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BREAKING: President Volodymyr Zelenskiy says more than 47 civilians were killed in a Russian missile strike on a grocery store in the Kupyansk district of Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region.
“A brutal Russian crime…a missile strike on an ordinary grocery store, an absolutely deliberate terrorist attack,” Zelenskiy wrote on Telegram from the Spanish city of Granada, where he is attending a European summit.
“Russian terror must be stopped,” Zelenskiy, wrote, adding, “We are talking with European leaders, in particular, about strengthening our air defense, strengthening our troops, about protecting our country from terror. There were no immediate further details about the strike.
This is a developing story. More to come.
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has arrived in the Spanish city of Granada for a summit of European leaders as he steps up efforts to secure more military aid for Ukraine in its fight to repel Russia’s unprovoked invasion amid signs in some allies of donor fatigue as the war nears its 20th month.
Zelenskiy and 46 other heads of state are scheduled to meet in the southern Spanish city on October 5 as part of the third meeting of the European Political Community — a unique forum for political exchanges between the EU’s 27 members and 20 other nations from across the continent and the Caucasus.
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“Our joint goal is to ensure the security and stability of our common European home,” Zelenskiy wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
“We are working together with partners on enhancing the European security architecture, particularly regional security. Ukraine has substantial proposals in this regard,” Zelenskiy added while reiterating that Ukraine’s top priority is enhancing its air defense before the onset of the cold season.
Ukraine’s energy infrastructure was relentlessly pounded by Russia last winter, prompting misery and suffering for Ukrainian civilians.
Zelenskiy’s trip came after regional authorities reported that three civilians had been killed by Russian shelling over the past 24 hours — one in Donetsk region and two in the city of Kherson.
Overnight, Russian and Ukrainian forces exchanged drone strikes that caused infrastructure damage in central Ukraine and extensive blackouts in a Russian border region.
Ukrainian air defenses shot down 24 out of the 29 Iranian drones launched from Crimea on the southern regions of Odesa and Mykolayiv, and on the central Kirovohrad region, the General Staff of Ukraine’s military said in a statement.
“Twenty-four Shahed-131/136 drones were destroyed by the Air Force in cooperation with the Air Defense Forces,” the military said on Telegram. It added that the attack damaged an infrastructure facility in the Kirovohrad region and caused a fire which had been put out.
There were no immediate reports of casualties.
WATCH: Sharing battle footage recorded on their body cameras, Ukrainian soldiers recounted their role in liberating Russian-occupied Klishchiyivka in the Donetsk region. Speaking to RFE/RL’s Maryan Kushnir, they described chaos among the enemy as some tried to surrender while other Russian troops fought to the end.
In Russia’s Kursk region that borders Ukraine, electricity was cut off in some areas following a Ukrainian drone strike overnight, regional Governor Roman Starovoit said early on October 5.
“There are power outages. Emergency crews have begun restoring the electricity supply,” Starovoit wrote on his Telegram channel.
Starovoit said the strike targeted the region’s Sudzhansky, Korenevsky, and Glushkovsky districts that border Ukraine’s Sumy region. The SHOT Telegram channel, citing sources, said 67 settlements were left without electricity. The information could not be independently verified.
Russia, which has launched countless deadly drone and missile attacks on Ukrainian cities and energy infrastructure since the start of its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine in February last year, has been in recent months subjected itself to increasingly frequent aerial and naval drone strikes targeting regions close to the border and even Moscow.
On October 4, Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed its air defense had shot down 31 Ukrainian drones and prevented the landing in Crimea of a Ukrainian speedboat carrying a commando team. The information could not be independently confirmed.
With reporting by Reuters, AP, and AFP
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