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Tag: Dnipropetrovsk

  • Russia launches a large-scale attack on Ukraine, killing 3 and wounding dozens

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    KYIV, Ukraine — Russia launched a large-scale missile and drone attack targeting regions across Ukraine early Saturday, killing at least three people and wounding dozens more, Ukrainian officials said.

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said attacks took place across nine regions, including Dnipropetrovsk, Mykolaiv, Chernihiv, Zaporizhzhia, Poltava, Kyiv, Odesa, Sumy and Kharkiv.

    “The enemy’s target was our infrastructure, residential areas and civilian enterprises,” he said, adding that a missile equipped with cluster munitions struck a multi-story building in the city of Dnipro.

    “Each such strike is not a military necessity but a deliberate strategy by Russia to intimidate civilians and destroy our infrastructure,” he said in a statement on his official Telegram.

    Zelenskyy said he expected to meet U.S. President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly next week. He also said the first ladies of Ukraine and the United States would likely hold separate talks focused on humanitarian issues involving children.

    His comments, which he made on Friday, were embargoed until Saturday morning.

    At least 30 people were wounded in the attack in Ukraine’s central Dnipropetrovsk region, local governor Serhii Lysak said. Several high-rise buildings and homes were damaged in the eastern city of Dnipro.

    In the Kyiv region, local authorities said there were strikes in the areas of Bucha, Boryspil and Obukhiv. A home and cars were damaged. In the western region of Lviv, Gov. Maxim Kozytsky said two cruise missiles were shot down.

    Russia launched 619 drones and missiles, Ukraine’s Air Force said in a statement. In total, 579 drones, eight ballistic missiles and 32 cruise missiles were detected. Ukrainian forces shot down and neutralized 552 drones, two ballistic missiles and 29 cruise missiles.

    “During the air strike, tactical aviation, in particular F-16 fighters, effectively worked on the enemy’s cruise missiles. Western weapons once again prove their effectiveness on the battlefield,” the Air Force said in a statement.

    Russia denies violating Estonia’s airspace

    Russia’s Defense Ministry denied its aircraft violated Estonia’s airspace, after Tallinn reported three fighter jets crossed into its territory on Friday without permission and remained there for 12 minutes.

    The incident, described by Estonia’s top diplomat as an “unprecedentedly brazen” incursion, happened just over a week after NATO planes downed Russian drones over Poland, heightening fears that Moscow’s war on Ukraine could spill over.

    In an online statement published early Saturday, Moscow stressed its fighter jets had kept to neutral Baltic Sea waters more than 3 kilometers (1.8 miles) from Estonia’s Vaindloo Island in the Gulf of Finland.

    “On September 19, three MiG-31 fighter jets completed a scheduled flight from Karelia to an airfield in the Kaliningrad region,” it said, referencing the Russian enclave sandwiched between Polish and Lithuanian territory.

    “The flight was conducted in strict compliance with international airspace regulations and did not violate the borders of other states, as confirmed through objective monitoring,” the statement said without providing details about the monitoring operation.

    On Friday, Estonian officials said Tallinn had summoned a Russian diplomat to protest, and also moved “to start consultations among the allies” under NATO’s Article 4, which states that parties would confer whenever the territorial integrity, political independence or security is threatened.

    Zelenskyy hopes to finalize security guarantees in New York meetings

    Zelenskyy said that Ukraine and its partners have laid the groundwork for long-term security guarantees and that he hopes to gauge how close they are to finalizing such commitments during next week’s meetings in New York.

    He said European nations are prepared to move forward with a framework if the United States remains closely engaged. He noted that discussions have taken place at multiple levels, including among military leadership and general staffs from both Europe and the U.S.

    “I would like to receive signals for myself on how close we are to understanding that the security guarantees from all partners will be the kind we need,” Zelenskyy said.

    Zelenskyy said sanctions against Russia must remain on the table if peace efforts stall, and that he plans to press the issue in talks with Trump.

    “If the war continues and there is no movement toward peace, we expect sanctions,” he said, adding that Trump is looking for strong steps from Europe.

    Copyright © 2025 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

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  • Russia launches ‘massive’ attack on Ukraine, as Kyiv hits oil refineries

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    Russia launched a “massive” overnight attack on Ukraine’s southern and central regions, authorities said, as Kyiv struck Russian oil refineries.

