11/18/2023 6:17 pm (current 11/18/2023 6:20 pm)
Bombings continue in Zaporizhia (file image) ©APA/AFP
According to information from Kiev, energy infrastructure objects were hit in heavy Russian drone strikes in the Zaporizhzhia and Odessa regions of southern Ukraine. The Ukrainian Air Force announced on its Telegram channel that 29 of 38 Shahed kamikaze drones launched across the country were intercepted on Saturday night. According to the Southern Command of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, a fire broke out in Odessa as a result of the drone attack.
The fire occurred in an administrative building of an energy complex. One person was injured and the fire has now been brought under control, he said.
In Zaporizhzhia, four of eight drones were intercepted, military governor Yuri Malaschko said on Telegram. However, several infrastructure objects were also hit, causing a fire to break out. There were no injuries.
However, according to authorities, on Saturday four residents were initially injured when a rocket hit the Ukrainian village of Komyshuwacha, near the front. After rescue teams arrived at the scene, there was another attack in which two paramedics were killed and three others were injured, according to Ukrainian police.
In addition to the regions of Odessa and Zaporizhia, the neighboring regions of Mykolaiv and Kherson, the capital Kiev and Khmelnytskyi in western Ukraine also reported attacks overnight. Since last fall, Russia has systematically attacked energy supply facilities in the neighboring country in its war of aggression against Ukraine. Kiev also expects targeted attacks from Moscow on its own electricity, heat and water supplies this winter.
According to the British Ministry of Defense, neither Russia nor Ukraine are making significant progress in their fighting. “As the coldest winter sets in in eastern Ukraine, there is little immediate prospect of major changes on the front line,” the ministry in London said in its daily update on Saturday.
Last week, the most intense ground fighting took place in three areas: in the Kupyansk area, on the border between the Kharkiv and Luhansk regions, around the city of Avdiivka in the Donetsk region, and on the Dnipro River in the Kherson region , where Ukrainian forces established a bridge on the south bank currently occupied by Russia.
The United Nations has called on Moscow and Kiev to respect religious freedom in light of the war in Ukraine. UN Deputy Secretary-General for Human Rights Ilze Brands Kehris criticized the arrest and torture of clerics in Russian-occupied Ukrainian territories at the UN Security Council in New York on Friday. She also criticized authorities in Kiev because these Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOK) clerics did not allow access to lawyers during house searches or pressured them into making a confession.
Meanwhile, at Russia’s request, the UN Security Council discussed for 90 minutes religious freedom in Ukraine, which the Kremlin sees as threatened by Kiev’s actions against the UOK, which has long been linked to Moscow. Britain, France and the US accused Russia at the meeting of trying to justify its own war against Ukraine with disinformation and propaganda, Kathpress reported on Saturday.