Kyiv residents add basements to regular life
As Kyiv residents scrambled for refuge in shelters and basements on Tuesday morning — where they lingered for hours bracing for an attack that never came — many said they were clinging to a fragile sense of normalcy, even as life moved underground.
Kateryna Druzenko, 30, took shelter in a cafe in the basement of a hotel in Kyiv on Tuesday after the siren rang out. She said she went to the cafe to shelter with friends, a day after a barrage of missiles left at least five people dead in the center of the city. Fourteen more people were killed elsewhere in the country.
“Unfortunately, we’re getting used to what’s happening around us,” she said. “And when you’re among close people it’s much easier to go through this.”
For months, many in the capital had chosen not to seek shelter when the sirens rang out. But after Monday’s assault, many took the warnings seriously, even as they expressed strong feelings of defiance. “This time there wasn’t that a particular fear,” Druzenko added. “You feel anger.”
Residents of Kyiv, buffeted by months of war, were prepared, having taken similar precautions in the early days of the conflict. At the same time, some cafes, hotels and shops have become accustomed to opening their basements to people seeking safety. (Read more)
With Russia’s war in Ukraine in its eighth month, some European nations that have funnelled weapons to Kyiv are running low on their own supplies which could create vulnerabilities, Bloomberg reported.
A fuel depot in Russia's Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine, caught fire after shelling on Saturday, its governor said, without specifying the origin of the shelling.
Russian border regions including Belgorod have accused Ukraine of attacking targets including power lines and fuel stores since Moscow sent its armed forces into Ukraine on Feb. 24. There was no immediate comment from Kyiv. (Reuters)
A missile strike seriously damaged a key energy facility in Ukraine's capital region, the country's power system operator said Saturday as the Russian military strove to cut water and electricity in populated areas. Kyiv region Gov. Oleksiy Kuleba said the strike did not kill or wound anyone.
Electricity transmission company Ukrenergo said repair crews were working to restore power but warned residents about possible outages.(AP)
Russia should finish calling up reservists in two weeks, President Vladimir Putin said, promising an end to a divisive mobilisation that has seen hundreds of thousands of men summoned to fight in Ukraine and huge numbers flee the country.
The defence ministry in Belarus said on Saturday that the first convoys of Russian servicemen, part of a "regional grouping" of troops, had arrived in Belarus. President Alexander Lukashenko said this week that his troops would deploy with Russian forces near the Ukrainian border. (AP)
They exploded with dull thuds on the outskirts of towns and detonated in the center of cities with deafening booms. Strikes in Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital, left cars burning and splatters of blood on the sidewalks.
Throughout this week, the Russian military fired its most intensive barrage of missiles at Ukraine since the start of the war in February, killing three dozen civilians, knocking out electricity and overwhelming air defenses. One thing the missiles did not do was change the course of the ground war.
Fought mostly in trenches, with the most intense combat now in an area of rolling hills and pine forests in the east and on the open plains in the south, these battles are where control of territory is decided — and where Russia’s military continued to lose ground, despite its missile strikes. Read More.
The 34-year-old Idaho man died on Tuesday from injuries sustained during during a Russian attack in Luhansk. A former US Army infantryman, Partridge felt “spiritually called” to volunteer with the Ukranian military as they defend the country from invading Russian forces, his sister Jenny Corry said.
He flew to Poland on a one-way ticket in April, his rucksack packed with body armour, a helmet and other tactical gear. Partridge and his fellow soldiers were in Severodonetsk, a city in the Luhansk region, when he was hit in the head with shrapnel during an attack by Russian fighting vehicles, Corry said.
Partridge leaves behind five young children. (AP)
Forecasting the direction of the volatile energy markets has never been easy. But experts say the complexity of market forces brewing now, in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, makes it especially difficult to predict the direction of both energy prices and the industry.
“I’ve never seen such a spicy bouillabaisse of ingredients that could wreak havoc on energy prices,” said Tom Kloza, the global head of energy analysis at Oil Price Information Service. “You have to look and say that the world changed on Feb. 24,” the day of the Russian invasion. (Read more)
Beside an abandoned Russian military camp in eastern Ukraine, the body of a man lay decomposing in the grass — a civilian who had fallen victim to a tripwire land mine set by retreating Russian forces.