    One woman was killed in Zaporizhzhia and 28 people were injured – including three children – according to local officials.

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Moscow launched over 500 drones and 45 missiles, hitting 14 regions across the country.

    Following the attack Russia’s defence ministry said in statement all “targets of the strike have been achieved” and “designated objects have been hit”.

    It comes amid ongoing international efforts to secure peace – and days after Ukraine faced the second biggest aerial attack of the war so far, with a least 23 killed on Thursday.

    In Dnipropetrovsk, Governor Serhiy Lysak said overnight the region was “under massive attack” as he warned people to take cover.

    It is the second successive night Dnipropetrovsk has been targeted. Earlier this week, Kyiv acknowledged that Russia’s military had entered the region and is trying to establish a foothold.

    Firefighters tackled blazes in Zaporizhzia in the early hours of Saturday morning [STATE EMERGENCY SERVICE OF UKRAINE]

    Railway infrastructure was damaged near Kyiv, but it was central and south-eastern Ukraine that bore the brunt of the latest strikes.

    Emergency services were seen putting out fires in Zaporizhzhia, while explosions were heard in the central eastern regions of Dnipro and Pavlohrad.

    Meanwhile, Ukraine’s military said it hit Russia’s Krasnodar and Syzran oil refineries overnight. Both refineries have been targeted before.

    The Ukrainian military said there were “numerous explosions and fires were recorded at the facility,” which they said produces a volume of three million tons per year.

    Russian authorities in Krasnodar acknowledged the drone strikes from Kyiv hit its oil refinery. It said one of the process units was damaged and a fire occurred in the area. It said there were no casualties.

    The Russian defence ministry added it had shot down 20 Ukrainian drones overnight, including 18 over Moscow-annexed Crimea.

    The Russian military also said it captured a rural settlement in Donetsk – Komyshevakha on Saturday morning. Ukraine has not confirmed this.

    The blows between the warring sides follow US-led diplomatic efforts aimed at bringing an end to the war, which so far remain at a standstill.

    Zelensky said the latest attacks showed Russia’s “disregard for words”, adding that the only way to deal with Russia is to impose sanctions.

    “We expect action from the US, Europe, and the entire world,” he said.

    European foreign affairs ministers are in Denmark this weekend to discuss international developments – including the war in Ukraine.

    One of the key issues is the possibility of freezing approximately €210bn (£181.7bn) worth of Russian assets.

    EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas who is at the gathering said it is clear “Russia does not want peace” despite diplomatic efforts.

    France said it would use the gathering to table new proposals for sanctions against Russia, with the aim of depleting “the resources that Russia is investing in this war” foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot was quoted by Russia’s state-owned news agency Tass as saying.

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  • ‘Stock up on blankets’: Ukrainians brace for horrific winter

    ‘Stock up on blankets’: Ukrainians brace for horrific winter

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    KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainians could face rolling blackouts from now through March in frigid, snowy weather because Russian airstrikes have caused “colossal” damage to the power grid, officials said. To cope, authorities are urging people to stock up on supplies and evacuate hard-hit areas.

    Sergey Kovalenko, the CEO of private energy provider DTEK Yasno, said the company is under instructions from Ukraine’s state grid operator to resume emergency blackouts in the areas it covers, including the capital, Kyiv, and the eastern Dnipropetrovsk region.

    “Although there are fewer blackouts now, I want everyone to understand: Most likely, Ukrainians will have to live with blackouts until at least the end of March,” Kovalenko warned on Facebook.

    “We need to be prepared for different options, even the worst ones. Stock up on warm clothes and blankets. Think about what will help you wait out a long shutdown,” he told Ukrainian residents.

    Russia has launched six massive aerial attacks against Ukraine’s power grid and other infrastructure since Oct. 10, as the war approaches its nine-month mark. That targeted onslaught has caused widespread blackouts and deprived millions of Ukrainians of electricity, heat and water.

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Tuesday in a video speech to a French municipal group that Russian missile strikes have destroyed nearly half of the country’s energy facilities “to turn the cold of winter into a weapon of mass destruction.” Later, in his nightly video address, he announced the establishment of “Points of Invincibility” where people can gather for electricity, mobile communications, internet access, heat, water, and first aid.

