Russia targeted Ukraine with dozens of missiles, killing at least four civilians early on Monday, Ukrainian authorities said. Two people were killed in the western Khmelnytskyi region, local officials said. In Kryvyi Rih, a 62-year-old was reported to have been killed.
Elsewhere, the governor of the Kharkiv region said a 63-year-old woman was killed in a strike on a town south of Kharkiv. Ukrainian forces destroyed 18 out of 51 missiles launched during the wave of Russian airstrikes on Monday, Ukraine’s air force said.
Ukraine’s draft mobilisation law will not conscript women or introduce a lottery, according to Yehor Chernev, deputy chairman of parliament’s defence committee, which is is due to consider the law on Tuesday.
The British former defence secretary Ben Wallace warned his successor, Grant Shapps, that the UK was at risk of “falling behind” in its military support for Ukraine, because ministers had yet to announce a military aid budget for 2024-5.
A section of railroad near the city of Nizhny Tagil in Russia’s Urals region was hit by a “bang”, Tass and RBC news agencies reported. Baza, a Russian media outlet, said the blast on the railway took place close to the station of San-Donato, near an oil depot.
The Swedish prime minister announced that Sweden – despite not yet being a full member of Nato – will send troops to Latvia next year as part of a Canadian-led force to deter Russian attack.
In the Russian-occupied Luhansk region in eastern Ukraine, a Russian warplane accidentally released a bomb on the town of Rubizhne, said Leonid Pasechnik, the Moscow-appointed regional occupation head. He reportedly said the bomb, an FAB-250 that carries a high-explosive warhead, did not cause injuries. His comments could not be independently verified.
Ukraine has exported 15m tonnes of cargo through its Black Sea shipping corridor, including 10m tonnes of agricultural goods, the deputy prime minister for restoration, Oleksandr Kubrakov, has said.
“Indiscriminately striking” civilians is a war crime because it violates international humanitarian law, Pope Francis was quoted as saying in a speech referencing conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine.
Ukraine’s first lady, Olena Zelenska, said that Russia has “left people homeless” through its attacks on Ukraine, a reality of war she says “can only be changed by weapons”.
