Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni has said Rome’s support of Kyiv is in her country’s national interest. Ukraine says almost all the 67 drones launched by Russia overnight have been destroyed. 5 killed by Russian attacks in east Ukraine, officials say
Russian shelling killed five people in Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine on Saturday, officials said.
Three people were killed and four injured in the town of Kostyantynivka, said Vadym Filashkin, the regional governor of Donetsk.
Two men in their 50s were reported killed in shelling near the town of Toretsk about 20 kilometers (12 miles) to the southeast.
Filashkin said in a post on Telegram channel that three men aged between 24 and 69 were killed and a multistory block, administrative building and a shop were in the attack on Kostyantynivka.
Kostyantynivka, which before the war was an industrial town of around 70,000 people, has seen many of its residents leave as the front line has moved closer throughout the 30-month Russian invasion.
Ukraine warns Iran against delivering ballistic missiles to Russia
Ukraine has warned of “serious consequences” between Kyiv and Tehran should Iran be found to be delivering ballistic missiles to Russia, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The Associated Press news agency reported that the US has informed allies that it believes Iran has transferred short-range ballistic missiles to Russia, citing two people familiar with the matter.
Ukraine has long accused Iran of supporting Moscow’s fight in Ukraine, in particular by providing Shahed drones.
Kyiv said deepening cooperation between Iran and Russia threatens the security of Ukraine, Europe, the Middle East and the rest of the world.
“Iran considers the supply of military aid to warring parties to be inhumane and will therefore not take any action in this regard,” Tehran’s ambassador to the UN said.
UK’s MI6 chief says Ukraine’s Kursk offensive ‘brought the war home to Russians’
Richard Moore, the chief of MI6, said Kyiv’s surprise August offensive to seize territory in Russia’s Kursk region was “typically audacious and bold on the part of the Ukrainians, to try and change the game.”
He said the offensive — which Ukraine said has captured about 1,300 square kilometers (500 square miles) of Russian territory — had “brought the war home to ordinary Russians.”
Funeral held for victims of Russian missile strike on Poltava
Funeral services were held for victims of one of the deadliest Russian airstrikes since the war in Ukraine began.
The funerals took place in the eastern Ukrainian city of Poltava for the victims of a Russian missile attack on a military training facility that left over 50 dead and more than 300 injured.
Hundreds of mourners, including grieving families, local residents, and officials, gathered at the Cathedral of the Assumption in the city, some 350 kilometers (200 miles) southeast of Kyiv, for the solemn ceremony.
Sobbing relatives, many holding red carnations, stood over caskets placed outside the church, draped in yellow-and-blue Ukrainian flags. An air raid siren sounded during the service.
Local residents knelt in silent tribute as hearses carrying the victims passed by on their way to a military cemetery outside the city for burial.
Germany’s Baerbock blasts SPD premier over lukewarm Kyiv support
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock on Saturday slammed a state premier from Chancellor Olaf Scholz‘s Social Democrats (SPD) for seeming to water down the party’s support for arms deliveries to Ukraine ahead of regional elections.
Baerbock said she had always relied on Brandenburg Premier Dietmar Woidke to continue supporting Ukraine, and was dismayed to see that a preelection aid for voters, the Wahl-O-Mat, listed the regional SPD chapter’s position on continued arms deliveries to Kyiv as “neutral.”
The exact statement in the document was: “Brandenburg should work to ensure that Germany continues to supply arms to Ukraine.”
Two of the parties taking part in the September 22 elections, the Alternative for Germany (AfD) and the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht), actively oppose delivering weapons to Ukraine to help it defend itself against Russia’s war of aggression.
Baerbock criticized their attitude, saying that instead of helping Ukrainians, they stood on the side of Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin.