    Temperatures commonly stay below freezing in Ukraine in the winter, and snow has already fallen in many areas, including Kyiv. Ukrainian authorities are evacuating civilians from recently liberated sections of the southern Kherson and Mykolaiv regions out of fear the winter will be too hard to survive.

    Heeding the call, women and children — including a little red-headed boy whose shirt read in English “Made with Love” — carried their limited belongings, along with dogs and cats, onto trains departing from the newly liberated city of Kherson.

    “We are leaving now because it’s scary to sleep at night,” departing resident Tetyana Stadnik said on a cramped night sleeper train Monday as a dog wandered around. “Shells are flying over our heads and exploding. It’s too much. We will wait until the situation gets better. And then we will come back home.”

    Another resident said leaving was the right thing to do to help the country.

    “No one wants to leave their homes. But they’re even advising (to leave). They’d have to warm us up, when it’s needed for other people. If we have an opportunity to leave, we can at least help Ukraine with something,” Alexandra Barzenkova said as she sat on a train bunk bed.

    More hardship was in store for those remaining.

    The repeated Russian attacks — with the most severe on Nov. 15 involving 100 heavy rockets — have damaged practically every thermal and hydroelectric power plant, and “the scale of destruction is colossal,” Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, the CEO of Ukrenergo, the state-owned power grid operator, said Tuesday. In addition, electric substations have been damaged, while nuclear power plants have largely been spared, he said.

    Kyiv regional authorities said Tuesday that more than 150 settlements were enduring emergency blackouts because of snowfall and high winds.

    Slowed by the weather, Ukrainian forces are pressing a counteroffensive while Moscow’s troops maintain artillery shelling and missile strikes.

    In a key battlefield development, Natalia Humeniuk of the Ukrainian army’s Operational Command South said on Ukrainian television that Kyiv’s forces are attacking Russian positions on the Kinburn Spit, a gateway to the Black Sea basin, as well as parts of the southern Kherson region still under Russian control.

    The Kinburn Spit is Russia’s last outpost in Ukraine’s southern Mykolayiv region, directly west of Kherson. Ukrainian forces recently liberated other parts of the Kherson and Mykolaiv regions. Moscow has used the Kinburn Spit as a staging ground for missile and artillery strikes on Ukrainian positions in the Mykolaiv province, and elsewhere along the Ukrainian-controlled Black Sea coast.

    Recapturing the Kinburn Spit could help Ukrainian forces push into Russian-held territory in the Kherson region “under significantly less Russian artillery fire” than if they directly crossed the Dnieper River, a Washington-based think tank said. The Institute for the Study of War added that control of the area would help Kyiv alleviate Russian strikes on Ukraine’s southern seaports and allow it to increase its naval activity in the Black Sea.

    In the Russian Black Sea Fleet’s headquarters city of Sevastopol, Russian-installed Gov. Mikhail Razvozhaev said air defense systems intercepted at least two drones, including those targeting a power station. Zelenskyy has vowed to recapture the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014, but his government didn’t immediately comment on the Russian report.

    In other developments:

    — Ukraine’s counter-intelligence service, police officers and the country’s National Guard on Tuesday searched one of the most famous Orthodox Christian sites in Kyiv after a priest spoke favorably about Russia during a service.

    — Ukraine’s presidential office said Tuesday that at least eight civilians were killed and 16 were injured over the previous 24 hours, as Moscow’s forces again used drones, rockets and heavy artillery to pound eight Ukrainian regions.

    —In the eastern Donetsk region, fierce battles continued around Bakhmut, where the Kremlin’s forces are keen to clinch a victory after weeks of embarrassing military setbacks. Donetsk Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko also said Russia launched missiles at Kramatorsk, a Ukrainian military hub, and the city of Avdiivka. Russia’s Defense Ministry spokesman hinted at clashes near the Donetsk village of Pavlivka, saying Russian troops “destroyed” three Ukrainian sabotage and reconnaissance units.

    — One civilian was killed and three others wounded after Russian forces shelled the city of Kherson, Ukraine’s presidential office said.

    — Two civilians died Tuesday in the Russian border region of Belgorod, its governor said on Telegram. Vyacheslav Gladkov said a married couple were killed by an unexploded munition in Staroselye, on the border with Ukraine’s northern Sumy region. He said a woman was killed in shelling of Shebekino, close to Ukraine’s Kharkiv province.

    — A social worker was killed and two other civilians were wounded Tuesday after Russian tank shells hit an aid distribution point in southern Ukraine, according to the governor of Zaporizhzhia.