Nearby, a group of Ukrainian deminers with the country’s territorial defense forces worked to clear the area of dozens of other deadly mines and unexploded ordnance — a push to restore a semblance of safety to the cities, towns and countryside in a region that spent months under Russian occupation.
The deminers, part of the 113th Kharkiv Defense Brigade of Ukraine’s territorial defense forces, walked deep into fallow agricultural lands on Thursday along a muddy road between fields of dead sunflowers overgrown with high weeds. (Read more)
?? Saudi Arabia will provide $400 million in humanitarian aid to Ukraine, and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman told President Volodymyr Zelenskiy the kingdom was ready to continue efforts of mediation and support everything that contributes to de-escalation, said Saudi state news agency SPA.
?? International Monetary Fund member countries issued a near-unanimous call for Russia to end its war in Ukraine, but Moscow again blocked consensus on issuing a joint communique on the single biggest factor fuelling inflation and slowing the global economy, officials said.
?? Some of oilfield service firm Schlumberger's more than 9,000 Russian employees have begun receiving military draft notices through work, and the company is not authorising remote employment to escape mobilisation, according to people familiar with the matter and internal documents.
?? Sweden has rejected plans to set up a formal joint investigation team with Denmark and Germany to look into last month's ruptures of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines, said a Swedish prosecutor investigating the leaks. (Reuters)
Ukraine’s capital region was struck by Iranian-made kamikaze drones early Thursday (October 14), Ukrainian officials said. The Deputy head of the presidential office Kyrylo Tymoshenko said “critical infrastructure facilities” in the area were hit, The Associated Press reported. The extent of damage was not elaborated on by officials.
Three drones struck the small town of Makariv, situated west of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv. These kamikaze drones are not new, and have also been supplied by the US to Ukraine in its ongoing war with Russia. (Read more)
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy shakes hands with an injured Ukrainian serviceman in a hospital, as Russia's attack on Ukraine continues, during the Defender of Ukraine Day in Kyiv, Ukraine, Oct. 14, 2022.
Ukrainian engineers have restored "much needed" back-up power to a key Russian-occupied nuclear power plant after shelling robbed it of access to external electricity twice in the past week, the head of the UN nuclear watchdog said on Friday.
Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said the operating staff at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, "working in very challenging conditions," were doing everything they could to bolster the plant's off-site power, essential for ensuring nuclear safety.
"Restoring the back-up power connection is a positive step in this regard, even though the overall nuclear safety and security situation remains precarious," Grossi said in a statement released at IAEA headquarters in Vienna. (Reuters)
?? Russia does not need to unleash massive new strikes on Ukraine at the moment, Putin said, after days of raining missiles on cities including Kyiv and amid speculation that Moscow's supplies of precision weapons may be depleted.
?? Russian-backed forces have made tactical advances in the last three days towards the centre of Bakhmut, a strategically important town in the eastern Donetsk region, and likely advanced into villages south of the town, Britain said.
?? Ukrainian investigators have completed the exhumation of soldiers in one of two mass graves discovered after Russian troops retreated from the town of Lyman in eastern Donetsk region, police said.
?? Ukraine's armed forces have re-taken more than 600 settlements in the past month, including 75 in the strategic Kherson region, the government said.
?? Damage to the bridge between the annexed Crimean peninsula and southern Russia won't be repaired until next summer, a document published on the Russian government's website said, after an explosion last week. (Reuters)
Elon Musk said Friday his rocket company SpaceX cannot indefinitely fund its Starlink internet service in Ukraine, which has helped the country’s civilians and military stay online during the war with Russia.
Musk’s comment on Twitter came after a media report that SpaceX had asked the Pentagon to pay for the donations of Starlink. The billionaire has been in online fights with Ukrainian officials over a peace plan he put forward which Ukraine says is too generous to Russia.
A senior defense official told reporters on Friday that the US Department of Defense would not confirm that ongoing talks with the company were related to payment, but said the Pentagon was “continuing to talk to SpaceX and other companies about SATCOM capabilities.” (Read more)
The United States will send munitions and military vehicles to Ukraine as part of a new $725 million security assistance package aimed at bolstering the country's defense against the Russian invasion, the Defense Department said Friday.
The package is the first since Russia's barrage of missiles fired on civilian population centers in Ukraine this week. It will bring the total of US security assistance since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24 to more than $17.5 billion.
