KYIV: Ukraine on Thursday warned that difficult winter months lay ahead after a “massive” Russian missile barrage targeted civilian infrastructure, leaving several dead and wounded in towns across Ukraine.
Moscow hit cities from Rivne in western Ukraine to Kherson in the south, the capital Kyiv and cities in the centre and northeast of the country.
The attacks killed at least three people in Kherson and wounded many in other parts of Ukraine, with authorities still searching for victims in some cities.
Russia launched the strikes as Ukraine prepares for a third winter during Moscow’s 19-month long invasion and as President Volodymyr Zelensky made his second wartime trip to Washington.
SPONSORED CONTENT Daily Express members: Enjoy 1 for 1 signature cocktails and more at Hyatt Centric Kota Kinabalu Kota Kinabalu: DAILY EXPRESS is partnering with Hyatt Centric Kota Kinabalu to offer an exclusive deal for our members. Read more “Difficult months are ahead: Russia will attack energy and critically important facilities,” said Oleksiy Kuleba, the deputy head of Kyiv’s presidential office. He added that Moscow had targeted “civilian infrastructure” across Ukraine.
Kyiv said there were power cuts across the country—in almost 400 cities, towns and villages—as Russia targeted energy sites, but Ukraine added it was “too early” to tell if this was the start of a new Russian campaign against its energy sites.
Kyiv said Thursday it would hold talks with Warsaw in the coming days over an escalating dispute on Ukrainian grain exports, as the neighbours reiterated their “close” ties.
Slovakia and Ukraine have struck a deal on a new grain trading system that should see Slovakia’s current import ban lifted by the end of the year, Slovakia said on Thursday.
“Until this system is launched and its full functionality is tested, the ban on the import of four commodities from Ukraine... is still valid until the end of 2023,” the Slovak agriculture ministry said in a statement.
The Ukrainian Parliament voted that politicians and high-ranking civil servants must once again disclose their assets, as a means of fighting corruption in the country, reported German news agency (dpa). This was decided by a 341-1 majority in the parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, in Kyiv. There were 19 members who did not vote. The Ukrainian army said that it had suspended Sarah Ashton-Cirillo, a spokeswoman for Ukraine’s territorial defence forces from the United States, over statements that the hierarchy said were not approved.
“Sarah Ashton-Cirillo has been suspended from the duties of the spokesperson of the (territorial defence forces of Ukraine) while an investigation is underway,” Ukraine’s defence ministry said on social media.
A trans woman, she told AFP in a recent interview that she had learned to “embrace the hate of the Russians” who have mocked her gender identity.
She also constantly posts on Twitter, where she has 156,000 followers.
Russia’s missile attacks came as Zelensky was in the United States in a bid to win new aid for Ukraine—which has pressed on with a counter-offensive for months—despite some Western fatigue over the dragging conflict.
He is due to meet President Joe Biden and go to the Pentagon to seek more weapons for Kyiv after he addressed the UN’s General Assembly in New York, where he decried Russia’s “genocide.”
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