    — Ukrainian officials on Tuesday handed over the bodies of 33 soldiers recovered from Russia to their families.

    — The U.S. announced disbursement of $4.5 billion to help stabilize Ukraine’s economy and support key Ukrainian government functions. The package will help fund wages for hospital workers, government employees and teachers, as well as social assistance for the elderly and vulnerable.

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  • ‘Stock up on blankets’: Ukrainians brace for horrific winter

    ‘Stock up on blankets’: Ukrainians brace for horrific winter

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    KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine could face rolling blackouts across the country through March, an energy expert said, due to what another official described Tuesday as the “colossal” damage done to Ukraine‘s power grid by relentless Russian airstrikes. Ukrainians are being told to stock up on supplies, evacuate hard-hit areas — or even think about leaving the country altogether.

    Sergey Kovalenko, the CEO of private energy provider DTEK Yasno, said the company was under instructions from Ukraine’s state grid operator to resume emergency blackouts in the areas it covers, including the capital Kyiv and the eastern Dnipropetrovsk region.

    “Although there are fewer blackouts now, I want everyone to understand: Most likely, Ukrainians will have to live with blackouts until at least the end of March,” Kovalenko warned in a Facebook post.

    “I think we need to be prepared for different options, even the worst ones. Stock up on warm clothes, blankets, think about what will help you wait out a long shutdown,” he said, addressing Ukrainian residents.

    Russia has been pummeling Ukraine’s power grid and other infrastructure from the air for weeks, as the war approaches its nine-month milestone. That onslaught has caused widespread blackouts and deprived millions of Ukrainians of electricity, heat and water.

    “This winter will be life-threatening for millions of people in Ukraine,” said Dr. Hans Henri P. Kluge, the World Health Organization’s regional director for Europe, due to the lack of power and Ukraine’s damaged health facilities.

    Temperatures commonly stay below freezing in Ukraine in the winter, and snow has already fallen in many areas, including Kyiv. Ukrainian authorities have started evacuating civilians from recently liberated sections of the southern Kherson and Mykolaiv regions out of fear that the winter will be too hard to survive.

    Kovalenko said even if no more Russian airstrikes occur, scheduled outages will be needed across Ukraine to ensure that power is evenly distributed across the country’s battered energy grid.

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Russian missile strikes have damaged more than 50% of the country’s energy facilities.

    “The scale of destruction is colossal” on the power grid from the Russian barrage last week, Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, the CEO of Ukrenergo, the state-owned power grid operator, told Ukrainian TV on Tuesday.

    He said Ukraine has “practically no intact thermal (or) hydroelectric power plants” following the large-scale attack by Moscow on Nov. 15.

    Also Tuesday, the Kyiv regional authorities said more than 150 settlements were enduring emergency blackouts due to the onset of winter weather, including snowfall and high winds. More than 70 repair teams have been deployed to restore power across the province.

    The battle for terrain has continued unabated despite the deteriorating weather conditions, with Ukrainian forces pressing against Russian positions as part of a weeks-long counteroffensive and Moscow’s forces keeping up shelling and missile strikes.

    In a key battlefield development, a Ukrainian official acknowledged that Kyiv’s forces are attacking Russian positions on the Kinburn Spit, which is a gateway to the Black Sea basin and parts of the southern Kherson region that are still under Russian control.

    Natalia Humeniuk, a spokesperson for the Ukrainian army’s Operational Command South, said in televised remarks that Ukrainian forces are “continuing a military operation” in the area.

    The Kinburn Spit is Russia’s last outpost in Ukraine’s southern Mykolayiv region, directly west of Kherson. Ukrainian forces recently liberated other parts of the Kherson and Mykolaiv regions. Moscow has used the Kinburn Spit as a staging ground for missile and artillery strikes on Ukrainian positions in the Mykolaiv province, and elsewhere along the Ukrainian-controlled Black Sea coast.

    Ukraine recently recaptured the city of Kherson, on the western bank of the Dnieper River, and surrounding areas.

    Recapturing the Kinburn Spit could help Ukrainian forces push into territory that Russia still holds in the Kherson region “under significantly less Russian artillery fire” than directly crossing the Dnieper, a Washington-based think tank said. The Institute for the Study of War added that control of the area would help Kyiv alleviate Russian strikes on Ukraine’s southern seaports and allow Ukraine to increase its naval activity in the Black Sea.

