Russia-Ukraine war: A Russian missile attack on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s hometown killed one policeman and injured at least 52 others on Friday (September 8), officials said.
Another attack in the southern Kherson region claimed three lives.
The missile strikes were among multiple Russian attacks across Ukraine overnight, they said.
Moscow is also attempting to strengthen its position politically with local elections in the areas it has occupied and also some it does not control. Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it does not recognize the “fake elections.”
The missile strikes come days after 16 people were killed in an attack on a market in eastern Ukraine and drone debris was found in Romania.
That sparked fears among local residents that the war could spread into the NATO-member country bordering Ukraine.
In the latest attack which took place on Zelenskyy’s hometown of Kryvyi Rih on Friday, ten buildings were damaged.
According to Ukraine’s minister of Internal Affairs, Ihor Klymenko, three people who were pulled out of the rubble were in serious condition.
In the photos shared by Klymenko on Telegram, a building was seen on fire and emergency services could be seen evacuating the injured.
“Three people were also killed Friday after a Russian bomb struck the village of Odradokamianka in the Kherson region of southern Ukraine,” the Minister said.
Russia holds elections in occupied areas of Ukraine
Russia is holding local elections this weekend in the occupied parts of Ukraine which it annexed a year ago and still does not fully control, in an effort to tighten its grip on the territories.
The voting for the legislatures in the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions will take place on Friday and will conclude on Sunday (September 10). The move by Vladimir Putin-led country has been denounced by Kyiv and the West.
“It constitutes a flagrant violation of international law, which Russia continues to disregard,” the Council of Europe, the continent's foremost human rights body, said this week.
In a statement from the Ukraine Parliament, Kyiv said that the voting in the areas where Russia “conducts active hostilities” poses a threat to Ukrainian lives. The Parliamentarians urged other countries not to recognise the results of the elections.
Meanwhile, Britain on Friday announced that it will host a global food security summit in November in response to Russia’s withdrawal of a Black Sea grain deal and attacks on Ukraine’s grain supply.
The announcement came as British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak arrived in India for a Group of 20 summit, where he hopes to marshal international resources to counteract the war’s impact on the global food supply.
(With AP inputs)
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