At least seven dead and over 70 wounded in Russian attacks in the east

O military governor of the region, Oleksandre Ganja, confirmed on their social networks the balance that includes five fatalities and 67 injured, between these two children under the age of four and one of eleven, after a Russian attack on the city of Pavlograd.

Rather, Ukrainian Interior Minister Ivan Vygivsky had mentioned in a message published on the Telegram platform that the Russians attacked a shopping centre in the city centre of Pavlograd “in broad daylight at a time when the streets were full of people”.

In the first interim review of the attack, three deaths and 34 wounded by the Ukrainian Public Prosecutor and the governor of the region were reported.

In Dnipro, the capital of the region, two people died following a bombardment of a sunflower oil factory belonging to the US multinational Bunge.

The attack had already been reported hours earlier by Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha.

As a result of this attack, at least five people were injured, including a 6-year-old girl and a 24-year-old woman, who is hospitalized in a “moderate” state, according to Oleksandre Ganja.

Attacks have also been reported against several facilities in Nikopol, a municipality near Zaporijia, leaving at least one injured, as well as in Synelnykove and Kamianske.

Russia and Ukraine are involved in an escalation of long-range attacks, which increasingly target civilian targets such as factories, refineries, warehouses, port infrastructure and ships.

These attacks are causing an increasing number of civilian casualties.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said this week, quoted by the U.S. media Axios, that the Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin had signalled Washington to be willing to start negotiations with a view to a “de-escalation” in winter, which could result in a suspension by both sides of the bombings in strategic sectors.

Zelensky claimed to count on the resumption in September of negotiations between Moscow, Kyiv and Washington to find a solution to the war in Ukraine.

For its part, the Kremlin (Russian Presidency) announced that “it does not exclude” the resumption of tripartite negotiations, but considered it to be “too early to talk about places and dates” for any meetings.

The Russian military offensive in Ukrainian territory, launched on 24 February 2022, plunged Europe into what is considered the most serious security crisis since World War II (1939–1945).