The contents of the latest package, first reported by Reuters, includes high-speed anti-radiation missiles (HARMs) and precision-guided artillery as well as medical supplies, the Defense Department said in a statement. (Reuters)
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday India and China favour peaceful dialogue in Ukraine, a month after their leaders appeared to differ with him over the conflict at a summit in Uzbekistan last month.
"India and China always talk about the need to establish dialogue and resolve everything peacefully, we know their position. These are our close allies, partners, and we respect their position. But we also know the position of Kyiv; they keep saying that they want negotiations and it seems like they asked for it, and now they have made an official decision that prohibits negotiations." (Reuters)
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday there was no need for massive new strikes on Ukraine and that Russia was not looking to destroy the country.
Putin told a news conference at the end of a summit in Kazakhstan that his call-up of Russian reservists would be over within two weeks and there were no plans for a further mobilisation. He also repeated the Kremlin position that Russia was willing to hold talks, although he said they would require international mediation if Ukraine was prepared to take part.
Taken together, Putin's comments appeared to suggest a slight softening of his tone as the war nears the end of its eighth month, after weeks of Ukrainian advances and significant Russian defeats. Wall Street shares opened higher as traders interpreted them as easing geopolitical tensions. (Reuters)
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that any direct clash of NATO troops with Russia would lead to a 'global catastrophe'.
'I hope that those who are saying this are smart enough not to take such steps,' Putin said at a news conference in the Kazakh capital Astana.
He added that Germany is making a 'mistake' by prioritising its allegiance to NATO over its national interest. The Russian President said that Germany had not yet made a decision regarding the one undamaged line of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, through which he has said it would be possible for Russia to pump gas to Germany. He said any such decision was not Russia's business.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that Kremlin has no plans for additional military mobilisation in Russia, adding that mobilisation will be over in the next two weeks.
Speaking at a press conference in the Kazakh capital Astana, Putin said that the "partial mobilisation" he announced last month, which the defence minister said aimed to recruit 300,000 soldiers, was finishing and would be over within two weeks.
India and China supported 'peaceful dialogue' in Ukraine, a month after their leaders appeared to differ with him over the conflict at a summit in Uzbekistan last month, he added. Speaking at the conference, Putin said that Ukraine was not prepared for negotiations and thanked Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan for his role in brokering prisoner exchanges. (Reuters)
Russia has promised free accommodation to residents of Ukraine's partially occupied Kherson region who want to evacuate to Russia, a sign that Ukrainian military gains along the war's southern front are worrying the Kremlin.
The Moscow-installed leader of Kherson, one of four regions illegally annexed by Russian President Vladimir Putin last month, asked the Kremlin to organize an evacuation from four cities, citing incessant shelling by Ukrainian forces.
Vladimir Saldo, the head of the Moscow-appointed regional administration, said a decision was made to evacuate Kherson residents to the Russian regions of Rostov, Krasnodar and Stavropol, as well as to the Crimean Peninsula, which Moscow annexed from Ukraine in 2014. (AP)
Russia has promised free accommodation to residents of Ukraine's partially occupied Kherson region who want to evacuate to Russia, a sign that Ukrainian military gains along the war's southern front are worrying the Kremlin.
The Moscow-installed leader of Kherson, one of four regions illegally annexed by Russian President Vladimir Putin last month, asked the Kremlin to organize an evacuation from four cities, citing incessant shelling by Ukrainian forces.
Vladimir Saldo, the head of the Moscow-appointed regional administration, said a decision was made to evacuate Kherson residents to the Russian regions of Rostov, Krasnodar and Stavropol, as well as to the Crimean Peninsula, which Moscow annexed from Ukraine in 2014. (AP)
Elon Musk said on Friday SpaceX cannot 'indefinitely' fund the Starlink internet service in Ukraine and send it several thousands more terminals after a report suggested that his rocket company had asked the Pentagon to pay for the donations.
Musk's comment on the question of support for the internet service in Ukraine comes after he angered many Ukrainians with a proposal to end Russia's war in their country that included ceding some territory. "SpaceX is not asking to recoup past expenses, but also cannot fund the existing system indefinitely *and* send several thousand more terminals that have data usage up to 100X greater than typical households. This is unreasonable," Musk said on Twitter.
