Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday criticised the international community for not responding more strongly to Russia’s escalating attacks on civilian areas, saying the continued missile and drone strikes were claiming lives almost every day. He urged countries to increase pressure on Moscow, warning that Russia must not be allowed to believe it could enter winter without facing consequences for what he called “missile and drone terror”.
His remarks came as fresh overnight Russian attacks killed at least two people and injured seven in six regions of Ukraine, while Kyiv again came under fire. At the same time, Zelenskyy said Ukraine was carrying out daily long-range strikes inside Russia, including a reported attack on the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk that he said hit a naval base, oil-loading facilities and warships carrying cruise missiles.
At the end of last month, Russia launched a week of daytime and night-time attacks on Kyiv in its heaviest sustained bombardment of the Ukrainian capital since the invasion began more than four years ago. The strikes have continued this month and are aimed at weakening civilian morale, Ukrainian officials have said.
International economic sanctions and diplomatic efforts to isolate Moscow have not stopped the invasion. “Unfortunately, there has been too little response from the international community to these strikes, which are taking people’s lives practically every day,” Zelenskyy 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 because of increasing Russian aerial attacks, more Ukrainian civilians were killed or injured in July than in any month since March 2022, with 437 killed and more than 2,600 injured. Overall, more than 16,800 Ukrainian civilians have been killed and more than 51,000 injured since Russian forces crossed the border, according to the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine.
Ukrainian officials said Russia fired ballistic and cruise missiles as well as drones overnight into Wednesday. Four of the injured were in a 22-storey residential building in Kyiv’s Darnytskyi district, where a drone damaged the 11th floor and caused a fire on the 12th floor, Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said.
Olha Smal, a 62-year-old resident of the building’s 12th floor, said the blast wave threw her across her kitchen. One of her bedrooms caught fire and smoke quickly filled the flat, she said. Her pregnant neighbour was injured. “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 its forces struck a drone factory warehouse in Kyiv. It also said it hit logistical facilities in the southern port city of Mykolaiv, fuel reservoirs in the city’s port and an electric substation. The ministry also said the military struck a ship heading to Odesa with military cargo and logistical facilities at Ukraine’s Starokozache border crossing with Moldova. Ukrainian authorities said the border strike killed two people.
Zelenskyy said Ukraine was answering Moscow’s attacks with daily long-range strikes on infrastructure deep inside Russia. He said the latest Ukrainian strikes targeted Novorossiysk in Russia’s Krasnodar region. According to Zelenskyy, the attack hit a naval base, including a terminal used to load oil, military port facilities and warships carrying cruise missiles. Ukraine’s General Staff described the Novorossiysk naval base as a key hub for Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, providing maintenance and logistical support for its ships.
Krasnodar Governor Veniamin Kondratyev said four people, including a child, were killed and 29 others were injured in the drone attack on Novorossiysk. Russia’s Defence Ministry said air defences shot down 596 Ukrainian drones from late Tuesday to early Wednesday.
The latest exchanges underscored the intensifying aerial war, with Zelenskyy pressing for a stronger international response as Russian strikes continued to hit Ukrainian cities and Ukraine reported attacks on key targets inside Russia.
With PTI Inputs
– Ends
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