War in Ukraine: Volodymyr Zelensky speaks at the UN, Russian strikes kill six… an update on the news

Six dead in Russian attacks on Ukraine

Six people were killed in Russian attacks on Ukraine on Tuesday, including a drone strike that set fire to industrial warehouses and destroyed humanitarian aid supplies in the western city of Lviv , officials said. One person was killed in Lviv, three were killed in an attack on the northeastern city of Kupiansk, and two people, including a police officer, were killed in a shelling of the city from Kherson, in the south of the country.

In Lviv, which is far from the front lines, firefighters battled a blaze after three industrial warehouses were hit by an attack around 5 a.m. (0200 GMT), emergency services said. “I would like to emphasize that these are ordinary industrial warehouses. Nothing military was stored there,” Maxim Kozitsky said on the Telegram messenger.

He said Russian forces launched 18 drones in the attack and 15 of them were shot down, including seven directly over the Lviv region. Denise Brown, the United Nations humanitarian coordinator for Ukraine, said a warehouse used by the non-governmental organization Caritas-Spes had been destroyed.

“This vital humanitarian facility, which contained around 300 tonnes of relief supplies, has been reduced to ashes,” she said in a statement. Russia has repeatedly attacked infrastructure critical to Ukraine’s defense, energy system and agriculture since launching what it calls a “special military operation” in February 2022. Many civilians have been killed but Moscow denies deliberately targeting the civilian population.

Volodymyr Zelensky at the UN

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday. This is the first time since the start of the war with Russia, in February 2022, that the Ukrainian leader has visited the UN in person.

“United, we will be able to find a just peace for all, unity can fight against war,” declared Volodymyr Zelensky, before thanking the nations which made it possible “to make Ukrainian products available on international markets even though the “Russia is working to undermine this task.”

“The non-proliferation of nuclear weapons is a good strategy, but it is not sufficient,” he added. He believes that “Russia had no right to possess nuclear weapons”, reports The Parisian.

Furthermore, Volodymyr Zelensky accused Moscow of using food and energy as a weapon. “Russia is using the price of food as a weapon. Russia has undermined the Black Sea food initiative,” denounces Volodymyr Zelensky.

He also invited state leaders to a “world peace summit”. He plans to invite all the world’s leaders opposed to Russia’s “aggression” of Ukraine.

He is due to speak to the 193 members of the General Assembly on Tuesday, before going to Washington to meet his American counterpart Joe Biden and elected representatives of Congress. The Ukrainian head of state must also meet Lula, his Brazilian counterpart.

Bombing of Kostiantynivka may be attributable to Ukraine

The deadly bombing which killed 17 people on September 6 in Kostiantynivka is undoubtedly attributable to an error by the Ukrainian army, writes the New York Times, which relies on elements collected on site and on satellite images.

The bombing hit a crowded market in this town located in eastern Ukraine, angering President Volodymyr Zelensky who denounced a Russian attack on a “peaceful” town. According to the New York daily, however, this bombing was the result of a “tragic error” committed by the Ukrainian army.

“The elements gathered and analyzed by the New York Times, including missile fragments, satellite images, testimonies and messages broadcast on social networks strongly support the thesis according to which the bombing was the result of the faulty firing of a Ukrainian aerial missile fired by a Bouk defense system”, writes the newspaper.