A week after a wave of massive bombing raids launched by Russia, Ukraine woke up this Monday again under fire. This time, according to the Ukrainian regional administrations, the Russian army launched attacks with missiles, drones, multiple rocket launchers and heavy artillery against nine regions, leaving at least nine dead and several electrical installations affected.
In total, throughout the day, the Russian side “carried out nine missile strikes, 39 air strikes and (fired) up to 30 projectiles from multiple rocket launchers,” as summarized by the General Staff of the Ukrainian army.
(Also read: Bombing of the Ukrainian capital for the second consecutive weekend)
The most serious situation was experienced in kyiv, where, according to Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko, a total of five explosions were recorded, all of them caused by Iranian-made “Shahed” kamikaze drones. That is, ‘suicide’ drones loaded with explosives that detonate when they hit their target.
At least four people, including a six-month pregnant woman, were killed in the attacks on the Ukrainian capital as one of the drones hit an apartment building in the central Shevchenkivskyi neighborhood.
In addition to the capital, the suburbs of Kharkov and Sumy, Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk, Kherson and Mikolaiv were hit.
(You may be interested: The West will equip kyiv with anti-missile systems to stop Russian bombing)
In Sumy, Dmytro Zhyvytskyy, head of the Regional Military Administration, said Monday that three Russian missiles that hit infrastructure caused five deaths and injured 14 people, three of whom were rescued alive from under the rubble.
The attacks also hit critical infrastructure in three regions, including kyiv, leaving “hundreds of towns” without power, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Chmygal said.
Russia says it achieved goals
After the attacks, the Russian army claimed to have achieved its objectives. “All facilities were hit,” the Russian defense minister said on Telegram, specifying that “Ukraine’s military command and energy systems facilities” had been hit.
The attacks come a week after Russia launched a two-day missile strike that hit towns across Ukraine, causing power and water cuts across the country.
And they occurred, moreover, despite the fact that Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that there would be no more massive attacks.
“It seems that now we are attacked every Monday,” said taxi driver Sergiy Prikhodko, as he waited outside kyiv’s central railway station.
(Also: How the advanced air defense system that Germany sent to Ukraine works)
“It’s the new way to start the week,” he told AFP.
But the attack caused strong outrage. “The enemy can attack our cities, but he will not be able to break us,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said.
The new UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, who began his mandate on Monday, asked not to target civilians.
“Any escalation in a war is very worrying for us, and it is happening in Ukraine,” the Austrian diplomat denounced.
The chief of staff of the Ukrainian presidency, Andriy Yermak, for his part, indicated that the country needs “more anti-aircraft defense systems as soon as possible.” “The Russians think this is going to help them but it just shows their desperation,” he wrote.
The kyiv Defense Ministry said that “in the last 13 hours” the Ukrainians had shot down 37 Iranian Shahed-136 drones and three Russian-launched cruise missiles.
iranian drones
This Monday, the head of Ukrainian diplomacy, Dmytro Kuleba, called on Twitter for more sanctions to be imposed against Iran “for having supplied drones to Russia.”
Tehran denies it is supplying Moscow with weapons for the war.
On October 10, Russian missiles attacked kyiv and other cities in the worst bombing campaign in months.
These attacks left at least 19 dead and 105 injured and sparked international outrage.
Moscow’s attacks were repeated on October 11, albeit with less intensity, hitting energy infrastructure in western Ukraine, far from the front line.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said the bombing was a response to the explosion that damaged the strategic bridge linking Russia with the Crimean peninsula annexed by Moscow.
(You can read: Putin terminates ‘massive’ attacks and Zelensky promises to beat Russia)
In southern Ukraine, troops from kyiv are closing in on Kherson, which is so far the only major Ukrainian city taken by the Russians.
The Kherson region, north of Crimea, is one of four Ukrainian territories that Moscow claimed as annexed areas.
Following last week’s attacks, the United States announced a new $725 million military assistance package, which includes Himars rocket launcher systems.
With this new item, the total military assistance granted by the United States to Ukraine amounts to 17.6 billion dollars since the Russian invasion began on February 24.
*With information from AFP
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