The billionaire boss of Tesla said Starlink was spending nearly $20 million a month, he called it a 'burn', for maintaining satellite services in Ukraine. He recently said that SpaceX had spent about $80 million to enable and support Starlink in Ukraine. (Reuters)
ussia said on Friday it had opened a criminal investigation into alleged Ukrainian shelling of a Russian border region in which it said people had been killed and wounded.
The state Investigative Committee did not specify the number of casualties in Thursday's incident, in which it said shells fired from Ukraine had destroyed an ammunition depot in the Belgorod region.
Russian officials also accused Ukraine on Thursday of strikes on border regions that hit a school, an apartment block and an electricity substation. A Ukrainian official said the damage to the apartment block was caused by a stray Russian missile launched towards Ukraine. (Reuters)
?? French food company Danone announced plans to shed its dairy and plant-based food business in Russia in a transaction which could result in a up to 1 billion euro ($978.10 million) write-off.
?? Russia has submitted concerns to the United Nations about an agreement on Black Sea grain exports, and is prepared to reject renewing a deal next month unless its demands are addressed, Russia's UN ambassador in Geneva told Reuters.
?? Russian President Putin courted Turkish President Erdogan with a plan to pump more Russian gas via Turkey that would turn it into a new supply "hub", bidding to preserve Russia's energy leverage over Europe. (Reuters)
Russia's Gazprom will ship 42.4 million cubic metres of gas to Europe via Ukraine on Friday, unchanged from recent days, it said Friday. (Reuters)
Russian-backed forces have made tactical advances in the last three days towards the centre of Bakhmut, a strategically important town in the eastern Donetsk region, and likely advanced into villages south of the town, Britain said Friday.
Bakhmut sits on a main road leading to the cities of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk. Private military company Wagner Group "likely remains" heavily involved in the Bakhmut fighting, Britain's Ministry of Defence said in an intelligence bulletin.
In Ukraine's Donbas region, the ministry said that Russia continued with offensive operations in central part of the state and was "very slowly" making progress. (Reuters)
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a video address Thursday that "brutal" fighting continued in the wine- and salt-producing town of Bakhmut in the eastern Donetsk region, another area Russia has attempted to annex.
Zelenskiy said Ukrainian troops were defending Bakhmut with "skilful and heroic actions." (Reuters)
Train operations were suspended early Friday near Novyi Oskol, a town in Russia's Belgorod region that borders Ukraine, after remains of a missile fell near the railway, said regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov.
Gladkov said on the Telegram messaging app that anti-craft defences shot down missiles near Novyi Oskol, a town of about 18,000 people which lies about 90 km north of the border with Ukraine.
"Power lines are damaged. Trains are temporarily suspended," Gladkov said, adding that there were no casualties. (Reuters)
Russian President Vladimir Putin has put forward Turkey as a potential hub for Russian gas to third parties, including Europe.
During a meeting with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the sidelines of a security conference in Kazakhstan, Putin also suggested setting up a natural gas exchange market in Turkey to determine prices, according to the Interfax news agency.
"We could consider building another gas pipeline and creating a gas hub in Turkey for sale to third countries, especially in Europe," Putin said. (DW)
?? The governor of a Russian border region accused Ukraine of shelling an apartment block but a Kyiv official said a stray Russian missile was to blame — one of a series of apparent strikes on Russian towns.
?? Russian missiles hit the Ukrainian port of Mykolaiv. A five-storey residential building was hit, the two upper floors completely destroyed, the mayor said.
?? Three drone strikes hit the small town of Makariv, west of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, with officials saying critical infrastructure facilities were hit by Iran-made drones.
?? NATO, in its first large gathering since Moscow announced it would annex four partially occupied Ukrainian provinces, said it will closely monitor an expected Russian nuclear exercise but not be cowed into dropping support for Ukraine by Moscow's veiled nuclear threats.
?? A Russian official warned of World War Three if Ukraine is admitted to NATO. Ukraine is unlikely to be admitted soon.
?? Zelenskyy accused the International Committee of the Red Cross of inaction in upholding the rights of Ukrainian prisoners of war and urged it to undertake a mission to Olenivka — a notorious camp in eastern Ukraine where dozens of Ukrainian POWs died in an explosion and fire in July. (Reuters)
Ukraine's armed forces have liberated more than 600 settlements from the Russian occupation in the past month, including 75 in the highly strategic Kherson region, Ukraine's Ministry for Reintegration of the Temporary Occupied Territories said.
