This is the third large-scale combined strike in October against energy facilities in civilian areas, leading to significant power outages.
At least two other civilians were killed – and 23 injured, including six children – in Zaporizhzhia, which was reportedly hit by more than eight ballistic missiles and 20 drones.
A seven-year-old girl was among those killed in the central Vinnytsia region.
More than 700 keystrokes
Thursday’s strikes were among the largest since Russia’s invasion began in 2022, with 705 munitions reportedly deployed.
Danielle Belle, who heads the UN monitoring team, stressed that if the pattern of attacks continued it would have “dangerous consequences” for civilians during the harsh winter months.
Ms Belle reiterated that these disruptions would disproportionately affect vulnerable groups, including older people, people with disabilities and families with young children.
Ukraine’s armed forces reportedly responded to long-range Russian attacks with their own drone and missile strikes.
Nuclear tests “cannot under any circumstances be authorized”, reiterates the UN
In response to a statement by the US president that his administration would resume testing nuclear weapons, the UN warned against proliferation on Thursday, calling for a moratorium to be maintained.
The risk of nuclear war is “already alarming”, UN deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq said in response to a question at the regular midday press briefing in New York.
President Donald Trump said on social media that he had asked the Pentagon “to begin testing our nuclear weapons on an equal footing,” in response to Russia’s testing of new nuclear delivery systems and China’s deployment of new ballistic missile silos, according to media reports.
China has reportedly not carried out any nuclear weapons tests since 1996. The last confirmed test by Russia dates back to 1990.
Miscalculation and escalation
Mr. Haq said any nuclear activity that “could lead to miscalculations or escalation with catastrophic consequences must be avoided. We must not forget the disastrous legacy of more than 2,000 nuclear weapons tests that have been carried out over the past 80 years.”
He added that in the Secretary-General’s view, “under no circumstances can nuclear testing be authorized.”
Robert Floyd, Executive Secretary of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO), said in a statement The treaty prohibits all nuclear explosions, while its agency “can and will detect any nuclear weapon test explosion anywhere on the planet and has successfully detected all six reported nuclear tests carried out this century.”
Mr. Floyd added that at this difficult moment, there was “an opportunity for world leaders to move forward and work together, as equals, towards the ratification of the CTBT and the common goal of a world without nuclear weapons testing.”
UN experts warn of human rights violations in Nicaragua, call for protection of exiled citizens
A group of independent human rights experts urge the international community to hold the Nicaraguan government accountable for serious rights violations and international crimes, as it presented its findings to the General Assembly for the first time.
Jan-Michael Simon, president of the Group, noted that Nicaragua once championed peace, freedom and democracy in Central America – but now faces allegations of dismantling the rule of law and democratic institutions.
Silencing dissent, at home and abroad
The experts’ report to the New York General Assembly describes a deliberate state policy to silence dissent and consolidate absolute power through violence, fear, and the systematic erosion of rights.
Some documented human rights violations, they say, constitute crimes against humanity.
The group also condemned the growing number of enforced disappearances, calling them an act of cruelty that torments both the victims and their families.
The independent experts also warned that the government had extended the repression abroad by stripping some exiles of their nationality – as a tool to punish dissidents.
Publicado anteriormente en Almouwatin.
