21 People Wounded after Russia Strikes Apartment Blocks in Ukraine’s Kharkiv

Ukrainian police officers work at the site of a shelling in Kharkiv, Ukraine, late 20 September 2024, amid the ongoing Russian invasion. EPA/SERGEY KOZLOV
Ukrainian police officers work at the site of a shelling in Kharkiv, Ukraine, late 20 September 2024, amid the ongoing Russian invasion. EPA/SERGEY KOZLOV
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21 People Wounded after Russia Strikes Apartment Blocks in Ukraine’s Kharkiv

Ukrainian police officers work at the site of a shelling in Kharkiv, Ukraine, late 20 September 2024, amid the ongoing Russian invasion. EPA/SERGEY KOZLOV
Ukrainian police officers work at the site of a shelling in Kharkiv, Ukraine, late 20 September 2024, amid the ongoing Russian invasion. EPA/SERGEY KOZLOV

Russian strikes hit high-rise apartment blocks in Ukraine’s city of Kharkiv, leaving dozens wounded in a second consecutive nighttime attack this past week.
The bombs fell Saturday night on the district of Shevchenkivsky, north of the center of Kharkiv, the second largest city, local Gov. Oleh Syniehubov said. Nine residential buildings sustained varying degrees of damage, including 16- and nine-story blocks, he added.
Twenty-one people were wounded, including an 8-year-old, according to Syniehubov and Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov, The Associated Press said.
The attack came after another late Friday that wounded 15 people, including a 10- and 12-year-old, as Russian airstrikes hit three Kharkiv neighborhoods, Terekhov said.
According to Ukrainian officials, KAB-type aerial glide bombs were used in both attacks, a retrofitted Soviet weapon that has for months laid waste to eastern Ukraine.
Russia also launched 80 Shahed drones and two missiles at Ukraine overnight into Sunday, the Ukrainian air force said. Ukrainian air defense shot down 71 drones, and another six were lost on location due to electronic warfare countermeasures, the statement said.
Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.



France Warns That North Korean Troops Fighting in Ukraine Would Be an Escalation

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot shake hand with Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha in central Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024. (AP)
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot shake hand with Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha in central Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024. (AP)
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France Warns That North Korean Troops Fighting in Ukraine Would Be an Escalation

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot shake hand with Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha in central Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024. (AP)
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot shake hand with Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha in central Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024. (AP)

The involvement of North Korean regular troops to support Russia's invasion of Ukraine would be a serious escalation of the war, France and Ukraine's foreign ministers said at a joint press conference in Kyiv on Saturday.

France's Jean-Noel Barrot, who was making his first trip to Ukraine since becoming foreign minister in September, is also set to visit the east of the country on Sunday, where France will finance new two new centers for the protection of children impacted by the war.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy accused North Korea on Thursday of deploying officers alongside Russia and of preparing to send 10,000 soldiers to help Moscow's war effort, although NATO chief Mark Rutte said there was no evidence of Pyongyang's presence at this stage.

"It would be serious and push the conflict into a new stage, an additional escalatory stage," Barrot said in Kyiv, adding that such a move would signal that Moscow was struggling in the war.

His Ukrainian counterpart, Andrii Sybiha, said the risk of escalation from the move was "huge."

"This is a huge threat of further escalation of Russian aggression against Ukraine. There is a big risk of it growing out of its current scale and borders."

Earlier this week, Zelenskiy presented his "victory plan" which he said would enable Ukraine to end the war no later than next year. The first step of this plan was unconditional NATO membership for Ukraine.

France's foreign minister said Paris was open to the idea of an immediate invitation for Ukraine to join NATO, but that talks would continue on the subject with allies.

"Regarding the invitation for Ukraine to join NATO, we are open to it and it's a discussion that we are having with our partners," Barrot said.