Zelenskyy urges more international pressure on Russia over civilian deaths

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy chided the international community Wednesday for not taking a tougher stance against Russia over its escalating bombardment of civilian areas of Ukraine.

At the end of last month, Russia launched a week of nighttime and daylight attacks on Kyiv in its heaviest sustained bombardment of the Ukrainian capital since its invasion began more than four years ago. The relentless missile and drone strikes have continued this month and aim to sap civilian morale, Ukrainian officials say.

International economic sanctions on Russia and efforts to isolate Moscow diplomatically haven’t stopped the invasion. Zelenskyy called on countries to step up the pressure.

“Unfortunately, there has been too little response from the international community to these strikes, which are taking people’s lives practically every day,” the Ukrainian leader said on social media.

“But a response is needed — Moscow must not go into the winter believing that it can get away with missile and drone terror without consequences,” he said.

The United Nations said last month that due to increasing Russian aerial attacks more Ukrainian civilians were killed or wounded in July than in any month since March 2022, with 437 killed and more than 2,600 wounded.

In all, more than 16,800 Ukrainian civilians have been killed and more than 51,000 wounded since Russia’s army poured across the border, according to the U.N. Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine.

The Russian aerial attacks overnight into Wednesday killed at least two people and wounded seven, Ukrainian officials said, as Moscow fired ballistic and cruise missiles as well as drones at six regions of Ukraine.

Four of the wounded were in a 22-story residential building in Kyiv’s Darnytskyi district, where a drone damaged the 11th floor and started a fire on the 12th floor, Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said.

Olha Smal, a 62-year-old who lives on the building’s 12th floor, said the blast wave flung her across her kitchen. One of her bedrooms caught fire, and smoke quickly filled the apartment, she said. Her pregnant neighbor was wounded.

“You live one day at a time. You don’t know what will happen to you tomorrow, or even what will happen today,” she told The Associated Press. “It’s very, very hard.”

Russia’s Defense Ministry said that its forces hit a drone factory warehouse in Kyiv.

It also claimed strikes on logistical facilities in the southern Ukraine port city Mykolaiv, fuel reservoirs in the city’s port and an electric substation.

The Russian military also struck a ship heading to Odesa with military cargo and logistical facilities at Ukraine’s Starokozache border crossing with Moldova, the ministry said. The border strike killed two people, Ukrainian authorities said.

Zelenskyy said Ukraine is responding to Moscow’s strikes with daily long-range attacks on infrastructure deep inside Russia.

He said the latest Ukrainian strikes targeted Novorossiysk, a Black Sea port in Russia’s Krasnodar region. The attack hit a naval base, including a terminal used to load oil, military port facilities, and warships carrying cruise missiles, according to Zelenskyy.

The Novorossiysk naval base is a key hub for Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, providing maintenance and logistical support for its ships, according to Ukraine’s General Staff.

Krasnodar Gov. Veniamin Kondratyev said that four people, including a child, were killed and 29 others were wounded in the drone attack on Novorossiysk.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said that air defenses downed 596 Ukrainian drones from late Tuesday until early Wednesday.

Follow the AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine