EU Foreign Ministers Meet In Kyiv As Russia Targets Kherson With Deadly Artillery Strikes

The latest Russian attacks on the Kherson region in southern Ukraine killed at least one man, local military authorities said on October 1, while Russia said its air defenses shot down six Ukrainian drones over two western and southern regions.

The fatality occurred in Tyahynka, a town about 30 kilometers northeast of Kherson city, where a man in his 40s was killed in the yard of a house by enemy fire.

Beryslava, a city on the Dnieper River to the northeast of Tyahynka, also came under attack shortly before 5 p.m. on October 1, according to the military administration of Kherson, a region that Ukrainian troops partially recaptured from Russia last year.

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As a result of the impact of two guided aerial bombs, garages in Beryslava were destroyed, the windows of a medical facility and residential buildings were blown out, and critical infrastructure was damaged, the message said.

Russian forces also attacked Vesele, a village east of the river, where a 63-year-old woman was taken to the hospital with injured limbs and a concussion, according to the report, which could not be independently verified.

Earlier on October 1, Russian forces attacked a residential quarter of Kherson city, starting a fire that trapped a mother and three children before the family managed to be saved.

Russian troops also shelled Stanislav overnight, injuring two men. Rescuers were able to pull two women out from under the rubble.

Librated parts of the Kherson region are shelled nearly every day. Despite evidence of the shelling, Moscow has denied targeting civilians.

One person was injured in the Cherkasy region as well, regional Governor Ihor Taburets said.

“Overnight, the enemy massively attacked our Cherkasy region with attack drones. Unfortunately, there were hits on industrial infrastructure in Uman,” Taburets said in a post to Telegram. “As a result, fires broke out in warehouses; in particular, where grain was stored.”

The city of Kryviy Rih was also hit, damaging electricity and gas lines, according to local authorities.

The Russian Defense Ministry said on October 1 that it downed two Grom-2 missiles, the fragments of which fell on the territory of the Dzhankoy district of Crimea.

Sergei Aksyonov, the Russian-installed governor of Crimea, said that the debris of the rockets damaged the warehouse. There were no casualties, he said.

The Russian Defense Ministry said one drone was brought down in the southern Krasnodar region around dawn on October 1, and five more were shot down over the western Smolensk region in the following hours.

No casualties were reported and it was unclear if there was any damage on the ground. Ukraine, which has rarely claimed official responsibility for drone or missile attacks on Russian targets, had no comment.

Smolensk Mayor Aleksandr Novikov echoed the Defense Ministry, saying that five drones were shot down over the regional center and in its suburbs.

He called on city residents to “remain calm and not leave their homes unnecessarily, and also refrain from out-of-town trips.”

Britain’s new defense secretary said London was considering stepping up its instruction of Ukrainian soldiers by sending British trainers to Ukraine itself.

In an interview published October 1 by The Telegraph, Grant Shapps said he had spoken with top military officers about moving “more training” into Ukraine and he called on British defense firms to set up manufacturing facilities inside the country.

More than 20,000 Ukrainian soldiers have received training from Britian since the start of 2022.

Britain might also play a more active naval role in the Black Sea, where Russia has targeted Ukrainian cargo ships, Schapps said.

Dmitry Medvedev, the bombastic former Russian president who is now a top official on the country’s Security Council, said that British trainers would be legitimate military targets if they traveled to Ukraine to train Ukrainian troops.

London is “perfectly aware that they’ll be eliminated mercilessly, and not as mercenaries this time around, but precisely as British NATO specialists,” Medvedev wrote in a post on Telegram.

With reporting by Reuters