Some 502 settlements have been liberated in the northeast Kharkiv region where Ukrainian forces last month advanced deep into Russian lines, the ministry said late on Thursday.
The ministry said 43 settlements were liberated in the Donetsk region and seven in the Luhansk region. (Reuters)
Evacuees from Ukraine's southern Kherson region were expected to begin arriving in Russia Friday after a Moscow-installed official suggested residents should leave for safety, a sign of Moscow's weakening hold on territory it claims to have annexed.
"We suggested that all residents of the Kherson region, if they wish, to protect themselves from the consequences of missile strikes ... go to other regions," Russian-installed Kherson administration chief Vladimir Saldo said in a video message. People should "leave with their children".
The offer applied foremost to residents on the west bank of the Dnipro River, he said. That includes the regional capital, the only major Ukrainian city Russia has captured intact since invading in February. The first civilians fleeing from Kherson were due to arrive in Russia's Rostov region on Friday, TASS news agency reported. (Reuters)
Ukraine's top prosecutor said on Thursday his office had opened criminal proceedings relating to Russian missile strikes that struck Kyiv and cities across Ukraine this week.
Speaking at a joint press conference with International Criminal Court prosecutor Karim Khan in The Hague, Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin described the strikes since Monday as "a classic act of terror" by Russia. He said the more than 112 Russian missile strikes, Moscow's biggest aerial offensive since the start of its invasion on Feb. 24, had killed 17 people and injured 93.
"The goal of Russia's deliberate attacks is to cause civilian deaths and to destroy civilian infrastructure, (and) by shortage of electricity and heating, provoke a humanitarian catastrophe," Kostin said. "Coupled with the intimidation tactics against civilians, it's a classical act of terror prohibited under international law." (Reuters)
NATO will monitor an expected upcoming Russian nuclear exercise very closely, the alliance's chief said on Thursday, in particular in light of Moscow's latest nuclear threats related to its conflict in Ukraine.
"We have monitored Russian nuclear forces for decades and of course we will continue to monitor them very closely and we will stay vigilant - also when they now start a new exercise," NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters.
"What I can say is that this exercise, the Russian exercise, is an annual exercise. It's an exercise where they test and exercise their nuclear forces," he added, apparently referring to Russia's annual Grom exercise that normally takes place in late October and in which Russia tests its nuclear-capable bombers, submarines and missiles.
"We will monitor that as we always do. And of course we will remain vigilant, not least in light of the veiled nuclear threats and the dangerous rhetoric we have seen from the Russian side," Stoltenberg said. (Reuters)
The Kremlin was quoted as saying on Thursday that the goals of its “special military operation” in Ukraine are unchanged, but that they may be achieved through negotiations.
The comments by Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov to Russian newspaper Izvestia were the latest in a series of statements this week stressing Moscow is open to talks – a change of tone that follows a series of humiliating defeats for Russian forces as the war in Ukraine nears the end of its eighth month.
“The direction has not changed, the special military operation continues, it continues in order for us to achieve our goals,” Peskov was quoted as saying. “However we have repeatedly reiterated that we remain open to negotiations to achieve our objectives.” Read more
Ukraine's financial needs for this year have been covered and there was enough time to mobilize resources for 2023, Germany's finance minister said at a news conference in Washington on Thursday.
To be able to provide the necessary financial help next year as well, it would be preferable to have a more systematic approach than donor conferences, Christian Lindner said on the sidelines of a meeting of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. (Reuters)
President Vladimir Putin used a speech to Asian leaders on Thursday to develop a theme that he has pressed more intensely as Russia's military fortunes have waned: that Moscow is fighting the West to establish a fairer world.
With Western economic sanctions also tightening, Putin has shifted his emphasis from fighting alleged "fascists" in Kyiv to confronting a "collective West" that is arming Ukraine with the supposed aim of expanding its influence at Russia's expense. "The world is becoming truly multi-polar," Putin said. "And Asia, where new centres of power are emerging, plays a significant, if not key, role in it."
At a meeting of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) in the Kazakh capital Astana, Putin described the West as a neo-colonial power bent on stunting the development of the rest of the world and exploiting poorer countries.
