Friday, October 6, 2023
1224 GMT — Russian missiles smashed into residential buildings in east Ukraine's Kharkiv, killing a 10-year-old boy, just hours after a strike killed more than 50 people attending a wake in a nearby village.
Rescue workers in Kharkiv were extinguishing fires next to charred vehicles, and missile fragments lay at the bottom of a deep crater in the centre of the city, an AFP journalist at the scene said.
Multiple-storey buildings surrounding the debris-strewn blast site were scarred by the strikes, with dozens of windows blown out and dazed residents walking beneath skeletons of housing blocks.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the attack had left a 10-year-old boy dead and described the strikes as another example of "Russian terror," in a statement offering condolences to the killed boy's family.
The regional governor Oleg Synegubov said 27 people, including an 11-month-old child, had been injured and that search operations were ongoing.
More updates: 👇
1802 GMT — Civilians being evacuated in Ukraine's northeastern Kharkiv region
As Ukraine's war with Russia presses on, civilians in the northeastern Kharkiv region are being evacuated and relocated to the regional urban center of the same name.
Intense clashes persist in the Kharkiv region, where settlements near the front line are often subject to Russian attacks that result in significant da mage to civilian infrastructure.
While the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in the country has been responding to requests and evacuating civilians in Kharkiv, residents of remote towns and villages due to the conflicts are brought to the city of Kharkiv.
Anadolu followed the evacuation process in the region by accompanying Red Cross teams to the cities of Vovchansk and Kupyansk near the Russian border.
1754 GMT — US expels two Russian diplomats in reciprocal step
The United States said it was expelling two Russian diplomats, a retaliatory step after Moscow kicked out two Americans last month.
"In response to the Russian Federation's specious expulsion of two US embassy Moscow diplomats, the State Department reciprocated by declaring persona non grata two Russian embassy officials operating in the United States," a State Department spokesperson said.
Russia said last month that it was expelling two US diplomats for liaising with a Russian citizen who had formerly worked at the US consulate in the Far Eastern city of Vladivostok, Robert Shonov.
1748 GMT — US readies new Ukraine arms package despite tumult in Congress
The Biden administration is expected to announce a new weapons package for Ukraine next week as the Pentagon continues to use up funds discovered due to a multi-billion dollar accounting error, US officials said.
Those funds have allowed the Biden administration to send Kiev arms, supplies and munitions despite the exclusion of new Ukraine aid from a stopgap spending bill passed by the House of Representatives last weekend to prevent a government shutdown.
Biden has been asking Congress to approve another $24 billion related to Ukraine, which the country's supporters - Republicans as well as Democrats - had hoped could become law as part of a spending bill. The request is still pending.
1727 GMT — Zelenskyy warns Russia will 'again try to destroy' power grid
Ukrainian President Zelenskyy warned that Russia will "again try to destroy" Ukraine's power grid this winter and that Kiev was making "preparations" to protect its heating facilities.
Fears for Ukraine's energy security have risen ahead of the winter months as war with Russia has dragged on for almost 20 months.
Last cold season Russia led a campaign of targeting Ukraine's power grid and energy facilities, leaving thousands to face freezing temperatures in the winter, which can be severe in parts of Ukraine.
"This winter, Russian terrorists will again try to destroy our power system," Zelenskyy said in his daily evening address.
"We are fully aware of the danger," he said.
1057 GMT — Russian airstrike in Ukraine 'one of deadliest' since war began: UN rights office
The UN human rights office has called a Russian airstrike that killed 52 people in Ukraine on Thursday "one of the deadliest" since war began.
"What is clear is that the strike is one of the deadliest since Feb. 24, 2022, but of course, it is far from being the only one," spokesperson Elizabeth Throssell told a UN press briefing in Geneva on Friday.
Such an attack underscores once again "the terrible price civilians are paying," Throssell said on the attack, in "what appeared to be a Russian missile (that) struck a cafe in the (Hroza) village, where people had gathered for a wake" in the northeastern Kharkiv region.
The village is reportedly near no military or industrial targets.
1056 GMT — Austria summons Russia’s ambassador to protest deadly rocket attack in Ukraine
Austria summoned Russia’s ambassador in Vienna to protest a deadly rocket attack on a grocery store in northern Ukraine.
“Russia’s Ambassador in Vienna was just summoned because of yesterday’s heinous rocket attack on a village in Kharkiv Oblast, claiming dozens of innocent lives,” the Austrian Foreign Ministry stated on X.
The ministry added that “Attacks on civilians are a war crime. Those responsible must be held accountable.”
In a related development, Bulgarian Foreign Minister Mariya Gabriel also condemned the attack in a statement posted on X.
1036 GMT — Kremlin says Russia strikes only 'military targets'
The Kremlin claimed Russian forces never targeted civilian infrastructure after Ukraine blamed Moscow for a missile attack that killed over 50 people in the eastern village of Groza.
"We repeat that the Russian military does not strike civilian targets. Strikes are carried out on military targets, on places where military personnel are concentrated," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in his daily briefing.
1000 GMT — Russia downs 5 Ukrainian drones over Belgorod region
The Russian Defence Ministry said that five Ukrainian drones were shot down over the Belgorod region overnight.
The ministry said in a statement that all unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) were shot down by air defense systems.
Meanwhile, another attack was foiled in the northwestern Black Sea when a Russian Black Sea Fleet Ka-29 helicopter detected and destroyed a Ukrainian unmanned boat heading towards the Crimean Peninsula, the ministry noted.
