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Russia launches a wave of drone strikes across Ukraine

A Ukrainian shoots at a suicide drone during a Russian attack on Kyiv A Ukrainian shoots at a suicide drone during a Russian attack on Kyiv RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service

October 18, 2022

Moscow has stepped up what appears to be a campaign to destroy electricity and water structures, leading to new power outages.

Russian missiles crashed into infrastructure targets across Ukraine on Tuesday morning. The Ukrainian foreign ministry said that more than a hundred drones have hit power plants, bridges and fields in recent weeks. The attacks allegedly killed at least 19 people and injured 105.

The mayor of Zhytomyr, a city of 263,000 people, said the attacks cut off the electricity supply and two blasts destroyed a plant in the southeastern city of Dnipro. In the southern port of Mykolaiv, a missile crashed into an apartment building, and there were other reports of electrical installations being targeted in the city of Kharkiv, near the Russian border.

The latest Russian airstrikes have targeted Kiev with Iranian-made "suicide drones", killing at least four people in the Ukrainian capital.

Russia has rejected Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's accusations of killing civilians by claiming that he had carried out an attack only on military targets using "high-precision" weapons.

US President Joe Biden's spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre said the White House strongly condemned the missile attacks and that the US would continue to impose sanctions on Russia. A spokesperson for the US State Department said the United States agreed that the use of drones supplied to Russia by Iran would violate United Nations Security Council Resolution 2231.

EU foreign ministers stepped up military support for Ukraine by launching a mission to train 15,000 Ukrainian soldiers and providing an additional € 500 million for weapons. They also called for sanctions against Iran for the transfer of drones to Russia.

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by Jasmine Label

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