"Like many of our partners in Asia, we believe a revision is needed of the global financial system, which has for decades allowed the self-proclaimed so-called 'golden billion', who redirected all capital flows and technologies to themselves to live largely at others' expense," Putin said. (Reuters)
A decision by the OPEC+ oil producer group last week to rein in output has driven up prices and could push the global economy into recession, the International Energy Agency said on Thursday.
"The relentless deterioration of the economy and higher prices sparked by an OPEC+ plan to cut supply are slowing world oil demand," the Paris-based agency, which includes the United States and other top consumer countries, said.
"With unrelenting inflationary pressures and interest rate hikes taking their toll, higher oil prices may prove the tipping point for a global economy already on the brink of recession," it added in its monthly oil report. The warning from the agency highlights a rift with Saudi Arabia, the world's top oil exporter and OPEC's de facto leader.
U.S. President Joe Biden vowed unspecified "consequences" for relations with Saudi Arabia after the OPEC+ move, but Riyadh rejected criticism and said the move was not political and aimed at balancing the market and curbing volatility. (Reuters)
Ukraine’s capital region was struck by Iranian-made kamikaze drones early Thursday, officials said, sending rescue workers rushing to the scene as residents awoke to air raid sirens for the fourth consecutive morning following Russia’s major assault across the country earlier this week.
Kyiv regional governor Oleksiy Kuleba said the strike occurred in the area around the capital. It wasn't yet clear if there were any casualties in those attacks, but Ukrainian officials said that 13 people were killed and 37 wounded over the past 24 hours in the Russian strikes throughout the country.
Deputy head of the presidential office Kyrylo Tymoshenko said on Telegram that “critical infrastructure facilities” in the area were hit, without offering any details on which ones. (AP)
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Thursday Ukraine has only about 10% of what it needs for its air defences and ruled out diplomatic contacts with Russia.
He said in a question-and-answer session with the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Europe's leading human rights watchdog, that diplomacy was not possible with leaders who do not respect international law. (Reuters)
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Thursday Moscow must be made to comply with demands by the UN nuclear watchdog to allow the demilitarisation of the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
He made his comments in a video address to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Europe's leading human rights watchdog. (Reuters)
The United States reaffirmed its commitment to defend "every inch" of NATO territory ahead of talks among defense ministers from the alliance on Thursday that will include closed-door discussions by its nuclear planning group.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin made the remarks affirming America's commitment to NATO's collective defense following repeated nuclear threats by Russian President Vladimir Putin amid battlefield setbacks in his nearly eight-month-long invasion of Ukraine.
"We are committed to defending every inch of NATO's territory — if and when it comes to that," Austin said. (Reuters)
Ukraine's heating season will start on time, without any postponements or changes, Oleksiy Chernyshov, minister for communities and territorial development, said Thursday.
"It will start as planned: as soon as the average daily temperature is below +8 Celsius (46.4 Fahrenheit) for three days," Chernyshov said in a statement on the ministry's website. (Reuters)
Russia's Gazprom said on Thursday it would ship 42.4 million cubic metres (mcm) of gas to Europe via Ukraine, unchanged from Wednesday. (Reuters)
Russian missiles pounded more than 40 Ukrainian cities and towns, officials said Thursday. In the past 24 hours Russian missiles hit more than 40 settlements, while Ukraine's air force carried out 32 strikes on 25 Russian targets, Ukraine's Armed Forces General Staff said.
Mayor of the port city of Mykolaiv, Oleksandr Senkevich, said in a social media post that the southern city was "massively shelled".
"A five-storey residential building was hit, the two upper floors were completely destroyed, the rest – under rubble. Rescuers are working on the site,” he said. A shipbuilding centre and a port on the Southern Bug river off the Black Sea, Mykolaiv has suffered heavy Russian bombardments throughout the war.
Russia also targeted a settlement in the region of Ukraine's capital Kyiv using explosive drones early on Thursday, the region's administration said on the Telegram messaging app. (Reuters)
The admission of Ukraine to NATO could result in a third world war, the deputy secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, Alexander Venediktov, told the state TASS news agency in an interview Thursday.
"Kyiv is well aware that such a step would mean a guaranteed escalation to a World War Three," TASS cited Venediktov as saying. "Apparently, that's what they are counting on — to create informational noise and draw attention to themselves once again." (Reuters)
Ukraine’s capital region was struck by Iranian-made kamikaze drones early Thursday morning, sending rescue workers rushing to the scene as residents awoke to air raid sirens for the fourth morning in a row following Russia’s massive, deadly assault across the country on Monday.
