New deadly night strikes. At least six people, including two children, were killed in Russian attacks on the night of Saturday November 2 to Sunday November 3, local authorities said, kyiv having for its part struck oil installations in a Black Sea port in the morning.
Despite calls for Russia to end the war and Western sanctions, Moscow continues its ground attacks on the front and has in recent weeks relaunched a bombing campaign targeted at Ukraine’s energy system.
During the night, it launched 79 drones and two ballistic missiles at Ukraine, according to the Ukrainian Air Force, which claimed to have shot down 67 drones. President Volodymyr Zelensky said that five regions (Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhia, Kharkiv, Cherniguiv and Odessa) had been affected.
According to local authorities, four people were killed, including two children, in the Dnipropetrovsk region and two others in the Odessa region. Around fifteen injuries were also recorded. The children killed were two boys aged 11 and 14, said Ukrainian human rights ombudsman Dmytro Loubinets.
kyiv “strengthens” its anti-aircraft defense systems
According to Volodymyr Zelensky, during the past week, the Russian army attacked Ukraine with almost 1,500 drones, 1,170 aerial bombs and more than 70 missiles. He accused Moscow of wanting to attack “mainly” the civilian population. Moscow claims to only target military targets.
In this context, Volodymyr Zelensky announced on Sunday that kyiv had “reinforced” its American-made Patriot air defense systems, thanks to help from Germany.
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At the beginning of August, Berlin announced the upcoming delivery of two additional Patriot batteries to Ukraine – in addition to three others already delivered to kyiv by Germany since February 2022 – and the sending of components of these systems “over the next two to three months”.
In response to Russian bombings, kyiv is carrying out drone strikes in Russia, targeting in particular oil and gas infrastructure in an attempt to weaken this sector which finances the Kremlin’s war effort.
A Ukrainian drone attack early Sunday on the Russian Black Sea port of Tuapse damaged two ships and the infrastructure of an oil terminal, local authorities said. According to this source, the attack sparked fires which were brought under control by firefighters.
An anonymous source within the Ukrainian security service (SBU) told AFP that five drone strikes had been carried out on the site, notably causing the fire of an oil tanker. For its part, the Russian Defense Ministry claimed to have shot down 164 Ukrainian drones overnight over several regions of Russia.
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Special forces in Pokrovsk
At the same time, the Russian army, more numerous and better equipped, has continued its attacks on the front for months and is slowly gaining ground in certain sectors, despite heavy losses. In the Donetsk region (east), which the Kremlin seeks to conquer as a priority, it has sharply increased its pressure in recent days on the bastion of Pokrovsk.
The Ukrainian army said on Saturday that a “complex” operation involving special forces was underway to hunt down Russian soldiers infiltrating the city.
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In his daily address, Volodymyr Zelensky said Sunday evening that there had been “results” regarding “the destruction of the occupiers” in the Pokrovsk sector, without providing further details.
Earlier, the Russian army, in its daily report, affirmed that “the destruction” of Ukrainian troops continued in Pokrovsk, particularly in the station area in the city center.
Military observers fear that the Pokrovsk-Myrnograd metropolitan area, which had a population of 100,000 before the invasion began in 2022, could soon be surrounded and fall under Russian control.
With AFP
