“Ukrainian citizens from Oleshky crossed the Ukrainian border in the Chernihiv region. They will receive all the assistance they need.” Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky announced it on Further steps towards de-escalation and concrete progress towards peace are needed,” he stressed.
An AFP journalist saw residents, some of them wrapped in Ukrainian flags, getting off the buses and hugging their loved ones again in tears. For security reasons, the AFP cannot reveal the whereabouts of the evacuated people.
“I thank the American side and the First Lady of the United States, Melania Trump, for their mediation. I am proud of our Ukrainian Defense Forces, who protect our country and have provided, with honor, the necessary security conditions for this humanitarian operation. I thank the Commissioner for Human Rights of Ukraine, Dmytro Lubinets, and his team for completing this mission,” Zelensky said. “And I thank all those who, everywhere in the world – journalists, political and civil leaders, and every single person who has shown sensitivity – have contributed to drawing global attention to the situation in Oleshky and to the real humanitarian catastrophe taking place in the Ukrainian territory temporarily occupied by Russia.”
Moscow accused the Ukrainian armed forces of having violated the humanitarian truce brokered by Melania Trump in Oleshky a day before the deadline, scheduled for tomorrow, by hitting a civilian car with a drone and injuring the two occupants, a man and a woman. “According to the local authorities, in Oleshky, at the Nechaevsky intersection, while a civilian car was leaving the city in the direction of the village of Radensk to buy food, it was attacked by a Ukrainian drone,” writes Russian special ambassador Rodion Miroshnik, in charge of recording the “crimes” of the Kiev authorities, on his Telegram channel. “The injured were transported to the Oleshki district hospital,” adds Miroshnik.
“The Ukrainian army is strictly observing the ceasefire, while provocations from the Russian side have been recorded.” This was stated by a Ukrainian military spokesperson speaking to Ukrainska Pravda, accusing the Russians of attempts to discredit the Ukrainian forces. “The Ukrainian Defense Forces, specifically the units of the ‘Pivden’ grouping, are respecting the ceasefire agreements in the area where the humanitarian mission in Oleshky is taking placeunder Russian occupation”, assured Maksym Kravchuk, spokesman for the “Pivden” (South) grouping of forces.
Zelensky defined as “important” the US State Department’s decision to authorize Ukraine to purchase 500 Patriot anti-missile systems, intended to counter Russian ballistic missiles, and could represent an extremely effective defensive system in view of the arrival of winter, when energy plants are bombed by the Russians. However, it has been established that deliveries could only begin in a few years. We therefore ask our partners to find a solution for the current period,” he said, quoted by Ukrinform.
Zelensky recalled that Russia attacks Ukraine’s energy infrastructure on a daily basis. In the last two weeks of October alone – writes Ukrinform -, over 30 Russian attacks were recorded against critical components of the country’s energy network. And like every year, on the eve of winter, Moscow has launched a campaign of targeted attacks on the essential services on which Ukrainian cities and communities depend: electricity, heating, water supply, bridges and, more generally, urban life.
“We have asked our American partners to provide Ukraine with a support package for the winter, which includes the sending of 100 interceptors for Patriot systems per month. Five hundred missiles would be enough to protect our skies in the coming months, precisely at a stage in which it is essential for Ukraine to maintain a strong position in the negotiations and prevent Russia from being able to destroy life in Ukrainian cities and communities”, declared the head of state.
Zelensky recalled that the United States, European countries and other international partners have sufficient stocks of PAC-3 interceptors. “Providing them to Ukraine immediately and then replenishing the arsenals of our partners at a later time, in the following years, thanks to the production already contracted and paid for by Ukraine and its partners, would be the correct approach. And it is an absolutely feasible solution”, added Zelensky, who nevertheless expressed “gratitude” to President Donald Trump, the State Department and the US Administration for the authorization. “But we ask for decisions capable of guaranteeing the protection of human lives not the day after tomorrow or at a later time, but at the very moment in which the threat manifests itself: when Russia kills and destroys. I thank all those who stand by Ukraine!”, concluded the president.
At least one person was killed and two others injured in the Ukrainian region of Dnipropetrovsk, targeted during the night by at least 20 Russian drones: this was revealed by the military governor of the region, Oleksandr Hanzha. In the northeastern city of Kharkiv, at least three people were injured in raids that damaged civilian apartment blocks, according to the mayor of Ukraine’s second largest city, Ihor Terekhov. Overall, Ukrainian air defenses claim to have intercepted and neutralized during the night starting from 6.30 pm yesterday 105 Russian drones out of a total of 134 launched against Ukrainian territory, at least 72 of which were Shahed with jet engines. Drone impacts were recorded in 20 locations, while debris from downed aircraft fell in 10 different locations. Ukrinform writes it.