Russian strikes, using suicide drones in particular, killed at least eight people in Ukraine on Monday. On the Russian side, 13 people died after a military plane crashed near the Ukrainian border. Faced with a new turning point in the war, Washington threatened to sanction companies or states collaborating in Iran’s drone program on behalf of Russia, after the recent strikes in Ukraine carried out using these drones. presumed Iranian manufacture.
Monday, October 17, throughout the day, “the enemy carried out nine missile strikes, 39 air strikes, (fired) up to 30 shells with multiple rocket launchers”, summarized, in the evening , the General Staff of the Ukrainian army. In addition to the capital kyiv, the surroundings of Kharkiv and Sumy (north-east), Donetsk (east), Dnipropetrovsk (center-east) or Kherson and Mykolaiv (south) were affected, a week after massive bombardments on Ukraine, he continued. Eight people lost their lives in these strikes.
Crucial infrastructure in three regions, including that of kyiv, was affected, leaving “hundreds of localities” without electricity, said Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Chmygal. He reported “five drone strikes” of alleged Iranian manufacture on the capital alone. The Russian army, which will send up to 9,000 soldiers and some 170 tanks to Belarus, an ally of Moscow, for its part congratulated itself on having reached all its targets with “high-precision weapons”.
“In order to guarantee the protection of our skies and to reduce the capabilities of Russian terrorists to zero, we need significantly more modern air defense systems and more missiles for them,” Volodymyr Zelensky said in his speech. daily television. kyiv has asked the EU to impose more sanctions on Iran, which denies supplying killer drones to Russia for its offensive against Ukraine. “Iran is responsible for the murder of Ukrainians. This country which oppresses its own people is now supplying monstrous weapons for mass murder in the heart of Europe”, denounced Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the Ukrainian presidency. Tehran denies any involvement.
“Anyone doing business with Iran in connection with the development of drones or ballistic missiles, or (participating in) the flow of weapons from Iran to Russia should be vigilant,” Vedant Patel said. State Department spokesperson. “The United States will not hesitate to use sanctions or take action against those most responsible.” “The strengthening of the alliance between Russia and Iran should be considered by the whole world (…) as a grave danger,” he added. A reason, for Antony Blinken, Secretary of State in the United States, to provide “everything possible” to Ukraine for the winter.
Russian strikes, including using suicide drones, killed at least eight people, including four in kyiv on Monday morning, and targeted energy facilities in several regions, a week after a wave of massive strikes on the country.
The Ukrainian nuclear operator accused, on Tuesday, October 18, Russia of having “abducted” two officials from the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, located under Russian control in southern Ukraine. Russian forces ‘abducted’ the plant’s IT director Oleg Kostioukov and deputy general manager Oleg Ocheka and ‘drove them to an unknown destination’, the operator Energoatom said in a statement on a network. social.
Mostly soldiers, they were released in favor of an exchange of prisoners with Russia, announced Monday an adviser to the Ukrainian presidency. “A new large-scale exchange of prisoners of war took place today. A particularly moving and truly special exchange: we released 108 women from captivity,” Andriy Iermak, adviser to the Ukrainian presidency, said on Telegram.
According to him, these include 37 evacuees from the Azovstal steelworks in the city of Mariupol (southeast), besieged by Russian forces at the start of the conflict, as well as members of the army, navy and border guards. The Russian Ministry of Defense confirmed the exchange, claiming to have recovered 100 people, including “72 sailors from Russian civilian ships detained by the kyiv regime since February 2022”.
In south-western Russia, 13 people were killed, including 3 children, and 19 others injured following the fall of a Russian military plane which caused a gigantic fire in a building in Yeysk, not far from the Ukrainian border, authorities said. The Ministry of Emergency Situations said in a statement that rescuers had “completed the search of the rubble”, discovering “ten more bodies”, after announcing the death of three people.
The crash on Monday evening caused a fire in the nine-story building where around 600 residents live. The city of Yeisk is located on the Sea of Azov, in the Gulf of Taganrog, just opposite the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, ravaged by bombardments and a long siege in the first months of the Russian offensive.
For the 12th consecutive year, internet freedom is globally on the decline in the world, notes the Freedom House report, which attributes this to deteriorating conditions above all in Russia, but also in Burma, Sudan and Libya. “The Russian invasion of Ukraine has weakened online freedom not only in Russia and Ukraine, but also around the world,” said Allie Funk, co-author of the report.
Russia’s rating has tumbled seven points this year, a historic low for the country, in part due to the blocking of websites and social networks by the Kremlin, which seeks to censor any dissident publication about its “operation special military” in Ukraine.
