Ukraine war briefing: Nine killed and dozens wounded in Russian strikes as Kyiv braces for harsh winter
Zelenskyy says ‘Russia wants to kill the Ukrainian economy’ as Moscow steps up attacks on infrastructure. What we know on day 1,663Russian airstrikes killed nine people, injured dozens and damaged buildings and infrastructure across Ukraine on Saturday, as Kyiv braces for a “very difficult” winter amid intensified attacks on the country. The civilian death toll has risen sharply in Ukraine over the past two months as Russia steps up attacks on power plants and other infrastructure. Ukraine has hit energy facilities and warehouses in distant parts of Russia, and both sides have targeted each other’s shipping.Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, writing on Telegram, said Russia had deployed nearly 500 drones against Ukrainian targets since early morning. “Basically, the Russians have expanded the war away from the front, where they have no success, into the economy, and their tactics are as basic as it gets: destroying every site that could help people cope with the conditions of war,” he wrote. “Russia wants to kill the Ukrainian economy and break our resistance.”The city council in Kramatorsk, one of Ukraine’s frontline “fortress cities” that Russia wants to capture, said Russian forces attacked private cars, killing three people in three incidents over a 90-minute period. Four people were injured. “These are not military targets,” the council said. “They are ordinary civilian cars. People were going about their business.”The governor of Ukraine’s Zhytomyr region, Vitaliy Bunechko, said a Russian strike on a grocery store killed two people in the town of Zviahel, west of Kyiv. Bunechko said two petrol stations also came under attack.Earlier, Zelenskyy reported attacks on the south-eastern city of Zaporizhzhia and Kryvyi Rih, his home town. The governor of Zaporizhzhia region, Ivan Fedorov, said two people were killed and 11 injured in assaults on Zaporizhzhia and other localities.In Odesa region, governor Oleh Kiper said 37 people, including an infant, were injured in a series of overnight attacks, while two people were missing. Russia’s defence ministry said Russian forces have maintained their strikes on Ukrainian ports, hitting a cargo ship in Odesa that it said was carrying goods for military use.Ukrainian officials said the country was bracing for a brutal winter as intensified Russian attacks on infrastructure and key export industries compound a deepening budget crisis. The economy minister, Oleksandr Kravchenko, said damage to infrastructure and fixed assets from Russian airstrikes was estimated at close to $10bn this year, while the broader economic costs of the attacks and the de facto blockage of its ports had cut 1.5 percentage points of GDP. “We anticipate a very difficult winter in terms of both critical infrastructure, which is being destroyed every day by Russian attacks, but also in terms of overall economic conditions in the country,” he said.With fighting on the frontline largely stalled, Russia and Ukraine have increasingly targeted logistics networks and other economic assets in an effort to undermine each other’s war effort. For more than two weeks, Russia has carried out near constant attacks on Kyiv using faster jet-powered drones, disrupting life, business and government operations. Moscow has also effectively blocked Ukraine’s Black Sea ports by intensifying its air attacks on the country’s southern regions. Ukraine’s main exports – agricultural products and iron and steel – are shipped via these ports.In Moldova on Ukraine’s western border, authorities closed national airspace for nearly an hour after a drone was detected near the border. Seven border crossings were temporarily closed.Zelenskyy said he would be willing to meet Putin at the G20 summit in Miami for talks on ending the war, in a media interview released Saturday, but the Kremlin immediately ruled it out. “It is impossible,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told AFP in New Delhi on Saturday, repeating Moscow’s demand that a meeting can only take place in the Russian capital. The gathering of world leaders takes place on 14-15 December and there has been no confirmation yet as to whether Putin would attend. Putin has repeatedly rejected offers for a face-to-face meeting with Zelenskyy. Continue reading...
Ukrainians tell of their survival under Russian attack – video
Residents in cities across Ukraine recount attacks on their homes as Russian bombardment of the country intensifies.Petrol stations in Kyiv were hit by jet-powered drones in a wave of strikes, while residential areas and civilian infrastructure were struck in Odesa and Zaporizhzhia, injuring several peopleRussia targets Kyiv petrol stations for first time with jet-powered drones Continue reading...