Kyiv regional governor Oleksiy Kuleba said the strike occurred in the area around the capital city. It was not yet clear if there were any casualties.
In the southern city of Mykolaiv, overnight shelling destroyed a five-story apartment building as fighting continued along Ukraine’s southern front.Mykolaiv Mayor Oleksandr Sienkovych said the building’s top two floors were completely destroyed in a single strike and the rest of the building was left in rubble. It was not immediately clear if there were any casualties. (AP)
Ukrainian soldier Oleksandr Chaika, who lost his leg serving in the Luhansk region of Ukraine, and US Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), who lost her legs in 2004 serving as a US Army helicopter pilot in the Iraq war, share a lighthearted chat about their prothetics.
The duo met at the Medical Center Orthotics and Prosthetics (MCOP) clinic where Chaika received a prosthetic leg as part of MCOP’s Operation Renew to serve Ukrainian military personnel, at their clinic in Silver Spring, Maryland, US, Oct. 11, 2022.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine needed about $55 billion in financial support next year. This includes $38 billion to close the budget deficit and $17 billion to rebuild critical infrastructure such as schools and housing, reported news agency Reuters.
India slammed Pakistan for raising the issue of Kashmir during an emergency special session of the UN General Assembly on the Ukraine conflict, saying such statements by Islamabad deserve the “collective contempt” of the international community and “sympathy for a mindset which repeatedly utters falsehoods”.
“Before I conclude, Mr President, one final point,” India’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Ruchira Kamboj, said as she delivered the explanation of the vote after the 193-member General Assembly voted overwhelmingly on Wednesday to condemn Russia’s illegal referendums and annexation of the Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk, and Zaporizhzhia regions of Ukraine.
“We have witnessed unsurprisingly yet again an attempt by one delegation to misuse this forum and make frivolous and pointless remarks against my country,” she said. (Read more)
?? Three-quarters of the 193-member General Assembly — 143 countries — condemned Russia's "attempted illegal annexation" of four partially occupied regions in Ukraine and called on all countries not to recognise the move.
?? Presidents Putin of Russia and Erdogan of Turkey will meet for talks in Kazakhstan on Thursday; Turkey is likely to raise ideas for peace in Ukraine, a Kremlin aide said.
?? The Kremlin scolded Western leaders for engaging in "provocative" nuclear rhetoric after a series of warnings from Russia, the United States and NATO on the dangers of the Ukraine conflict becoming a nuclear war. (Reuters)
Russian President Vladimir Putin has arrived in Kazakhstan for meetings of regional bodies, said news agency Reuters quoting a Kazakh government source.
A settlement in the region of Ukraine's capital Kyiv was hit by shelling early Thursday, the region's administration said on the Telegram messaging app.
"Rescuers are already working at the site," the administration said, without providing further details on where the shelling took place. (Reuters)
?? Russian missiles hit the port city of Mykolaiv. A five-storey residential building was hit, the two upper floors completely destroyed, the rest is under rubble with rescuers working on the site, said Mayor Oleksandr Senkevich.
?? The top US general on Wednesday condemned indiscriminate Russian missile strikes on Ukraine that killed civilians, suggesting they met the definition of war crimes.
?? At least seven people were killed and eight injured in a Russian strike on a crowded market in the frontline town of Avdiivka, the governor of Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region said.
?? Russia hit about 30% of Ukraine's energy infrastructure in its missile attacks on Monday and Tuesday, Ukraine's energy minister said. (Reuters)
Russia hit about 30% of Ukraine's energy infrastructure in its missile attacks on Monday and Tuesday, Ukraine's energy minister said, reported news agency Reuters. These satellite photos show the damage sustained at a power station in Kyiv.
As Kyiv residents scrambled for refuge in shelters and basements on Tuesday morning — where they lingered for hours bracing for an attack that never came — many said they were clinging to a fragile sense of normalcy, even as life moved underground.
Kateryna Druzenko, 30, took shelter in a cafe in the basement of a hotel in Kyiv on Tuesday after the siren rang out. She said she went to the cafe to shelter with friends, a day after a barrage of missiles left at least five people dead in the center of the city. Fourteen more people were killed elsewhere in the country. (Read more)