Ukrainian drone strikes Russia’s Kursk: official
A Ukrainian drone strike on the site of a historic Russian battle victory in Kursk has sent a message of resilience to Vladimir Putin.
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Ukraine has continued its attacks on Russia via drone as Kyiv targets Russian cities with almost daily strikes in retaliations against Moscow’s offensive, which has been ongoing for 19 months.
Kursk is around 90 kilometres from the border with Ukraine and is a powerfully symbolic site for Russian president Vladimir Putin with the Battle of Kursk a major World War II Eastern Front conflict between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union in 1943.
The largest tank battle in history it resulted in a Soviet victory, and received its 80th commemoration this year.
“In Kursk, a Ukrainian drone attacked an administrative building in the central district,” governor Roman Starovoyt said on Telegram.
“The roof was slightly damaged. Employees of the emergency services are working at the scene.”
Last month, a Ukrainian drone strike damaged Kursk’s railway station, leaving five people injured and causing significant damage.
Both Russia and Ukraine report regular drone incursions as Kyiv presses a counteroffensive aimed at reclaiming Russian-held territory.
UKRAINE MISSILE STRIKES PUTIN’S FLEET
It comes as Ukraine won a massive naval victory without having a navy, as a Ukraine missile struck the headquarters of Moscow’s Black Sea fleet, a Russian-occupation official in annexed Crimea said on Friday
Crimea has been targeted by Ukraine throughout Russia’s offensive but attacks on military installations there have recently intensified as Kyiv vows to recapture the Black Sea peninsula, which Moscow annexed in 2014.
“The headquarters of the fleet have been hit in an enemy missile attack,” Mikhail Razvozhayev, the governor of Crimea’s largest city Sevastopol, said on social media.
Mr Razvozhayev said that missile fragments had fallen near a theatre and urged residents to stay clear of the site.
One report said the headquarters had sustained “severe damage”.
Dozens of ambulances were reported rushing to the building in the naval port.
In a second post, Mr Razvozhayev warned that another aerial attack could be imminent, urging residents of the city, which is home to more than 500,000 people, to remain indoors.
“Attention everyone! Another attack is possible. Please do not go to the city centre. Do not leave buildings,” he said.
“Everyone who is near the headquarters of the fleet – at the sound of the siren proceed to shelters,” Razvozhayev added.
He said rescue workers were at the scene, adding: “Firefighters are taking all measures to eliminate the fire as soon as possible.” Authorities, he said, were still determining whether anyone had been injured or killed in the attack.
Debris from the attack was scattered over hundreds of metres, The Sun reported.
Ukrainian and Russian attacks in and around the Black Sea have increased since Moscow withdrew from an accord that allowed safe passage to civilian cargo ships from three Ukrainian ports.
It comes as Ukraine urged its allies to provide its armed forces with long-range missiles so it can target positions deeper inside Russia-controlled territory.
Western leaders had hesitated over concerns Ukraine could target Russian territory and thereby escalate the conflict.
Both France and the United Kingdom, however, had supplied Kyiv’s forces with the weapons.
As part of the increasingly frequent barrages on Crimea, Ukraine said earlier this week it had struck a military airfield near the town of Saky.
A source in Ukraine’s SBU security service said there were at least a dozen warplanes and Pantsir missile defence systems at the airfield when the attack took place.
The airfield also housed a training centre for operators of drones that Russia uses to target Ukraine.
The SBU source said that Ukraine had deployed a swarm of unmanned aerial vehicles which “overwhelmed Russian air defences” and then launched Neptune cruise missiles.
Kyiv has also repeatedly targeted -- and hit -- the only bridge that connects the peninsula to the Russian mainland, on several occasions leaving damage that took weeks to repair.
The last major attack in July impacted the road section of the bridge, which can also accommodate rail traffic and is also used to transport military equipment.
Russian officials said on Friday that traffic across the bridge had been temporarily paused.
Civilian maritime traffic was stopped earlier on Friday in Sevastopol, Russian-installed authorities said, without providing details.
Russia’s defence ministry said its forces had shot down one guided missile and two drones that had targeted the peninsula.
ZELENSKY BEGS US AFTER MAJOR BLOW
Volodymyr Zelensky warned that Ukraine “will lose the war” against Russia if the United States stops sending billions of dollars in cash and weapons.
It comes after Poland, one of Ukraine’s biggest supporters in Europe since the beginning of the conflict, pulled its support amid a diplomatic spat between the neighbouring countries.
