Russia Launches Scores of Drones on Kyiv, Other Ukrainian Regions

 In this image taken from video distributed by Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024, Russian 120mm mortar crew change a position after firing toward Ukrainian position at an undisclosed location in Ukraine. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)
In this image taken from video distributed by Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024, Russian 120mm mortar crew change a position after firing toward Ukrainian position at an undisclosed location in Ukraine. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)
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Russia Launches Scores of Drones on Kyiv, Other Ukrainian Regions

 In this image taken from video distributed by Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024, Russian 120mm mortar crew change a position after firing toward Ukrainian position at an undisclosed location in Ukraine. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)
In this image taken from video distributed by Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024, Russian 120mm mortar crew change a position after firing toward Ukrainian position at an undisclosed location in Ukraine. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)

Russia launched a series of drone and missile attacks overnight targeting Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities, igniting a fire at an industrial facility in the western Ukrainian region of Ternopil, Ukrainian officials said on Wednesday.

By 0440 GMT, Russia launched some 136 attack drones targeting Ukraine and three missiles, with Ukraine's air defense destroying 51 of the drones, Ukraine's air force said on the Telegram messaging app.

Twenty of the drones were still in Ukrainian skies while 60 were unaccounted for, possibly intercepted by Ukraine's warfare, the air force said.

Most of Ukraine was under air raid alerts Wednesday morning, with the Kyiv region remaining under alert since 1730 GMT on Tuesday, according to military data. The air force said Russia was launching drones in several waves and in different directions.

The 51 drones were destroyed over 14 Ukrainian regions, including the Kyiv region.

It was not clear what happened to the three missiles.

The "large-scale fire" in the Ternopil region has since extinguished, but it involved 46 fire fighters and 12 units of special equipment to put it out, the military administration of the region said on the Telegram messaging app.

"There were no injuries," the administration added.

It was not immediately clear what facility was on fire.

All drones targeting Kyiv earlier in the night were destroyed and there were no reports of damage or injuries, but there was fresh risk of attacks, Serhiy Popko, head of Kyiv's military administration said on Telegram.



US Officials Who Resigned over Biden’s Gaza Policy Form New PAC

A Palestinian boy looks at destroyed shelters at the site of an Israeli airstrike which hit tents for displaced people two days earlier in the courtyard of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on October 16, 2024. (AFP)
A Palestinian boy looks at destroyed shelters at the site of an Israeli airstrike which hit tents for displaced people two days earlier in the courtyard of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on October 16, 2024. (AFP)
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US Officials Who Resigned over Biden’s Gaza Policy Form New PAC

A Palestinian boy looks at destroyed shelters at the site of an Israeli airstrike which hit tents for displaced people two days earlier in the courtyard of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on October 16, 2024. (AFP)
A Palestinian boy looks at destroyed shelters at the site of an Israeli airstrike which hit tents for displaced people two days earlier in the courtyard of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on October 16, 2024. (AFP)

Two US officials who resigned last year in protest over President Joe Biden's policy on the Gaza war have launched a lobbying organization and a political action committee to advocate for a revamp of Washington's long-standing stance on the Israeli and Palestinian conflict.

Josh Paul, a former State Department official and Tariq Habash, who used to work as a policy advisor at the US Department of Education, said the American public is no longer in favor of unconditionally sending US weapons to Israel but that elected officials have lagged behind.

Their PAC, called "A New Policy", would support candidates whose position on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict center on aligning US policies with human rights and equality and would ensure US arms transfers to all countries in the Middle East including Israel comply with both US and international law.

Washington's unwavering support for Israel's military operations in Gaza and more recently in Lebanon has emerged as a key reason for why Muslim and Arab voters, who resoundingly had backed Biden in 2020, may withhold their votes from Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris in the upcoming election.

"American voters are clear: they do not want to be complicit in this humanitarian catastrophe and a majority want an end to the transfer of lethal weapons that are used to kill Palestinian civilians," Habbash said.

Many Muslims and Arabs in the US have urged Biden to call for a permanent ceasefire. Harris faces Republican former President Donald Trump on Nov. 5 in what polls show to be a tight presidential race.

The US is Israel's largest weapons supplier and has provided it with billions of dollars in military aid since Oct. 7, when Palestinian Hamas fighters attacked southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and kidnapping 250 others, according to Israeli tallies.

Israel's relentless retaliatory offensive of the densely-populated Gaza Strip, which was home to 2.3 million people, has reduced the enclave to a wasteland, with hundreds of thousands of people repeatedly displaced. More than 42,000 people have been killed, according to Palestinian health officials.