Zelenskyy urges more pressure on Russia for civilian deaths

KYIV, Ukraine (AP):

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy chided the international community last week for not taking a tougher stance against Russia over its escalating bombardment of civilian areas of Ukraine.

At the end of August, Russia launched a week of nighttime and daylight attacks on Kyiv in its heaviest sustained bombardment of the Ukrainian capital since its full-scale invasion began more than four years ago. The relentless missile and drone strikes have continued this month and aim to sap civilian morale, Ukrainian officials say.

International economic sanctions on Russia and efforts to isolate Moscow diplomatically haven’t stopped the invasion. Zelenskyy urged countries to step up the pressure.

“Unfortunately, there has been too little response from the international community to these strikes, which are taking people’s lives practically every day,” he said on social media.

“But a response is needed — Moscow must not go into the winter believing that it can get away with missile and drone terror without consequences,” he said.

The United Nations said last month that increasing Russian aerial attacks killed or wounded more Ukrainian civilians in July than in any month since March 2022, with 437 killed and more than 2,600 wounded. In all, more than 16,800 Ukrainian civilians have been killed and more than 51,000 wounded since the Russian invasion, according to the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine.

Moscow always denies that it aims at civilians and says it is targeting military-related facilities.

The US has renewed its push to end the fighting, sending special envoys over the weekend to Kyiv and Moscow although Washington’s efforts haven’t yet delivered any substantial progress. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the Ukraine-Russia talks were “substantive” but that much remains to be done.

Russia’s aerial attacks overnight into last Wednesday killed at least two people and wounded seven, Ukrainian officials said, as Moscow fired ballistic and cruise missiles as well as drones at six regions.

Four of the wounded were in a 22-storey residential building in Kyiv’s Darnytskyi district, where a drone damaged the 11th floor and started a fire on the 12th floor, Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said.

Olha Smal, 62, who lives on the 12th floor, said the blast wave flung her across her kitchen. One of her bedrooms caught fire, and smoke quickly filled the apartment, she said. Her pregnant neighbour was wounded.

“You live one day at a time. You don’t know what will happen to you tomorrow or even what will happen today,” she told The Associated Press. “It’s very, very hard.”

Russia’s Defence Ministry said that its forces hit a drone factory warehouse in Kyiv.

It also claimed strikes on fuel reservoirs and an electric substation in the port city of Mykolaiv in southern Ukraine.

The Russian military also struck a ship heading to Odesa with military cargo and logistical facilities at Ukraine’s Starokozache border crossing with Moldova, the ministry said. The border strike killed two people, Ukrainian authorities said.

Last Wednesday evening, three people were killed in a Russian drone attack on the grounds of a shopping mall in Sumy, said Oleh Hryhorov, head of the Sumy regional military administration. He called the strike “targeted”.

Artem Kobzar, acting mayor of Sumy, said 14 people were injured in the strike.

Zelenskyy said Ukraine is responding to Moscow’s strikes with daily long-range attacks on infrastructure deep inside Russia.

Ukrainian drones, on Wednesday, targeted an unspecified industrial facility in the remote Russian city of Novy Urengoy in northwest Siberia, local authorities said. The attack was repelled, and there were no casualties, but falling drone debris sparked a fire, Yamalo-Nenets region Governor Dmitry Artyukhov said on Telegram.

Novy Urengoy is located some 2,800 kilometres (1,700 miles) from the border with Ukraine, and Russian independent news outlet Meduza said it was Ukraine’s first attack on the city. About 80 per cent of all natural gas in Russia is currently extracted in the Yamalo-Nenets region, according to the Interfax news agency.

Fire Point, a Ukrainian company that makes deep-strike drones and cruise and ballistic missiles, posted on X: “Guess who just travelled over 3,300 km and successfully hit the target?” It did not elaborate, and Ukrainian officials made no immediate comment.

Zelenskyy said Ukrainian strikes targeted Novorossiysk, a Black Sea port in Russia’s Krasnodar region. The attack hit a naval base, including a terminal used to load oil, military port facilities, and warships carrying cruise missiles, according to Zelenskyy.

The Novorossiysk naval base is a key hub for Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, providing maintenance and logistical support for its ships, according to Ukraine’s General Staff.

Krasnodar Governor Veniamin Kondratyev said that four people, including a child, were killed and 29 others were wounded in the drone attack on Novorossiysk.

Russia’s Defence Ministry said that air defences downed 596 Ukrainian drones.