A day of mourning was announced on Thursday after a Russian missile and drone attack killed at least five people and wounded 53 in the southeastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro. Moscow Mayor Boris Filatov said on Telegram on Wednesday that the attack damaged kindergartens, schools and hospitals and sparked fires across the city. Officials said commercial buildings were also damaged. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy posted a video on Telegram of a huge explosion in the sky and a fireball shooting down to the ground as part of a plea for more air defenses and long-range weapons. “This Russian terror can only be stopped by modern air defenses and long-range weapons,” Zelenskiy said. “The world can save lives, all we need is the determination of our leaders.” Olha, manager of one of the cafes that was attacked, told Reuters: “Everything inside is damaged, everything outside is damaged too. My body and hands are shaking… it’s very complicated and scary.”
In Russia, three young brothers were sentenced to 17 years in prison after attempting to cross into Ukraine. Ioan Ashcherov, 24, was sentenced to 17-and-a-half years in prison by a Moscow military court, while his brothers Alexei, 20, and Timofey, 19, received 17 years in prison, according to Russian state media. “I believe that the Russian leadership has committed the greatest crime of the 21st century in the name of the Russian state,” Ashcherov said at his treason sentence, according to independent news site Mediazona. “My actions… were an attempt to stop this crime,” he said. He stressed that he did not consider himself a “traitor to Russia,” saying he was “not obliged to support everything that the government of the country where I was born does.” [is doing]The three are the sons of Igor Ashcheurov, a Russian Orthodox priest who preaches in the western Lipetsk region. The head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, justified Moscow’s war.
The UN General Assembly will continue to defend Ukraine’s territorial integrity and sovereignty, regardless of the outcome of national elections around the world. Ukrainian President Denis Franci spoke to The Associated Press during his first visit to Ukraine this year. “I am convinced that the Ukrainian people will not give up, whatever the outcome of the elections,” Franci said. “They will not accept the elections and will not allow their homeland to be dominated by a foreign power.” Speaking in Kiev at the end of his two-day visit, Franci called on Russia to “immediately withdraw all its forces from Ukrainian territory,” a reference to a General Assembly resolution approved shortly after the war broke out. Franci has met with Ukrainian officials, including President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, and pledged support for Zelenskiy’s peace plan.
Turkish President Erdogan told Vladimir Putin that Ankara could help bring it to an end. Ukraine-Russian WarBut Putin’s spokesman dismissed the offer. Erdogan met with the Russian president on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Kazakhstan on Wednesday and said he believed a fair peace was possible for both sides, according to the Turkish presidency. But Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, ruled out the possibility of the Turkish leader acting as a mediator. “No, that’s not possible,” Peskov said, according to Russia’s TASS news agency, without providing further details. Turkey is a NATO member, but unlike other NATO leaders, Erdogan has sought to maintain good relations with both Russia and Ukraine throughout the conflict.