    Meanwhile, Ukraine’s presidential office said Tuesday that at least eight civilians were killed and 16 were injured over the previous 24 hours, as Moscow’s forces once again used drones, rockets and heavy artillery to pound eight Ukrainian regions.

    In the eastern Donetsk region, fierce battles continued around the city of Bakhmut, where the Kremlin’s forces are keen to clinch a victory after weeks of embarrassing military setbacks. Donetsk Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko also said Russia launched missiles at the city of Kramatorsk, a Ukrainian military hub, and on the strategic city of Avdiivka.

    He added that power and communications were nonexistent in most of the Donetsk region.

    According to Ukraine’s presidential office, one civilian was killed and three others wounded after Russia shelled the city of Kherson, which Ukrainian forces recaptured on Nov. 10.

    Since Russia invaded on Feb. 24, the war has killed at least 16,784 civilians and injured 10,189, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights estimates.

    But U.S. Army General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, estimated earlier this month that some 40,000 Ukrainian civilians have been killed or wounded.

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  • Ukraine: Russia hits power site by Kyiv, guards seized land

    Ukraine: Russia hits power site by Kyiv, guards seized land

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    A missile strike seriously damaged a key energy facility in Ukraine‘s capital region, the country’s power system operator said Saturday as the Russian military strove to cut water and electricity in populated areas.

    Kyiv region Gov. Oleksiy Kuleba said the strike did not kill or wound anyone.

    Electricity transmission company Ukrenergo said repair crews were working to restore power but warned residents about possible outages.

    Kyrylo Tymoshenko, the deputy head of the Ukrainian president’s office, urged Kyiv area residents and people in three neighboring regions to reduce their energy consumption during evening hours of peak demand.

    After a truck bomb explosion a week ago damaged the bridge that links Russia to the annexed Crimean Peninsula, the Kremlin launched what is believed to be its largest coordinated missile attacks since the initial invasion of Ukraine.

    This week’s wide-ranging retaliatory attacks hit residential buildings, killing dozens of people, as well as civil infrastructure such as power stations near Kyiv and other cities far from the front lines of the war.

    Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday that Moscow did not see a need for additional massive strikes but his military would continue selective strikes. He said of 29 targets the Russian military planned to knock out in this week’s attacks, seven weren’t damaged and would be taken out gradually.

    The Institute for the Study of War, a think tank based in Washington, interpreted Putin’s remarks as intended to counter criticism from pro-war Russian bloggers who “largely praised the resumption of strikes against Ukrainian cities but warned that a short campaign would be ineffective.”

    “Putin knew he would not be able to sustain high-intensity missiles strikes for a long time due to a dwindling arsenal of high-precision missiles,” the think tank said.

    Regions of southern Ukraine that Putin illegally designated as Russian territory last month remained a focus of fighting Saturday.

    Kirill Stremousov, a deputy head of the administration Moscow installed in the mostly Russian-occupied Kherson region, reminded residents they could evacuate to Crimea and cities in southwestern Russia as Ukrainian forces try to battle their way to the regional capital.

    After the region’s worried Kremlin-backed leaders asked civilians Thursday to evacuate to ensure their safety and to give Russian troops more maneuverability, Moscow offered free accommodations to residents who agreed to leave.

    Ukrainian troops attempted to advance south along the banks of the Dnieper River but did gain any ground, according to Stremousov.

    “The defense lines worked, and the situation has remained under the full control of the Russian army,” he wrote on his messaging app channel.

    In the neighboring Zaporizhzhia region, Gov. Oleksandr Starukh said the Russian military carried out strikes with Iranian-made kamikaze drones and S-300 missiles. Some experts said the Russian military’s use of the long-range missiles may reflect shortages of dedicated precision weapons for hitting ground targets.

    To the north and east of Kherson, Russian shelling killed two civilians in the Dnipropetrovsk region, Gov. Valentyn Resnichenko said. He said the shelling of the city of Nikopol, which is located across the Dnieper from the Russia-occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, damaged a dozen residential buildings, several stores and a transportation facility.

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  • Ukraine presses on with counteroffensive; Russia uses drones

    Ukraine presses on with counteroffensive; Russia uses drones

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    KYIV, Ukraine — Russia attacked the Ukrainian president’s hometown and other targets Sunday with suicide drones, and Ukraine took back full control of a strategic eastern city in a counteroffensive that has reshaped the war.

