Ukraine hit by huge Russian missile attack as Kyiv makes plea to allies – war latest

The commander of Ukraine’s air force said the country’s forces had downed 102 out of 127 missiles and 99 out of 109 drones launched by Russia in a massive attack on Monday.

Mykola Oleshchuk called the combined strike “the biggest air attack” in a statement on Telegram.

Russia’s air attack on Ukraine on Monday was the biggest of the war, Ukraine’s air force commander has said.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukraine decided to “further strengthen” the direction of the eastern strategic hub of Pokrovsk that has seen an intensified Russian military push recently.

He said on Telegram on Monday that he was briefed by his army chief on the situation in the area.

Poland said that a drone had likely entered its airspace early on Monday morning during a Russian bombardment of Ukraine, adding that the object may have landed on Polish territory and that searches were underway.

“Most likely it was a drone and we assume so, because the trajectory of the flight and the speed indicate that it was definitely not a missile,” Jacek Goryszewski, spokesperson for the Polish army’s operational command told Reuters.

“The object is being searched for by 100 soldiers on the ground and one helicopter.”

He said it was impossible to say whether the object was Russian or Ukrainian as weather conditions had not allowed for visual identification.

In a later statement on social media platform X the army’s operational command said the object had entered Polish airspace at 4.43am (GMT) and that radars had lost sight of it at 5.16am (GMT).

“From the moment it entered Polish airspace, attempts were made to visually verify the object in order to identify it before possible neutralisation,” the statement said.

“Unfortunately, due to the prevailing weather conditions, it was not possible to clearly identify it, which prevented the decision to shoot it down.”

Switzerland hosted United Nations Security Council members at a meeting in Geneva on Monday to recommit to international humanitarian law, describing an “alarming” global context characterised by over 120 armed conflicts, with Russia the only member absent.

Switzerland, which is one of the 15 members, organised the informal meeting to commemorate the Geneva Conventions, signed 75 years ago after World War Two in the Swiss city to limit the barbarity of war.

“I call for us to raise respect of the Geneva Conventions to the level of a top political priority,” Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis told the meeting attended by envoys from a range of countries, including 14 of the 15 UN Security Council members.

Asked about Russia’s absence, he said that all members were invited to think about international humanitarian law collectively but said attendance was not compulsory.

Russia’s envoy in New York described the meeting as a “waste of time”.

“We believe that the Security Council should be focusing on more important matters than travelling around Europe,” said Russia’s Deputy Permanent Representative in New York Dmitry Polyanski in a message sent by the diplomatic mission in Geneva.

Russia is a ‘P5’ member which holds a permanent seat within the broader Security Council alongside the United States, France, Britain and China.

At the same meeting the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross Mirjana Spoljaric described the Geneva Conventions as “under strain”, referring to the Gaza conflict as well as Ukraine. Russia launched more than 100 missiles and around 100 attack drones at Ukraine on Monday, killing at least five people and striking energy facilities.

Russia’s Wagner mercenary group said on Monday that it only operated in Africa and in Russian ally Belarus, and its soldiers were no longer fighting in the Ukraine war.

Ukraine on Sunday called on Belarus to pull back what it described as significant forces deployed along their shared border. It said these included Belarus special forces and former Wagner mercenaries.

In a rare statement, the group said that its employees only worked in Africa and Belarus.

“There are no divisions of the company in the Russian National Guard, in the ranks of the Russian Ministry of Defense, or anywhere else,” it said.

Wagner “is not participating in the Special Military Operation at this stage”, it said, using the Kremlin’s preferred term for the war in Ukraine. Reuters was not able to verify that assertion.

“In case of a change in the situation, it will be announced,” Wagner said.

Wagner’s role in Africa, for example in support of the military junta in Mali, is a source of concern to the West. In Ukraine, the group was heavily engaged in the earlier part of Russia’s war effort, especially the long battle for the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut which it finally captured in May 2023.

The following month, its founder Yevgeny Prigozhin led a short-lived mutiny against Russia’s defence establishment. He and other senior Wagner figures were killed in a plane crash on 23 August, 2023.

A Ukraine foreign ministry official said that a Russian attack on Monday had targeted a hydropower plant in the Kyiv region.

“Today’s Russian attack … targeted Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure, including Kyiv HPP,” Andriy Sybiha said on X.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)’s Director General Rafael Grossi said on Monday he will personally lead a mission to inspect the Kursk nuclear power plant in Russia during a visit on Tuesday.

“Given the serious situation, I’m personally leading tomorrow’s IAEA mission to the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant in Russia,” Grossi said in a post on X.

“I reiterate that the safety and security of nuclear facilities must, under no circumstances, be endangered.”