KYIV, Ukraine, 23 October (H.S.): A day of intense diplomatic maneuvering gave way to a night of terror in Ukraine, as a barrage of Russian missiles and drones rained down on cities across the country, claiming the lives of at least seven people, including two children.
The deadly onslaught on Wednesday came just hours after U.S. President Donald Trump announced the postponement of a much-anticipated summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, a move Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky linked to stalled military aid.
In Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, a drone strike hit a kindergarten, killing a 40-year-old man and wounding seven others, including children who were inside at the time.
Dozens were evacuated from the scene.
In the capital, Kyiv, and the surrounding region, residential buildings were hit, resulting in multiple fatalities. Among the victims were a couple in their 60s in a high-rise building and a 36-year-old woman with her six-month-old baby and 12-year-old daughter, whose house in the village of Pohreby was set ablaze by a Russian strike.
The attacks also targeted energy infrastructure, leading to emergency power outages in several regions.
The escalation in violence followed the collapse of plans for a Trump-Putin summit in Budapest. President Trump stated he did not want a wasted meeting, alluding to Russia’s unwillingness to agree to a ceasefire along the current front lines.
The Kremlin, however, maintained that preparations for a summit were ongoing.President Zelensky, speaking during a trip to Europe, directly connected the diplomatic breakdown to his unsuccessful bid to secure long-range Tomahawk missiles from the U.S. during his visit to Washington the previous Friday.
As soon as the issue of long-range missiles became a little further away for us, for Ukraine, then almost automatically Russia became less interested in diplomacy, he told reporters in Oslo.
Amid the diplomatic fallout, Ukraine demonstrated its own long-range strike capability. Ukrainian military officials reported a successful hit on a Russian chemical plant in the Bryansk border region late Tuesday, using UK-supplied Storm Shadow missiles.
The plant is said to produce gunpowder, explosives, and rocket fuel components for the Russian military.As Ukraine continues to seek military support from its allies, there are signs of progress on other fronts.
Following a meeting on Wednesday, Zelensky and Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson signed a letter of intent that could see Sweden supply 100 to 150 of its domestically produced Gripen fighter jets to Ukraine over the next decade..
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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar
