The United Nations has condemned a deadly Russian missile attack on a hotel used by its officials; Russia has launched its first lunar spacecraft in almost half a century in the face of aerospace sanctions and after being ostracised by nearly all Western space programmes.
Friday 11 August 2023 08:35, UK
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Several explosions have been heard in Kyiv, Reuters has reported.
Mayor Vitali Klitschko said fragments of a downed missile have fallen near a children’s hospital and told residents to stay in air-raid shelters.
Authorities earlier declared a nationwide air-raid alert and said that Ukrainian air defences were at work.
At the same time as waging a war in Ukraine, Russia has turned its attention to space – launching its first lunar spacecraft in 47 years overnight.
The mission, aimed at reaching coveted pockets of water ice believed to be located on the moon’s south pole, is also the first since Moscow’s invasion severed nearly all its space ties with the West.
There is much riding on the Luna-25, as the Kremlin claims the West’s war sanctions – many of which have targeted Moscow’s aerospace sector – have failed to cripple the Russian economy.
“Russia’s aspirations towards the moon are mixed up in a lot
of different things. I think first and foremost, it’s an
expression of national power on the global stage,” said Asif Siddiqi, professor of history at Fordham University.
The European Space Agency had planned to test its Pilot-Dnavigation camera by attaching it to Luna-25, but abandoned the idea after Russia invaded Ukraine.
The lander is expected to touch down on the moon on 21 August,
Russia’s space chief Yuri Borisov told state television.
“I hope that a highly precise soft landing on the moon will take place,” Borisov told workers at the Vostochny cosmodrome after the launch.
“We hope to be first,” he added, with Russia competing against India, the US and China.
Luna-25, roughly the size of a small car, aims to operate for a year.
The UN has condemned a Russian attack on a Ukrainian hotel used by its officials which killed one person and injured 16.
A missile hit Zaporizhzhia city yesterday evening, destroying parts of the Reikartz Hotel and starting a fire, Volodymyr Zelenskyy and local media reported.
UN staff regularly use the hotel when working in the area, according to Denise Brown, the humanitarian coordinator for Ukraine.
“I am appalled by the news that a hotel frequently used by United Nations personnel and our colleagues from NGOs supporting people affected by the war has been hit by a Russian strike in Zaporizhzhia,” she said.
“I have stayed in this hotel every single time I visited.”
It was the second strike on Zaporizhzhia in as many days, with four children among the injured.
Two young women and a man were killed and nine other people were wounded in a Russian missile attack on Wednesday.
Hello and welcome to our coverage of the war in Ukraine.
We’ll be bringing you the latest updates from across the country and the wider world as the conflict rages into its 534th day.
Yesterday saw two missile attacks kill two people and injure at least 16 more across the Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia regions.
There may be some movement today on Joe Biden’s request for a further $24bn – money which he says is needed for supporting Ukraine, with members of Congress set to react to the plea for more funding.
If you missed anything, here are the other key developments from the previous 24 hours:
A flurry of activity in Belarus and on its borders in recent days has led to a number of questions around its leader’s intentions and motivations.
In this video, military analyst Sean Bell discusses why Belarus and its leader Alexander Lukashenko “feel more emboldened of late”, including the suggestion that the president “has something” on Russian President Putin.
Watch his analysis here…
Ukraine’s ministry of defence has said that Russia deliberately targeted children, after a missile attack on a hotel in Zaporizhzhia.
In our 9.26pm post, we brought you local reports suggesting that four children were among the 16 injured in the blast.
“They were targeting children,” the ministry said on X (formerly known as Twitter).
“The Reikartz hotel in Zaporizhzhia, which was hit by a missile attack by Russian terrorists today, is the site of a children’s day camp for kids aged 6 to 13,” it added.
It goes on to explain that the camp is open until 6pm daily, with the strike hitting the hotel around 7pm local time (5pm UK time).
It concludes its statement by saying it was “only a miracle of timing [that] saved the children from the Russian killers today”.
Further east, a strike has claimed another Ukrainian life, according to the region’s governor.
One person died and another was left injured after an artillery strike hit a building in Kharkiv, Oleg Sinegubov said on Telegram.
“Today in the village an enemy shell hit a residential building in the outskirts of the Kupyan district.”
“Unfortunately, a woman died. A man was injured,” he added.
A second missile attack in as many days in Zaporizhzhia has claimed the life of a woman, Ukraine’s interior ministry has confirmed.
Early reports indicated that somebody had died, but no further detail was shed on the age or gender of the victim, until the ministry confirmed that it was a woman in the last few minutes.
16 people were injured, including four children, according to local media.
One of the injured children is reportedly a three-year-old girl, while Suspilne suggests that a 14-year-old boy was also hurt in the blast.
Rescue workers are still at the scene, so this by no means a finalised casualty list – with emergency services continuing to clear rubble and search for anyone potentially trapped under it.
This video showing the immediate aftermath of the blast was also shared by the interior ministry…
A report produced by a number of Ukrainian and international organisations suggests that healthcare infrastructure and personnel have been attacked by Russia twice a week on average since the beginning of the war.
The research states Ukrainian hospitals, medical workers, and healthcare infrastructure have been attacked at least 1,014 times since February 2022.
It suggests that Russia deliberately targets Ukraine’s healthcare system and the people who work within it – which would constitute a violation of international law.
The report was compiled by the Ukrainian Healthcare Center, eyeWitness to Atrocities, Insecurity Insight, Media Initiative for Human Rights, and Physicians for Human Rights.
Russia has not yet responded to the claims and Sky News has not verified the figures.
US President Joe Biden has asked congress to give him a further $24bn for Ukraine.
Mr Biden said the money for Ukraine would be used for humanitarian, economic and security assistance for the country.
“The president has reaffirmed that we will stand with Ukraine as it defends its sovereignty for as long as it takes, a strategy that has successfully united our allies and partners and equipped Ukraine to defend itself against Russian aggression,” the director of the White House Office of Management and Budget wrote in a letter to the Speaker of the House.
The US is already by far the biggest financial supporter of Ukraine, and further spending of this magnitude would bring a total of well over $70bn since the outbreak of the war.
A senior official said the White House was hopeful an agreement could be reached with Congress on the request.
Be the first to get Breaking News
Install the Sky News app for free
