Eleven people were injured in a series of Russian drone strikes on Kharkiv on Monday. According to the city’s mayor, Ihor Terekhov, and the head of the regional military administration, Oleh Syniehubov, as reported by the news outlet 24tv.ua, a drone hit a residential building in the Kyivskyi district. Initially five injured were reported, later the number rose to eleven.
According to Syniehubov, medics treated two women aged 74 and 80, two men aged 36 and 74, and a ten-year-old boy on the morning of 12 October. Three people sustained injuries, while doctors diagnosed the others with an acute stress reaction. All those affected were given medical care on the spot. Around 9.45 a.m., Syniehubov reported that a Russian drone had come down on the grounds of a private property; a fence and window panes were damaged. According to him, it was the sixth attack on the Kyivskyi district that morning.
Attack on energy infrastructure – despite announced ceasefire
Already on Sunday, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Russia had hit the city’s energy infrastructure. As the Kyiv Independent reported on 11 October, Zelenskyy said in the evening that the CHP-5 thermal power plant in Kharkiv had just been shelled. According to the outlet, the presidential office confirmed that the attack occurred after US President Donald Trump’s announcement that there was an “energy ceasefire” between Russia and Ukraine. A senior Ukrainian official told the Kyiv Independent that Ukraine had no information about such an agreement.
On Sunday, Trump declared on his platform Truth Social that an “ENERGY CEASEFIRE” in the war between Russia and Ukraine was in effect with immediate effect. “Both sides have agreed. Don’t break it!” he wrote, without giving further details. Zelenskyy appeared surprised and said the agreement was “new to me”; Russia has not yet confirmed any agreement. On Sunday evening, according to the Guardian, Zelenskyy stated that Russian attacks had hit Ukrainian energy facilities even though Trump claimed both sides no longer wanted to attack each other’s energy infrastructure. In a post on X, he wrote that a drone had hit a power plant in Kyiv on Sunday, leading to power outages in the capital. Shortly afterwards, he reported an attack on a power plant in Kharkiv and added: “The Ukrainian sky was infested with Russian ‘Shaheds’ all day long.”
Six dead on Sunday, doubts about the ceasefire
According to Ukrainian authorities, Russian attacks on Sunday killed six people in two Ukrainian cities. In Kharkiv, three people died and 20 were injured in a strike on a food shop, including two children according to the regional governor. In western Ukraine, three people were killed in a Russian attack, according to authorities.
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on Monday before a meeting of EU foreign ministers that the European Union would welcome a ceasefire, but only “if it holds”. “We have not yet seen Russia abide by it either,” Kallas said, according to the Guardian. NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe, Alexus Grynkewich, plans to issue a warning to Russia at a security conference in Warsaw regarding the alliance’s ability to repel attacks from Moscow. Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kestutis Budrys demanded that the EU classify the Russian military intelligence service GRU as a terrorist organisation.
The dispute between Washington and Kyiv began on Friday when Trump announced the lifting of sanctions on Russian diesel exports. He justified this with falling global and domestic fuel prices ahead of the US midterm elections next month. Zelenskyy called the decision “weak” and said it would give Putin “billions” in additional revenue. Trump, for his part, demanded that Zelenskyy “stop, damn it” attacking Russian refineries, and said on Saturday that Ukraine needed a “new leader”. Zelenskyy replied that it was up to Ukrainians to choose “one leader or another”. He told ABC News that he was ready to accept Trump’s demands and organise elections, but only if Putin agreed to a “complete” 60-day ceasefire.
Ukraine has been repelling a large-scale Russian invasion since February 2022. The country is under martial law, and elections are legally prohibited during this time. As the news outlet pravda.com.ua reported, citing the Ukrainian Air Force, Russia deployed a guided Kh-59 missile from the airspace over the Black Sea as well as 121 attack drones during the night of 12 October. By 9 a.m. on Monday, 89 enemy drones had been shot down or suppressed, 55 of them jet-powered, the air force said, according to the news outlet Ukrainska Pravda. The attacks were continuing, according to the report. During the night of 12 October, according to 24tv.ua, Russian troops also attacked the Zhytomyr region. According to the report, railway and energy infrastructure facilities in the Korosten district were hit. The north of the region had already been under fire since the evening of 11 October.
