According to Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmygal, five strikes by suspected Iranian-made drones and Russian missiles were launched on Monday morning against Kyiv and the Dnipropetrovsk and Sumy regions.
While officially targeting energy installations, the Russian bombardments once again caused heavy damage in residential areas.
The enemy acts underhandedly, kills civilians, hits homes, infrastructure
accused Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on the social network Telegram after the strikes.
There are already four dead after the attack on an apartment building in kyiv, including a young family who were expecting a child. Rescue operations are not over. Terror must lose, and it will lose
he added, attaching several photos to his message.
Images captured in kyiv this morning showed police officers opening fire with their service weapons on a drone which flew over the city at very low altitude before it exploded against a building just behind them.
At least eight people have been killed in drone attacks carried out by Russia in several regions of Ukraine including the capital. This is the second time in a week that kyiv has been the target of Russian strikes. The story of Lise Villeneuve.
In the Sumy region, an administrative building was destroyed by a missile strike targeting an electrical transformer, killing four people. In the Dnipropetrovsk region, a cruise missile strike on a transformer injured one person. The Ukrainian presidency claimed that three missiles could have been shot down in this sector.
In Moscow, the Russian General Staff congratulated itself on having hit all its targets with high precision weapons
.
In southern Ukraine, the army said it shot down 26 Iranian Shahed-136 drones overnight from Sunday to Monday.
Short of precision missiles (which cost up to $2 million apiece), Russian forces have turned to GPS-guided Iranian-made drones, which are much cheaper and capable of hitting targets hundreds of miles away. miles from their launch point.
This Russian drone photographed in kyiv on Monday morning matches the description of an Iranian-made Shahed-136 drone, according to Ukrainian authorities.
Photo : Archyde.com / STRINGER
The Shahed-136, a suicide drone loaded with high explosives, as well as the Mohajer-6, armed with missiles and bombs, are now the main weapons deployed by Moscow against Ukrainian cities in addition to its regular artillery.
Washington raises the tone against Iran and its allies
Given the destruction wrought by these drones in the major cities of his country, the head of Ukrainian diplomacy, Dmytro Kouleba, has called for the immediate imposition of international sanctions against Iran, which, according to him, supplies these weapons to the Russians. in violation of United Nations resolutions.
A cry that has found echoes all the way to Washington where State Department spokesman Vedant Patel, spokesman for the State Department, said that anyone doing business with Iran in connection with the development of drones or ballistic missiles, or [impliquée dans] arms flow from Iran to Russia should be vigilant
.
The United States will not hesitate to use sanctions or take action against those most responsible
he added.
Tehran defends itself
We do not interfere in this conflict and we do not supply arms to anyone
hammered back Nasser Kanaani, Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs.
If it undertook on Monday to sanction political leaders and members of the Iranian police for the bloody repression of the demonstrations which have been raging for several weeks now in the country, the European Union has shown itself to be more nuanced on sanctions linked to the drone sales to Russia.
The Europeans are in fact waiting for proof of Tehran’s involvement in the supply of combat drones used by Russia in Ukraine, said Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn.
In the meantime, Ukrainians are urgently calling for anti-aircraft protection systems against the missiles and killer drones launched in large numbers against Ukrainian cities.
France, the United States, Germany and Spain have already announced the forthcoming delivery to the Ukrainians of surface-to-air missile systems effective against these devices.
Training mission for 15,000 Ukrainian soldiers
The European Union undertakes to train 15,000 more Ukrainian soldiers on its territory from November.
Photo: AP / Frank Augstein
European Union (EU) foreign ministers also on Monday approved the establishment of a training mission to train 15,000 Ukrainian troops in basic combat tactics.
Nearly 3,000 of these soldiers will also receive more specialized tactical training, such as handling radars, military engineering units and precision artillery.
Russia is losing this war, morally, politically and even militarily. This is why we must continue our support for Ukraine
explained the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, before a meeting with the foreign ministers of theUE.
Multi-Country Collaboration
The initial duration of this training mission, which will take place in the member countries of theUEis two years.
Financed from the European Peace Facility (EPF), a fund set up outside the European budget to assist Ukraine militarily, this training aims to complement the training missions already pursued by the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada.
France plans in particular to train 2,000 of these Ukrainian soldiers on its territory, according to the French Minister of the Armed Forces, Sébastien Lecornu. Germany aims, for its part, to train the equivalent of a brigade, which is generally made up of 7,000 to 8,000 men.
Poland remains the hub of the European war effort because of the long land border it shares with Ukraine.
On the material side, the European Union announced on Monday the granting of 500 million euros (C$672 million) in additional military equipment to the Ukrainian forces.
The Ukrainians urgently demand anti-aircraft protection systems against the missiles and above all the killer drones launched in large numbers against Ukrainian cities.
With information from France Media Agency, Archyde.com, Euronews, et Associated Press