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Russia struck several civilian areas of Ukraine in a fresh wave of drone and missile strikes, causing victims among civilians and infrastructure damage, the Ukrainian military and regional officials said on October 23.
Eight civilian areas in the Donetsk, Kherson, Beryslav, Sumy, and Odesa regions were targeted in the latest series of Russian attacks that employed drones and guided missiles, the Ukrainian Interior Ministry said.
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In Donetsk, an infrastructure facility was hit and a fire broke out, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said on Telegram, without giving specific details on the target and its location. The blaze was extinguished by firefighters from the emergency response services, Klimenko said.
He said that in Kherson and Beryslav, 14 missiles hit the villages of Tyaginka, Prydniprovske, and Mykilske, where one person was wounded.
Separately, Ukraine’s Southern Defense Forces reported that nine Russian drones that attempted to attack infrastructure in the Black Sea port of Odesa were shot down early on October 23.
Debris from one of the downed drones damaged a warehouse building and caused a fire that was rapidly extinguished, the military said, adding that there were no immediate reports of casualties.
The attack by Iranian-made Shahed drones lasted for almost four hours, it said.
The Ukrainian Air Force said a total of 14 attack drones, including 13 Shaheds and one Kh-59 cruise missile, were destroyed above Ukraine overnight.
In the eastern Donetsk region, three civilians were killed over the past 24 hours, regional Governor Ihor Moroz said on October 23.
The deaths in Donetsk were reported a day after six postal workers were killed and 17 were wounded in a Russian missile strike on a postal distribution center in the northeastern region of Kharkiv.
Regional Governor Oleh Synyehubov said the postal distribution center was located in the village of Korotych on the outskirts of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukraine won’t leave such attacks unanswered.
“We will definitely respond to every manifestation of Russia’s terror. And to this blow as well,” Zelenskiy said in his nightly address.
While Russia continues to pound different Ukrainian regions with air strikes and artillery, the heaviest fighting is under way in the eastern Donetsk region, where Russian forces are launching offensives on Avdiyivka, just 15 kilometers north of the Russia-occupied city of Donetsk, the largest military operation that Moscow has staged in months.
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Avdiyivka had a prewar population of around 30,000 people, but it is estimated that only 1,600 still remain in the devastated city.
The industrial city’s military administrator, Vitaliy Barabash, said the humanitarian situation for civilians is worsening as both evacuation efforts and aid deliveries are being continuously hampered by incessant Russian shelling of the only access road into the city.
“Very difficult logistics; the 22 kilometers to the city are constantly under fire — both during the day and at night,” Barabash told RFE/RL on October 23.
“It greatly complicates both evacuation and the delivery of humanitarian aid. All logistics depend on one road. Of course, the enemy keeps it constantly under fire,” he said.
With reporting by AFP and Reuters
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