The death toll from Monday’s Russian missile attacks on a swathe of Ukrainian cities has risen to 19 people, with over 100 wounded, according to figures from the Ukrainian state emergency services.
Strikes continued on Tuesday. An attack on the Lviv region in western Ukraine on Tuesday left parts of the city without electricity. Governor Maksym Kozytskyi has said “At this moment, it is known about three explosions at two energy facilities in the Lviv region”. Mayor of the city, Andriy Sadovyi, appealed to residents to keep water supplies on hand ahead of expected service interruptions.
The Ladyzhyn thermal power plant (LTPP) in the Vinnytsia region was struck on Tuesday morning. Regional head Serhiy Borzov said: “An attack was launched on the LTPP. Two Shahed-136 kamikaze drones.”
There has been a lengthy air raid warning in place all morning in Kyiv, with governor Oleksiy Kuleba claiming that at least one rocket had been shot down.
Valentyn Reznichenko, the governor of Dnipro, has claimed that air defence systems had shot down four missiles over the region. Vitaliy Kim, the governor of Mykolaiv, has said that “there are still missiles in the air” and that Ukraine’s air defences continue to work.
The head of GCHQ has said the UK spy agency has not seen any indicators that Russia is preparing to use a tactical nuclear weapon in or around Ukraine despite recent bellicose statements from Vladimir Putin. Jeremy Fleming, speaking on Tuesday morning, said it was one of GCHQ’s tasks to monitor whether the Kremlin was taking any of the preliminary steps needed before a tactical weapon was being made ready.
Fleming is expected to say in a rare public speech delivered later on Tuesday that Putin is making strategic errors due to unconstrained power. “Far from the inevitable Russian military victory that their propaganda machine spouted, it’s clear that Ukraine’s courageous action on the battlefield and in cyberspace is turning the tide,” Fleming will say. “With little effective internal challenge, Putin’s decision-making has proved flawed”
The deployment of a joint task-force of Russian and Belorussian troops within Belarus poses a threat to Ukraine’s supply lines in the north of the country, according to Vadym Prystaiko, Ukraine’s ambassador to the UK.
Prystaiko also said that Russia is “running out of sophisticated weapons” and using missiles like “dumb bombs”, and said that Ukraine was still making progress on the frontline but “not as spectacular as it used to be a couple weeks ago”. He said in the south “we are closing the circle” and that “there are almost 20,000 Russian soldiers there. If you manage to capture them it will be a huge blow for the whole campaign.”
Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, leader of the democratic opposition in Belarus, has called on Russian soldiers to leave the country.
Belarus could face more sanctions if it gets more and more involved in the Ukraine conflict, France’s foreign affairs minister Catherine Colonna told French radio
A spokesperson for the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has said “We are gravely concerned that some of the attacks appear to have targeted critical civilian infrastructure … indicating that these strikes may have violated the principles on the conduct of hostilities under international humanitarian law.”
Mass bombardments of Ukrainian cities by Russia constitute war crimes under international law, the presidents of the Bucharest Nine group of countries, accompanied by the presidents of North Macedonia and Montenegro, said on Tuesday.
Thérèse Coffey, deputy prime minister of the UK, said Monday’s strikes showed “this is a time for other countries to continue the level of support that they’ve been showing, and where necessary to escalate their level of support directly to the Ukrainian armed forces.”
The German chancellor has attempted to make reassurances that the country’s energy supply will be secure this winter. Olaf Scholz said: “I am happy to say to you today, if we all continue to adapt to the changed situation – the citizens, the companies and the politicians – then we will get safely through this winter.”
Ukraine’s ambassador to the UN, Sergiy Kyslytsya, has called Russia a “terrorist state” at a General Assembly meeting on Monday night. Russia’s ambassador to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, in turn accused Ukraine of rivalling “the most outrageous terrorist organisations” after a bridge linking Russia to the annexed Ukrainian territory of Crimea was attacked.
The United Nations general assembly voted to reject Russia’s call for the 193-member body to hold a secret ballot later this week on whether to condemn Moscow’s move to annex four partially occupied regions in Ukraine.
The assembly decided, with 107 votes in favour, that it would hold a public vote – not a secret ballot – on a draft resolution that condemns Russia’s “illegal so-called referenda” and the “attempted illegal annexation”. Diplomats said the vote on the resolution would likely be on Wednesday or Thursday.Members of the Group of Seven, and Zelenskiy, will hold emergency talks on Tuesday, a German government spokesperson has confirmed. Zelenskiy confirmed he would address G7 leaders, adding that he had spoken to Germany’s chancellor, Olaf Scholz, about increasing pressure on Russia as well as aid for Ukraine.
The International Committee of the Red Cross has confirmed its teams have paused their field work in Ukraine for security reasons. The Norwegian Refugee Council have also said that it has paused its aid operations in Ukraine until it is safe to resume. “Our aid workers are hiding from a barrage of bombs and in fear of repeated attacks,” it said.
The European Union has announced it will extend a bloc-wide protection scheme for Ukrainian refugees into 2024. Ukrainians in the EU who choose to return to their country will still be able to maintain their refugee status, as long as they notify the relevant EU country of their move, according to the EU’s home affairs commissioner, Ylva Johansson.
