Ukraine files complaint against head of Russian Orthodox Church
Russian forces launched deadly strikes against the Poltava region in eastern Ukraine and the Kherson region in southern Ukraine on November 4 after the president of the European Commission concluded a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Kiev.
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Debris from a rocket damaged several residential buildings in Poltava, killing a woman and injuring others, including children, regional governor Filip Pronin said on Telegram. The attack on Kherson took place around 7 p.m. local time and hit near a grocery store, regional governor Oleksandr Prokudin said, adding that an earlier attack killed a man and injured a woman.
The attacks came after Russian authorities in Crimea said the Ukrainian military launched a missile strike in the Kerch region on November 4.
Sergei Aksyonov, the Moscow-based governor of occupied Crimea, said several missiles had been intercepted. Some debris fell into the dry dock area of the shipyard, according to RFE/RL. No injuries were reported.
The Ukrainian military later confirmed that its forces had damaged a shipbuilding factory in Kerch.
“The Armed Forces of Ukraine successfully carried out strikes on maritime and port infrastructure at the Zaliv shipyard in temporarily occupied Crimea,” the statement from the Department of Strategic Communications of the Armed Forces said. No further details were provided.
The attacks were reported after Zelenskiy finished a meeting in kyiv with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
Speaking at a joint news conference, he denied that the war between Ukraine and Russia was at an impasse, pushing back on comments made earlier this week by the commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s forces.
“Time has passed, people are tired… but it is not a dead end,” Zelenskiy said.
The comment was in response to a question regarding a statement made by General Valeriy Zaluzhniy in an interview with The Economist on November 1 that the war had “reached a technological level that puts us in a stalemate.”
Von der Leyen welcomed reforms in Ukraine, saying the country has made “excellent progress” toward joining the European Union.
“You are waging an existential war and at the same time you are fundamentally reforming your country. You have taken many steps in reforming your judicial system, curbing the grip of oligarchs, fighting against money laundering and much more” , she said.
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His visit came ahead of a report the European Union is expected to present next week on Ukraine’s progress in its membership bid.
The EU assessment, due on November 8, is expected to detail Ukraine’s path to meeting the economic, legal and other criteria needed to launch accession negotiations, which are expected to begin in December.
Ukraine applied to join the European Union days after Russia began its full-scale invasion in February 2022. The EU’s 27 members are due to meet in December to decide whether to allow Kiev to begin accession negotiations, a decision that requires the unanimous support of all countries. members of the bloc.
Zelenskiy announced new reforms on November 4 aimed at supporting Ukraine’s hopes of joining the EU.
“We continue the transformation of our state in order to be ready – realistically – for full membership in the European Union, in order to adapt all our institutions, all our standards to European rules,” Zelenskiy said.
The reforms include a bill that increases the powers of the specialized anti-corruption Prosecutor’s Office, Zelenskiy said, adding that “this should have been done decades ago.”
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Previous attacks on Ukraine injured at least 14 civilians, officials said.
In the village of Zarichne in the Zaporizhzhya region, nine people were injured in a Russian rocket attack, the head of the regional military administration, Yuriy Malashko, said.
A total of 26 towns and villages in the region were attacked over the past day, Malashko said.
Ukraine’s military said earlier that invading Russian forces continued to attack the key town of Avdiyivka in eastern Ukraine, a day after the town’s mayor said Moscow had l intending to capture its vast coking plant.
In its daily update, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said that Russia, “with the support of aviation, continues to try to encircle Avdiyivka.”
