Yesterday, Russian missiles rained down on a city in southeastern Ukraine, Zaporizhzhia, killing at least 13 people. This came after the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant temporarily lost power on October 7 due to shelling, and had to turn on emergency diesel generators to prevent a nuclear meltdown. Ten-year-old Bohdan Pavlenko, who survived Sunday’s attack on Zaporizhzhia, said, “I heard the sirens and some person next to me screaming… It was horrific,” due to the loss of life. “My mother took me under her arm. Then I looked after my little brother and sister.”
Mass burial sites have been found in the recently liberated town of Lyman, with some corpses showing signs of torture. A single site held about 200 corpses, said the governor of Ukraine’s Donetsk province.
Major cities in Ukraine, such as the capital Kyiv, and Lviv, have come under intense missile barrages from Russia, following the explosion on October 7 at a key bridge linking Russia to Crimea, the Ukrainian territory annexed by Russia in 2014. The blast on the Kerch Bridge — the longest bridge in Europe — collapsed two roadways and killed three people. Russian ruler Vladimir Putin blamed Ukrainian special forces for the the explosion, which he called an “act of terrorism.” Ukrainian officials say retaliatory assaults by Russia have killed at least 30 people, wounded over 200 people, and damaged infrastructure in at least 15 of Ukraine’s regions, knocking out electricity and water supplies. In Kyiv, Russian attacks damaged 5 critical infrastructure facilities, 6 educational institutions, 6 cultural institutions, and 5 healthcare facilities.
Putin threatened more strikes against Ukraine’s infrastructure after Russian missiles struck cities across Ukraine. European leaders denounced the latest attacks as war crimes. Joe Biden said that the attacks “only further reinforce our commitment to stand with the people of Ukraine for as long as it takes.”At least 30 fires remain blazing due to the attacks. Electricity supplies are still disrupted today in 15 regions: Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Chernivtsi, Khmelnytskyi, Zhytomyr, Vinnytsia, Kyiv, Kirovohrad, Mykolaiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia, Poltava, Kharkiv, Sumy, and Ternopil.
