Russian Humanitarian Concerns

"All night and all morning the enemy terrorizes the civilian population. Kamikaze drones and missiles are attacking all of Ukraine."

"The occupiers will get only fair punishment and condemnation of future generations."

"And we will get victory."

"The enemy can attack our cities, but it won't be able to break us."

"Russia doesn’t have any chance on the battlefield, and it tries to compensate for its military defeats with terror. Why this terror? To put pressure on us, on Europe, on the entire world."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy

 

"[The Russian military used] long-range air- and sea-based high-precision weapons [to strike Ukrainian military and energy facilities]."

"[hey hit] all assigned targets."

Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov

A Ukrainian national flag rises over a local council's headquarter building, heavily damaged during Russia's attack in the village of Lymany near a frontline in Mykolaiv region, Ukraine October 18, 2022. REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko

Speculation was that the Russian military had exhausted its store of cruise missiles in its massive bombardment last week hitting cities across Ukraine. And although Russian President Vladimir Putin had announced that that particular mission had accomplished its aim, Russia had no intention of renewing another similar large attack just a few days ago, what he said appears to have slipped his mind, as evidenced by this latest round of attacks, substituting cruise missiles that come at a cost of $1 million apiece to an alternative with a price tag of $20,000 each: Iran-produced Shahed drones.

A little play on language and allusion there; since Islamist 'martyrs', aka suicide bombers are familiarly labeled shaheeds, given heroic status, the assurance that Paradise awaits them with its plentiful rewards including a bevy of beautiful, dewy-eyed virgins eager to fulfill the martyr's every fantasy. So the Iranian drones, named shahed, are also called suicide drones, accomplishing unmanned what human suicide bombers aspire to do; destroy and kill.

Tanks at the port city of Mykolaiv were set on fire by Russian drone attacks, according to the city's mayor   Telegram

One civilian infrastructure hit by a 'suicide drone', aka Iranian drone, struck downtown Kyiv, the site of an apartment building. "I have never been so afraid... It is murder, it is simply murder, there are no other words for it", apartment dweller Vitalii  Dushevskiy said of his experience in the blasted building. A second person who occupies the flat with him explained they have attempted to leave their flat, then discovered the staircase "all gone". All gone as well tragically were several residents of the building, including a pregnant woman.

In attempts to shoot the drones down while blasts reverberated through central Kyiv, Ukrainian soldiers fired into the air, as an anti-aircraft rocket went streaking into the sky. An explosion and orange flames followed, sending residents racing for shelter. Later in the day as attacks continued, people in Kyiv began walking about the city carrying on with their normal business through the course of the day, adamant that they would persevere and Russia was on its military back foot.

 

Suicide drones continued flying to assigned targets to detonate. According to Russia's defence ministry a "massive" attack on military targets and energy infrastructure was hugely successful across Ukraine, with the use of high-precision weapons. Perhaps not so much 'military targets' as vengeful attacks on civilian infrastructure in a deliberate attempt to cause as much terror and panic along with infrastructure destruction as conceivable.

 

These heavy aerial bombardments has Ukraine asking for its allies to agree to a closed-sky scenario in the prevention of further such widespread attacks. Which would mean a kind of direct intervention on the part of the European Union and NATO that no one is yet willing to commit to. "This is already a tradition: to wake Ukrainians with missiles on Mondays", commented 47-year-old lawyer Alla Voloshko, taking shelter in her apartment block's basement. 

According to Ukraine's military, 37 Russian drones had been destroyed since Sunday evening representing about 85 percent of the attacking drones. The Everi marine terminal in the port city of Mykolaiv in the south was hit on Sunday night, damaging sunflower storage tanks and sending leaking oil up in flames. "This is an entirely civilian facility. There is no military", senior manager Andriy noted of the attacks that represented a Russian effort to "destroy the economy and to destroy food security."

Once more, Russian shelling near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant disconnected it yet again from the Ukrainian power grid. Occupied by Russian forces but operated by Ukrainian staff, the plant's reactors have been shut down for weeks, but they require power to maintain security -- keeping the fuel inside the reactors cool, in prevention of a meltdown.

Firefighters work after a drone attack on buildings in Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, Oct. 17, 2022. Waves of explosive-laden suicide drones struck Ukraine's capital as families were preparing to start their week early Monday, the blasts echoing across Kyiv, setting buildings ablaze and sending people scurrying to shelters. (AP Photo/Roman Hrytsyna)