(Kyiv) At least six people were killed and 14 injured Saturday by Russian missile fire on a postal depot in the Kharkiv region in northeastern Ukraine, local officials reported.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky shared a video on social media of what appears to be a badly damaged warehouse next to debris and a container bearing the logo of Ukrainian postal operator Nova Pochta.
“The six people killed and 14 injured by the attack of the occupiers were employees of the company who were inside the Nova Pochta terminal,” said the governor of the Kharkiv region, Oleg Sinegoubov.
“The victims, aged between 19 and 42, were injured by shrapnel and blast (from the explosions),” he added.
Fourteen people are hospitalized, including 7 in serious condition, according to Mr. Sinegoubov.
According to the regional prosecutor’s office, Russian forces in the Belgorod region, bordering Ukraine, fired S-300 missiles, and two of them hit the warehouse.
“Analysis of the debris continues at the scene in order to establish the exact number of injured and dead,” office spokesperson Dmytro Tchoubenko told state media Suspilne.
Several Russian strikes
Several other Russian strikes have left at least three dead and four injured in Ukraine during the last 24 hours, notably in Kryvyi Rig, the hometown of President Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukrainian authorities announced on Saturday.
On Friday evening, the bombing of a residential area left one dead and one injured in Kryvyï Rig, in the Dnipropetrovsk region (South), according to the national police.
The injured person, a 57-year-old woman, was hit by shrapnel and is hospitalized in serious condition, the presidential administration said.
A fire was also caused during the night by a strike on an industrial complex, police said, adding that the fire had been extinguished.
“Essential infrastructure is damaged,” added the presidential administration, referring to this fire.
Another person died in a bombing in Nikopol, a town located on the bank of the Dnieper River, about 100 kilometers east of Kryvyi Rig, the regional administration said.
Even further south, in the Kherson region, a series of strikes has left one dead and one injured since Friday morning, according to national authorities.
Attacks also left two people injured in total in the Kharkiv and Donetsk regions in the east.
The presidential administration indicated that several localities in the Donetsk region had found themselves “under fire from the Russians”, including Avdiivka.
This industrial city, almost located on the front line since 2014, has been the scene of violent fighting since mid-October, with the Russian army having launched several assaults.
Meeting on peace with Turkey
PHOTO ADEM ALTAN, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE ARCHIVES
The President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan
Turkey will participate in a meeting on peace in Ukraine, hosted by Kyiv in Malta next weekend, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday after an exchange with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Malta announced on Friday that it would host a peace meeting, at the request of the Ukrainian presidency, on October 28-29. Other such events took place in Saudi Arabia and Denmark this year.
“We discussed the next round of peace negotiations in Malta. Turkey will participate, adding its voice and position of authority,” the Ukrainian leader wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
No Russian representative will take part in this meeting, according to the Ukrainian press.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Volodymyr Zelensky also spoke about Ukrainian grain exports, according to the latter.
“Ukraine remains committed to its vital role as guarantor of global food security and enables the functioning of the Black Sea grain corridor,” said the Ukrainian president.
Turkey has posed for a year and a half as mediator of the conflict in Ukraine, and it is under its aegis, alongside the UN, that Kyiv and Moscow reached an agreement last year to allow the export of Ukrainian cereals, vital for global food security.
However, Moscow slammed the door on this agreement in mid-July, and Turkey has since tried to bring the parties back to the table, in the hope of leading to broader peace negotiations between Ukraine and Russia.
Volodymyr Zelensky also said he thanked Recep Tayyip Erdogan for “his tireless support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine”.