Ukraine suffered further damage from Russian air strikes today, with energy infrastructure, residential buildings and an industrial site affected by the latest massive attack. At least four people have been killed and more than 12 injured in drone and rocket attacks across Ukraine, authorities said.
Russian forces struck southern Ukraine’s Odessa region and the city of Dnipro today for the first time in weeks, and air raid sirens sounded across the country amid fears that Moscow had launched another rocket attack on on a large scale, the Associated Press reported.
An infrastructure target was hit in the Odessa region, Governor Maxim Marchenko announced on Telegram, warning of a threat of “massive rocket launches” across Ukraine. There have been explosions in Odessa even before the alarm was raised.
Four Russian missiles are flying through the air, Mykolaiv region governor Vitaly Kim wrote in his Telegram profile. According to preliminary data, they were launched from a Tu-95MS in the Tsimlyansk region of the Volgograd region.
Multiple explosions were also reported in Dnieper, where two infrastructure sites were damaged and at least one person was injured, according to deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential office, Kyril Tymoshenko.
Dnipropetrovsk region governor Valentin Reznichenko has announced a major fire in Dnipro, which broke out after an industrial site was hit by a rocket attack on the city. At least 14 people were injured in the attack, including a teenage girl.
More than 70 shells attacked the Nikopol area overnight, Reznichenko said. He posted photos of the destruction there on his social media channel, UNIAN reports.
About 20 residential buildings, cars, a college, a gas pipeline were destroyed and more than 6,000 commuters are without electricity, Reznichenko said. A water mains plant was hit, which is why around 40,000 households are also without water.
Air defense systems have also been activated in the central part of the Kyiv region, Governor Oleksiy Kuleba announced. In the morning it was announced that, by order of the National Electric Company of Ukraine, electricity in Kiev was cut off as a precaution. Kiev’s military administration said air defense systems shot down at least two Iranian cruise missiles and five drones.
Authorities in Poltava, Kharkiv, Khmelnytskyi and Rivne regions have urged residents to stay in bomb shelters amid the continued threat of rocket attacks.
Russia carried out massive strikes on targets in Ukraine on Tuesday. It was also the largest ever attack on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, as a result of which a missile also landed in Poland.
As winter approaches, Russia is increasingly resorting to attacks on Ukraine’s energy grid as its battlefield losses mount. The latest attack came after days of Ukrainian jubilation over one of the country’s greatest military successes, the recapture of the southern city of Kherson last week.
This week, Ukrainian air defenses have demonstrated much greater effectiveness than other mass attacks carried out in the past month, analysts say. The best results are due in part to Western-supplied air defense systems. But despite this, some missiles and drones still manage to get past the Ukrainian air defenses.
The head of the Ukrainian president’s office, Andriy Yermak, called the attacks on energy facilities “naive tactics of cowards losers”. In Telegram he wrote: “Ukraine has already suffered extremely heavy blows from the enemy, which have not led to the results the cowardly Russians had hoped for.” Yermak urged Ukrainians not to ignore air raid sirens.
The EU has delivered 500 electricity generators to Ukraine
The EU has so far delivered 500 electricity generators to Ukraine and is funding the purchase of another 300, EU Crisis Management Commissioner Janez Lenarcic announced today. He specified that the transformers and substations were also delivered due to Russian air strikes on the Ukrainian energy infrastructure.
The European Commissioner added that EU humanitarian aid to Ukraine since the beginning of the war initiated by Russia has reached almost half a billion euros. The Ukrainian side received food, medicine, sanitary and agricultural equipment, firefighters and ambulances. It needs everything, summed up Lenarchic.
He specifies that the indicated amounts of European humanitarian aid do not include funds destined for Ukrainian refugees in the EU. The European commissioner added that the EU had provided hundreds of prefab houses for Ukrainians who were driven from their homes by the war but stayed behind. The EU has sent eight million iodine tablets to Ukraine, which are used in radioactive contamination. In total, Ukraine has received 75,000 tonnes of European humanitarian aid, added the European Commissioner.
