A major Russian attack kills 26 people in Ternopil. Russia has advanced in Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk regions. Zelenskyi faces pressure to fire his chief of staff amid a corruption scandal.
Major Russian attack kills 26 in Ternopil
Russia launched 48 missiles and 476 drones at Ukraine overnight on Wednesday, the Ukrainian Air Force said. Ukraine’s military said it had shot down or otherwise neutralized 41 missiles and 442 drones. Seven missiles and 34 drones hit target in 14 locations and the falling debris fell in six other places, it added.
A Russian attack on the western Ukrainian city of Ternopil killed at least 26 people, including three children, and injured 93 others. As of Wednesday evening, 22 people were missing. At the time of writing, the search and rescue operation was still ongoing. The strike damaged two nine-story apartment buildings, tearing away several floors between floor three and floor nine in one building and engulfing another one. Ukraine’s Air Force later said, citing preliminary reports, that a Kh-101 cruise missile had hit the residential flats.
The attack has also damaged an industrial site, the regional prosecutor’s office said. Chlorine levels in the air spiked to six times the norm, the regional authorities said.
A Russian attack on Lviv damaged an energy facility, a wood processing plant, a warehouse and triggered a large-scale fire.
Three people, including two children, were damaged in the region of Ivano-Frankivsk.
Russia advances in Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk regions
Russian forces have advanced in the towns of Novospaske and Shcherbynivka in Donetsk region, and near the villages of Vesele, Vysoke and Zatyshshya in Zaporizhzhia region, Ukrainian open-source mapping project DeepState said on Wednesday.
The situation in the Hulyaipole direction remains very serious as Russian forces continue to advance and maintain intensified offensive operations, the Institute for the Study of War said in a report on Sunday. A source reportedly affiliated with Ukrainian military intelligence stated on November 15 that Russian infiltration operations in the Hulyaipole direction can now penetrate into Ukrainian defenses up to five kilometers past the frontline, it added.
Spokesperson for Ukraine’s southern group of forces, Colonel Vladyslav Voloshyn denied the reports that Russian forces had captured Mala Tokmachka in Zaporizhzhia region. Russia did not advance in the Orikhiv and Hulyaipole directions, he said on Monday, as cited by Ukraine’s public broadcaster Suspilne. The Russian military is creating such fake news for their command, he added.
Russia is prioritizing the Polohy and Hulyaipole directions in Zaporizhzhia region to move weapons and materiel, Petro Andryushchenko, head of the Center for the Study of Occupation said on November 16.
Zelenskyi faces pressure to fire his chief of staff amid corruption scandal
This week can be decisive for the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, Andriy Yermak, unnamed sources in the leadership of the parliamentary faction of the majority party Servant of the People told Ukrainian news site the New Voice of Ukraine (NV) on Thursday.
The president likely plans a cabinet reshuffle. There are no formal nominations for the posts of the justice and energy ministers. Both resigned after Ukraine’s anti-graft agencies uncovered a major corruption scheme in the energy sector. Yermak’s prospects as the president’s chief of staff now also seem uncertain. The scandal is viewed as the largest since Zelenskyi took office.
The president’s team has a unique chance to show to the Ukrainian public and international partners readiness to adequately respond to corruption incidents in the president’s entourage, said Yaroslav Yurchyshyn, MP in the Golos (Voice) faction, head of the freedom of speech parliamentary committee.
Zelenskyi said he will meet with MPs on Thursday. He also said he was preparing “legal initiatives and principled quick solutions that our state needs.”
This week, Zelenskyi is on a diplomatic trip to Spain and Turkey. His decisions are likely to come later this week, NV’s sources said.