    Russia’s loss of the eastern city of Lyman, which it had been using as a transport and logistics hub, is a new blow to the Kremlin as it seeks to escalate the war by illegally annexing four regions of Ukraine and heightening threats to use nuclear force.

    Russian President Vladimir Putin’s land grab has threatened to push the conflict to a dangerous new level. It also prompted Ukraine to formally apply for NATO membership, a bid that won backing Sunday from nine central and eastern European NATO members fearful that Russia’s aggression could eventually target them, too.

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced Sunday that his forces now control Lyman: “As of 12:30 p.m. (0930 GMT) Lyman is cleared fully. Thank you to our militaries, our warriors,” he said in a video address.

    Russia’s military didn’t comment on the situation in Lyman on Sunday, after announcing Saturday that it was withdrawing its forces there to more favorable positions.

    The British military described the recapture of Lyman as a “significant political setback” for Moscow. Taking the city paves the way for Ukrainian troops to potentially push farther into Russian-occupied territory.

    In southern Ukraine, Zelenskyy’s hometown of Krivyi Rih came under Russian attack by a suicide drone that destroyed two stories of a school early Sunday, said Valentyn Reznichenko, governor of Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region.

    Russia in recent weeks has begun using Iranian-made suicide drones to attack targets in Ukraine. In southern Ukraine, the Ukrainian air force said Sunday it shot down five Iranian-made drones overnight, while two others made it through air defenses.

    A car carrying four men who wanted to forage for mushrooms in a forest in Ukraine’s Chernihiv region struck a mine, exploding the vehicle and killing all those inside, local authorities said Sunday.

    Russian attacks also targeted the city of Zaporizhzhia, Ukrainian authorities said Sunday. And Ukraine’s military said Sunday it carried out strikes on multiple Russian command posts, ammunition depots and two S-300 anti-aircraft batteries.

    The reports of military activity couldn’t be immediately verified.

    Ukrainian forces have retaken swaths of territory, notably in the northeast around Kharkiv, in a counteroffensive in recent weeks that has embarrassed the Kremlin and prompted rare domestic criticism of Putin’s war.

    Lyman, which Ukraine recaptured by encircling Russian troops, is in the Donetsk region near the border with Luhansk, two of the four regions that Russia illegally annexed Friday after forcing what was left of the population to vote in referendums at gunpoint.

    In his nightly address Saturday, Zelenskyy said: “Over the past week, there have been more Ukrainian flags in the Donbas. In a week there will be even more.”

    In a daily intelligence briefing, the British Defense Ministry called Lyman crucial because it has “a key road crossing over the Siversky Donets River, behind which Russia has been attempting to consolidate its defenses.”

    The Russian retreat from northeast Ukraine in recent weeks has revealed evidence of widespread, routine torture of both civilians and soldiers, notably in the strategic city of Izium, an Associated Press investigation has found.

    AP journalists located 10 torture sites in the town, including a deep pit in a residential compound, a clammy underground jail that reeked of urine, a medical clinic and a kindergarten.

    Russian officials release limited information about military activity in what the Kremlin still refuses to call a war. They routinely claim that Russia exclusively targets Ukrainian military forces, the foreigners supporting them or Western-supplied weaponry.

    Putin frames the Ukrainian gains as a U.S.-orchestrated effort to destroy Russia, and last week he heightened threats of nuclear force in some of his toughest, most anti-Western rhetoric to date.

    Recent developments have raised fears of all-out conflict between Russia and the West.

    The leaders of Czechia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania and Slovakia issued a joint statement backing a path to NATO membership for Ukraine, and calling on all 30 members of the U.S.-led security bloc to ramp up military aid for Kyiv.

    German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht, meanwhile, on Sunday announced the delivery of 16 wheeled armored howitzers produced in Slovakia to Ukraine next year. The weapons will be financed jointly with Denmark, Norway and Germany,

    Russia on Sunday moved ahead with steps meant to make its land grab look like a legal process aimed at helping people persecuted by Ukraine, with rubber-stamp approval by the Constitutional Court and draft laws being pushed through the Kremlin-friendly parliament. Outside Russia, the annexation has been widely denounced as violating international law.

