CONFLICTSUKRAINE
Ukraine updates: Strikes target Kyiv ‘power facility’
2 hours ago2 hours ago
Three strikes have hit a power supply facility in northern Kyiv, officials said, while the northern city of Zhytomyr has been left without electricity and water due to Russian attacks. DW has the latest.
https://p.dw.com/p/4IJ6l
Three Russian strikes have hit a “power facility” in Kyiv, Ukrainian officials said on Tuesday.
The attack on the unspecified energy facility comes just a day after deadly Russian drone strikes hit the Ukrainian capital.
“Preliminarily, three hits on a power supply facility on the left bank of Kyiv,” Kyrylo Tymoshenko, the deputy head of the Ukrainian president’s office said in a statement published on social media.
There were reports of the strikes causing several explosions and sending smoke rising over Kyiv.
The city’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said the attack targeted “critical infrastructure” and emergency workers were on their way.
Meanwhie, the northern city of Zhytomyr was left without electricity and water supply after the Tuesday morning strikes, its mayor said.
“There is currently no light or water in the city. Hospitals are on reserve (power) supplies,” Serhiy Sukhomlyn said on Facebook.
Air raid warnings were sounded across Ukraine in the wake of fresh drone and missile attacks from Russia, reports said.
On Monday, four people were killed in Kyiv due to a barrage of Russian attacks with so-called “suicide drones.” Among the dead were a woman who was six months pregnant and her husband, local officials said.
“Ukraine is under attack from the occupiers. They continue to do what they do best: Terrorizing and killing civilians,” said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had said on Monday.
Drones mean nowhere is safe in Ukraine: Ulrike Franke, European Council on Foreign Relations
04:53
Here are the other main headlines from the war in Ukraine on October 18.
Ukraine: Russia ‘kidnapped’ two officials at occupied nuclear plant
Ukraine’s state nuclear energy agency has accused Russia of “kidnapping” two of its senior employees at the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in the south of Ukraine.
Energoatom said in a statement on Telegram on Tuesday that the power station’s head of information technology, Oleh Kostyukov, and Oleh Oshek, an assistant to the plant’s director, had been detained the previous day.
“At present, nothing is known of their whereabouts or condition,” the statement said.
Zelenskyy calls for air defense aid amid drone strikes
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called on the international community to provide more air defense systems in the midst of renewed Russian airstrikes with so-called “suicide drones.”
“The world can and must stop this terror. When we talk about Ukraine’s need for air and missile defense, we are talking about real lives that are being taken by terrorists,” he said in a statement published late Monday.
“And this is not only Ukrainian interest. The fewer terrorist opportunities Russia has, the sooner this war will end,” Zelenskyy added.
His comments came after the latest barrage of Russian strikes on Ukrainian cities. Zelenskyy said Monday’s attacks were primarily carried out with Iranian-designed combat drones, also referred to as “kamikaze drones.”
Zelenskyy said that since Sunday evening Ukraine had intercepted 37 such drones and several cruise missiles.
Russia military aircraft crashes into apartments near Azov Sea coast
At least 13 people have been killed after a military plane crashed into a residential building in the port town of Yeysk in Russia’s southwestern Krasnodar Krai region, Russian media quoted a Health Ministry spokesperson as saying on Tuesday.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said the crash of the Su-34 bomber set off a fire covering some 2,000 square meters (21,500 square feet), the state RIA news agency reported.
Hours after the accident, Krasnodar Krai Governor Veniamin Kondratyev said emergency services had managed to douse the fire.
Yeysk lies on the Azov Sea coast, close to the country’s border with Ukraine, and is home to some 90,000 people, along with a Russian air base.
Catch up on DW’s coverage of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine
NATO has launched its annual series of nuclear preparedness drills on the heels of veiled threats from Russian President Vladimir Putin that he might consider a nuclear option after military setbacks in Ukraine.
Suicide drones are said to have been used to attack the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv. Tehran has denied supplying Moscow with the equipment. What do we know about drone imports?
dvv/rs (AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters)
