Conflicts & War

Russian strikes kill at least 8 in Ukraine

(Update 2: Adds detail)

Lviv, Ukraine, Oct 17 (EFE).- At least eight people were killed by a series of Russian attacks, including drone strikes, that hit Ukraine’s capital Kyiv and the country’s Sumy region Monday, local authorities said.

A young couple who were expecting a child are among the four people killed when a blast hit a residential building in Kyiv, Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a Telegram statement.

“It seems that the current enemy unites in its evil all previous enemies of our statehood. It acts insidiously – kills civilians, hits housing, infrastructure,” the leader said.

Kyiv was rocked by several explosions Monday morning as Russia carried out attacks with so-called kamikaze drones.

Kyiv’s mayor, Vitaliy Klitschko said 28 drones had been launched in the direction of the Ukrainian capital and that all but five projectiles were taken down by the air defense system.

Ukraine’s state emergency services said 19 others had been injured by the strikes in Kyiv and that a further four people had been killed in the northeastern Sumy region by a strike on an electrical substation that destroyed an administrative building.

The blasts come exactly one week after Russia launched nationwide strikes on Ukraine, killing at least 19.

Klitschko published an image on Twitter allegedly showing the wreckage of a Geran-2 drone, the Russian name given to Iranian-made Shahed-136 loitering munitions.

Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine’s defense minister, on Monday called on the European Union to level fresh sanctions at Iran for its alleged provision of drones to Russia, something Tehran denies.

Earlier on Monday, Zelenskyy shared a video on Telegram showing the aftermath of the drone strikes in Kyiv with the statement: “All night and all morning, the enemy terrorizes the civilian population. Kamikaze drones and missiles are attacking all of Ukraine. A residential building was hit in Kyiv.”

“The enemy can attack our cities, but it won’t be able to break us. The occupiers will get only fair punishment and condemnation of future generations. And we will get victory.”

Ukraine accuses Russia of using Iranian-supplied kamikaze drones in strikes against Ukrainian cities in recent weeks. EFE

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