    Meanwhile, international concerns are mounting about the fate of Europe’s largest nuclear plant after Russian forces detained its director for alleged questioning.

    The International Atomic Energy Agency announced Sunday that its director-general, Rafael Grossi would visit Kyiv and Moscow in the coming days to discuss the situation around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. Grossi is continuing to push for “a nuclear safety and security zone” around the site.

    The Zaporizhzhia plant is in one of the four regions that Moscow illegally annexed on Friday, and repeatedly has been caught in the crossfire of the war. Ukrainian technicians have continued running the power station after Russian troops seized it, and its last reactor was shut down in September as a precautionary measure.

    Pope Francis on Sunday decried Russia’s nuclear threats and appealed to Putin to stop “this spiral of violence and death.”

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  • Ukraine presses counteroffensive after Russian setback

    Ukraine presses counteroffensive after Russian setback

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    KYIV, Ukraine — Russia attacked the Ukrainian president’s hometown and other targets with suicide drones on Sunday, and Ukraine took back full control of a strategic eastern city in a counteroffensive that has reshaped the war.

    Russia’s loss of Lyman, which it had been using as a transport and logistics hub, is a new blow to the Kremlin as it seeks to escalate the war by illegally annexing four regions of Ukraine and heightening its threats to use nuclear force. Ukraine’s recent gains have embarrassed Russian President Vladimir Putin and prompted rare domestic criticism.

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Sunday his forces now control Lyman, after Russia’s military announced Saturday its retreat.

    “As of 12:30 p.m. (0930 GMT) Lyman is cleared fully. Thank you to our militaries, our warriors,” Zelenskyy said in a video address.

    In southern Ukraine, Zelenskyy’s hometown Krivyi Rih came under Russian attack by a suicide drone that struck a school early Sunday and destroyed two stories of it, said Valentyn Reznichenko, the governor of Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region.

    Russia in recent weeks has begun using Iranian-made suicide drones to attack targets in Ukraine. In southern Ukraine, the Ukrainian air force said Sunday it shot down five Iranian-made drones overnight, while two others made it through air defenses.

    Meanwhile, Russian attacks also targeted the city of Zaporizhzhia, Ukrainian authorities said Sunday. And Ukraine’s military said Sunday it carried out strikes on multiple Russian command posts, ammunition depots and two S-300 anti-aircraft batteries.

    The reports of military activity couldn’t be immediately verified.

    Ukrainian forces have retaken swaths of territory, notably in the northeast around Kharkiv, in a counteroffensive in recent weeks.

    In the latest major development, Ukrainian forces encircled Russian troops holding the hub of Lyman in the east, forcing the Russians to withdraw in what the British military described as a “significant political setback” for Moscow. Taking the city paves the way for Ukrainian troops to potentially push farther into territory Russia has occupied.

    Lyman had been an important link in the Russian front line for ground communications and logistics. Lyman is in the Donetsk region near the border with Luhansk, two of the four regions that Russia illegally annexed Friday after forcing the population to vote in referendums at gunpoint.

    Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed to have inflicted damage on Ukrainian forces in battling to hold Lyman, but said outnumbered Russian troops were withdrawn to more favorable positions.

    In his nightly address Saturday, Zelenskyy said: “Over the past week, there have been more Ukrainian flags in the Donbas. In a week there will be even more.”

    In a daily intelligence briefing, the British Defense Ministry called Lyman crucial because it has “a key road crossing over the Siversky Donets River, behind which Russia has been attempting to consolidate its defenses.”

    The British said they believed that the city had been held by “undermanned elements” prior to the Russian withdrawal, which prompted immediate criticism from some Russian officials.

    “Further losses of territory in illegally occupied territories will almost certainly lead to an intensification of this public criticism and increase the pressure on senior commanders,” the British military briefing said.

    The Russian retreat from northeast Ukraine in recent weeks has revealed evidence of widespread, routine torture of both civilians and soldiers, notably in the strategic city of Izium, an Associated Press investigation has found.

    AP journalists located 10 torture sites in the Ukrainian town, including a deep sunless pit in a residential compound, a clammy underground jail that reeked of urine, a medical clinic and a kindergarten.

    Russian officials release limited information about military activity in what the Kremlin still refuses to call a war. Putin frames the Ukrainian gains as a U.S.-orchestrated effort to destroy Russia, and last week he heightened threats of nuclear force in some of his toughest, most anti-Western rhetoric to date.

