infrastructure supporting the Ukrainian military-industrial complex".

But civilian deaths were reported across the country from the strikes overnight Saturday to Sunday.

In one strike, a 66-year-old woman was killed in her car in the village of Sheptytsky, about 20 kilometres (12 miles) from the Polish border, said the head of the Lviv region, Maksym Kozytsky.

That prompted NATO-member Poland to scramble fighter jets and mobilise all available forces on Sunday in response, which it does whenever attacks against its neighbouring country are deemed likely to create a danger for its own territory.

Russia said Ukrainian drones attacks had killed a man in its border Belgorod region and a woman -- named as local journalist Yulia Kuznetsova -- in the border Kursk region.

Kursk leader Alexei Smirnov said she had been reporting on the "situation in the region", where a Ukrainian incursion has displaced thousands of people.

The West and Ukraine says thousands of North Korea soldiers are in Russia, with some in the Kursk region, to reinforce Moscow's forces.​