Thursday as he faced Republican sceptics in the US Congress that Kyiv will lose its war against the Russian invasion if the flow of billions of dollars in aid gets cut.
“If we don’t get the aid, we will lose the war,” Zelenskyy told Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer, who has overseen more than US $100 billion ($A155bn) to Ukraine to date.
Further aide to Ukraine hangs doubt amid diplomatic infighting in the US Congress and a decreased appetite for funding a forever war among the Republican Party and its supporters.
Zelenskyy arrived in the US capital saying “air defence for Ukraine is among the top issues” in his request for more military support to the war effort.
A group of six senators issued a joint letter declaring that “enough is enough” and vowed to block all future funding requests, with Senator Roger Marshall adding Congress should not be “sending another blank check to Zelensky.”
The cooling of support for Ukraine follows the devastating withdrawal of Poland of its previously enthusiastic support for the defence against Russia.
Poland said it would no longer arm its eastern neighbour after a mounting diplomatic row between the two allies, with Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki adding their focus would turn to “arming Poland with more modern weapons”.
“We are no longer transferring weapons to Ukraine,” Mr Mateusz said following a dispute over grain imports into the country.
Government spokesman Piotr Muller added that the country would “carry out previously agreed deliveries of ammunition and armaments”, while also allowing Poland to be used as a supply route for western weaponry into the west of Ukraine.
Zelenskyy outraged the Poland at the United Nations by accusing some countries of “feigning solidarity by indirectly supporting Russia”, widely seen as an indirect jab at Poland.
Both countries have recalled the ambassadors of the other amid the heightening tension, just as the White House was set to announced another US $24 billion aid tranche.
The White House said the Ukrainian leader’s visit came at a “really critical time” as the slow-moving counteroffensive runs out of time for significant progress before winter.
Zelenskyy has requested longer-range ATACMS missiles that can strike up to 300 kilometres away, said National Security Council spokesman John Kirby.
Biden is “looking forward to getting a battlefield perspective directly from Ukraine’s commander in chief,” added Kirby.
UKRAINE’S HORROR WARNING
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has used a dramatic appearance at the United Nations to lobby Western leaders to hold firm in the war against Russia and convince sceptical developing nations that their security could be at risk if his country is defeated.
The wartime leader, speaking at the UN General Assembly in person for the first time since the invasion, was backed by US President Joe Biden who warned leaders that Russia believed “the world will grow weary and allow it to brutalise Ukraine without consequence”.
“If we allow Ukraine to be carved up, is the independence of any nation secure? I’d respectfully suggest the answer is no,” he said.
Mr Biden vowed to continue funding Ukraine’s fight despite mounting opposition from congressional Republicans who are seeking to block critical military aid.
Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong refused to be drawn on the risk that the US could abandon Ukraine, saying the Australian government shared the Biden administration’s commitment because “Ukraine matters to us all”.
“Russia breached the UN Charter and that charter protects us all,” she said in New York.
“For every country, that matters … We have to do everything we can to protect it.”
Australia on Wednesday joined 31 other countries in appearing at the International Court of Justice to argue it had jurisdiction to hear Ukraine’s case against Russia’s illegal invasion.
Mr Zelensky received a warm welcome inside the UN chamber, although the leaders of many nations did not attend his address in person, a sign of the frustration among global south countries who fear the war is overshadowing their priorities.
The Ukrainian President raised the spectre of nuclear war and accused Russia of weaponising essentials like food and energy “not only against our country, but against all of yours as well”.
“Mass destruction is gaining momentum,” he said.
“Many seats in the General Assembly hall may become empty if Russia succeeds with its treachery and aggression.”
On the sidelines of the summit, Senator Wong also weighed in on Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s extraordinary allegation that the Indian government was involved in the assassination of a Sikh separatist leader in Canada.
“These are concerning reports … We are monitoring these developments closely with our partners,” Senator Wong said.
She sidestepped questions about when Canada informed Australia of the bombshell intelligence, amid reports that it had been gathered by multiple countries.
“Australia’s principal position is that we believe the sovereignty of all countries should be respected, we believe the rule of law should be respected,” she said.
“Australia has raised these issues with our Indian counterparts as you would expect us to.”
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had earlier told a reporter to “chill out” when asked whether he regretted calling Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi “the boss” when he visited Australia this year.
Originally published as Ukrainian drone strikes Russia’s Kursk: official
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