In a separate statement, the head of the press center of Russia's Center Group of Forces, Alexander Savchuk, said artillery and aviation struck positions of the Ukrainian Azov brigade of special forces.
0630 GMT — Russian missile strike on Kharkiv kills child, wounds dozens
A missile strike by Russian forces hit residential buildings in the eastern region of Kharkiv, killing a 10-year-old boy and injuring nearly two dozen others, Ukrainian officials have said.
Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city that lies in a region bordering Russia, has been under routine shelling since Moscow began its military campaign in February last year.
"Another targeted attack by Russia on civilians. The body of a 10-year-old child was found under the ruins," Igor Klymenko said in a statement.
The regional governor Oleg Synyegubov said 23 people, including an 11-month-old child, had been injured.
Search operations are ongoing.
The police service and Synyegubov said the city had been hit twice by Russian cruise missiles.
0714 GMT — Sweden announces $200 million military aid package to Ukraine
Sweden will send Ukraine a new military support package worth 2.2 billion crowns ($199 million), consisting mainly of ammunition and spare parts to earlier donated systems, Defence Minister Pal Jonson has said.
The new military aid package will be Sweden's 14th to Ukraine since the start of the war, taking the total value of the Nordic country's such aid to just over 22 billion crowns.
Jonson told a news conference the government had also formally tasked the armed forces with analysing whether Sweden would be able to send Jas Gripen fighter jets to Ukraine.
0554 GMT — Ukraine says downed 25 of 33 Russian drones overnight
Ukraine's air force has said it had downed 25 of 33 Russian attack drones launched overnight across its territory.
Twenty-five Shahed 131 and 136 drones were shot down in six regions including Odessa, Kharkiv, Mykolaiv and Dnipro, the air force said on the messaging platform Telegram.
It did not say which targets the eight other drones may have struck.
Earlier, the governor of the southern region of Odessa said drones targeted port infrastructure in the Izmail district, on the Danube river near the Romanian border.
Three drones used in that attack had been des troyed, Oleg Kiper said on Telegram, adding there were no casualties, but that a grain storage facility was damaged.
Eight other drones were destroyed in the southern Mykolaiv region, Ukrainian defence forces said earlier on Telegram.
0443 GMT — Ukrainian grain silo damaged by drone attack near Danube
Russian drones attacked port infrastructure in Ukraine's Odessa region, damaging a grain silo near the Danube river in the early hours of Friday, Ukraine's operational command "South" said in a statement.
No casualties have been reported from the strike, it said.
0017 GMT — Russian forces down Ukrainian drones in west
Moscow said it had destroyed eight Ukrainian drones in western Russia following a deadly Russian strike on a village across the frontline.
The Russian Defence Ministry said the attempted drone attacks on Belgorod and Kursk took place late on Thursday.
"Kiev regime's attempt to carry out a terrorist attack by an aircraft-type UAV on objects on the territory of the Russian Federation was thwarted," it said on Telegram.
It said one drone was destroyed over Kursk at around 8:30 pm [1730 GMT], and seven were shot down over Belgorod and the surrounding region a few hours later.
Belgorod governor Vyacheslav Gladkov initially spoke of six drone strikes in his region, saying on Telegram that "according to preliminary data, no victims".
"Operational services are clarifying information about the consequences on the ground," he wrote.
2100 GMT — US weighs using State Dept grants to fund weapons for Ukraine
The Biden administration is considering using a US State Department grant programme to send additional military aid to Ukraine, a US official has said.
Politico first reported the exploratory initiative, citing two US officials with knowledge of the discussions.
According to a State Department fact sheet dated September 21, about $650 million worth of Foreign Military Financing [FMF] appropriation remained out of the $4.65 billion pool earmarked for Ukraine and countries impacted by the conflict.
A State Department spokesperson declined to comment on the Politico report.
2030 GMT — Germany says will ensure Ukraine can protect itself
Germany will "do everything possible" so that Ukraine can protect itself from Russian missiles, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has said after Moscow's latest deadly strike in Ukraine.
"More than 50 people dead in #Hrosa," she posted on X, formerly Twitter. "As long as bombs hail on supermarkets and cafes, we do everything for #Ukraine to protect itself from Putin's missile terror."
Earlier on Thursday, at a meeting of European leaders in Granada, Spain, Ukrainian President Zelenskyy and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced that Berlin was working on supplying Kiev with a new Patriot air-defence system.
2001 GMT — Turkish cargo ship hits mine in Black Sea
A Turkish-flagged general cargo ship has hit a mine in the Black Sea off the coast of Romania and sustained minor damage, but the crew was safe, maritime and security sources told the Reuters news agency.
British maritime security company Ambrey, citing information it received, said the ship struck a sea mine 11 nautical miles north of Sulina in Romania, near the entrance to the Sulina Canal.
"The vessel reportedly experienced an explosion at approximately 0920 UTC [GMT]. The vessel dropped anchor for a short period to assess the damage," Ambrey said in a note.
"At 1210, the vessel resumed sailing," Ambrey said, adding that no casualties were reported.
A Ukrainian government source confirmed a vessel had struck a mine, adding it was "probably a World War II mine or the landing mines that were left there last year", declining further comment.
Russia may use sea mines to target civilian shipping in the Black Sea, including by laying them on the approach to Ukrainian ports, the British government said on Wednesday, citing intelligence.
For our live updates from Thursday (October 5), click here.