    Pope Francis on Sunday decried the nuclear threats, and appealed to Putin to stop “this spiral of violence and death.”

    Meanwhile, international concerns are mounting about the fate of Europe’s largest nuclear plant after Russian forces detained its director.

    The International Atomic Energy Agency announced Sunday that its director-general, Rafael Grossi would visit Kyiv and Moscow in the coming days to discuss the situation around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. Grossi is continuing to push for “a nuclear safety and security zone” around the site.

    The plant is in an area of Ukraine controlled by Russia and within one of the four regions that Moscow illegally annexed on Friday, and repeatedly has been caught in the crossfire of the war. Ukrainian technicians continued running the power station after Russian troops seized it, and its last reactor was shut down in September as a precautionary measure.

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    Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

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  • Live Updates: Russia-Ukraine War

    Live Updates: Russia-Ukraine War

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    KYIV, Ukraine — STOCKHOLM — A fourth leak to the Nord Stream pipelines conveying natural gas from Russia to Germany has been reported off southern Sweden.

    Earlier, three leaks had been reported on the two underwater pipelines. Seismologists detected two explosions were detected before reports of the leaks which officials believe were “deliberate actions.”

    Some experts have said Russia is likely to blame for any sabotage — it directly benefits from higher energy prices and economic anxiety across Europe.

    Sweden’s coast guards told Swedish news agency TT on Thursday that the fourth leak was off Sweden. All the leaks are in international waters.

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    KEY DEVELOPMENTS:

    — Russia poised to annex occupied Ukrain e after sham vote

    — US: Focus new Russia sanctions on oil revenue, arms supplies

    — Europe ramps up energy security after suspected sabotage

    — Moscow tries to draft fleeing Russian men at the borders

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    OTHER DEVELOPMENTS:

    KYIV — Authorities say Russian missile fire targeted the eastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro overnight, killing at least three people and wounded five others.

    Valentyn Reznichenko, the governor of the wider Dnipropetrovsk region, said fire damaged homes, a market, cars, buses and electrical lines.

    ——

    KYIV — Authorities say the hometown of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has again been targeted by Russian missile fire.

    Ukrainian military officials said Thursday a Russian Kh-59 missile struck Kryvyi Rih on Wednesday night. The Russian fire struck a grain depot while others were shot down.

    Kryvyi Rih is some 350 kilometers (215 miles) southeast of Kyiv.

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    KYIV — The Ukrainian military says it is sending undertrained fighters to the battle front as it tries to reinforce its positions in the eastern Ukrainian city of Lyman.

    The Ukrainian military’s general staff said Thursday that of seven Russian tanks sent to Lyman recently, Russian troops crashed two of them on the way there.

    It also said troops manning the tanks did not undergo training on how to use the vehicle’s weapons.

    The Ukrainian military did not elaborate on how it knew about the tank unit’s condition. But Ukraine’s intelligence services have played purportedly intercepted phone calls of Russian troops complaining about their conditions on the front line.

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    KYIV — Britain’s military says the number of Russian military-age men fleeing the country likely exceeds the number of forces Moscow used to initially invade Ukraine in February.

    The British Defense Ministry made the estimate in its daily intelligence briefing Thursday amid a Russian push to mobilize more troops to replenish losses its forces have suffered in Ukraine.

    The ministry said those who are financially better off and better educated are over-represented amongst those attempting to leave Russia.

    It added that the economic impact from the call-up as a result of a loss of labor in combination with a ‘brain drain’ “is likely to become increasingly difficult.”

    ——

    KYIV — A Washington-based think tank says Ukrainian soldiers continue to advance around a key northeastern city occupied by Russian forces and may soon encircle it entirely.

    The Institute for the Study of War, citing Russian reports, said Thursday that Ukrainian forces have taken more villages around Lyman, a city some 160 kilometers (100 miles) southeast of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city.

    Lyman had been a key node in Russia’s front-line operations in the region before Ukrainian forces retook vast swathes of territory in the northeast earlier this month.

    The institute said a possible collapse of the Lyman pocket would allow Ukrainian troops to “threaten Russian positions along the western Luhansk” region.

    The institute suggested additional Russian losses would further erode morale amid a call-up of hundreds of thousands of men — the country’s first since World War II.

    — Follow the AP’s coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

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