Police found evidence of torture in Kherson
Ukrainian police have found evidence of crimes, including torture, in the liberated Kherson region, DPA said, citing a statement by Ukrainian Interior Minister Denis Monastirsky.
“We know of 11 sites where people have been detained,” Monastirskyi told Ukrainian television. According to the minister, in four of these facilities there are indications that prisoners have been subjected to torture. Prosecutors are collecting evidence and questioning witnesses. The exhumation of bodies is also performed.
“So far, 63 bodies have been found in the Kherson region. It should be borne in mind that the investigation has just begun and many more torture cells and graves will be discovered,” Monastirsky stressed.
Zelensky: Ukrainian experts will be able to participate in the investigation of the missile attack in Poland
Ukrainian experts will be able to participate in the investigation into the missile attack on the territory of Poland, near the border, the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said today, quoted by DPA.
In a statement to an economic forum, he announced that relevant confirmations had come from Poland. “Since the investigation is not yet concluded, we cannot say for sure which missiles or their parts fell on Polish territory,” Zelenski said.
The Ukrainian president insists that it was a Russian missile that hit the territory of Poland. According to him, the crater was too large to be caused by a Ukrainian air defense missile. However, Zelensky admitted he’s not entirely sure what happened.
The United States, NATO and Poland believe that a missile from the S-300 air defense system failed to intercept a Russian missile in flight and accidentally landed on Polish territory, killing two people.
Andrzej Duda, foreign policy adviser to the Polish president, said from Warsaw that Poland was willing to allow Ukrainian experts to reach the site of the defeat. Councilor Jakub Kumoh told Polish TV channel ‘Te Faw En 24’ that a team of Polish and American specialists is already working in the field. According to him, access can be given soon and “there are no objections from the American side.”
“No one is accusing Ukraine of deliberately bombing Polish territory,” added Komoh. He explained that the depth of the impact crater and the amount of fuel used led experts to conclude that the missile was launched from Ukraine, missed the intended Russian missile and thus failed to self-destruct as it should have.
Russia is ultimately responsible for the missile landing in Poland, the US secretary of state said
After all, Russia is responsible for a missile crash in Poland, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said today, quoted by France Press.
“Whatever the outcome of the investigation, we know that Russia is ultimately responsible for this tragic incident,” Blinken said in Bangkok.
The Secretary of State is in the Thai capital to participate in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum.
Anthony Blinken also commented on the extension of the agreement for the export of grain from Ukraine through the Black Sea.
Apparently, Russia felt that the world would not accept the refusal to extend the duration of the agreement, Blinken said, quoted by Reuters.
Russia is waging a depopulation campaign in Ukraine
Russian sources and proxies are grossly promoting the forced adoption of Ukrainian children by Russian families, the US think tank Institute for the Study of War (IWS) said.
Prominent Russian military bloggers on Nov. 9 began publishing a documentary series following what happens to several Ukrainian children from Donbass after they are adopted by Russian families. The documentary series claims that Russian officials evacuated more than 150,000 children from Donbass in 2020 alone. It is unclear exactly how Russian sources calculated their number. According to estimates by Ukrainian officials, these are about 6,000 to 8,000 children, the IIV said.
In addition, the head of the Chechen Republic, Ramzan Kadyrov, says he is working together with the Commissioner for Children of the Russian Federation Maria Lvova-Belova to relocate “difficult teenagers” from various Russian regions and the occupied Donetsk and Luhansk regions to Chechnya, where they will participate in “preventive work” and “military-patriotic education,” writes IIV. Lvova-Belova has consistently advocated for the deportation and adoption of Ukrainian children and has herself adopted a child from Mariupol, the think tank said.
Programs for the adoption and forced deportation of children under the guise of vacation and rehabilitation programs are likely at the heart of a massive Russian depopulation campaign that may violate the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide and represent a broader attempt to ethnic cleansing, argues IIV.
.jpeg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1)
