Summary
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At least nine people were killed in two consecutive Russian attacks on a hospital in Sumy. Initial shelling had killed one and damaged several floors of the building, but Russian forces struck again during the evacuation of the hospital’s patients, authorities said. At least 12 were reported injured in the attacks.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, one day after his meeting with Donald Trump in New York, condemned the Sumy attack. “Everyone in the world who speaks about this war must pay attention to what Russia is targeting,” Zelenskyy wrote on X. “They are waging war on hospitals, civilian objects, and people’s lives. Only strength can force Russia into peace. Peace through strength is the only right way.”
In addition to the nine killed on Saturday, at least seven other civilians were killed throughout Ukraine over the past 24 hours, authorities said. Four were killed in Kryvyi Rih after a Russian missile struck a five-storey police administration building on Friday – authorities completed rescue efforts there today. Of the four killed in Kryvyi Rih, three were police officers. Meanwhile, other missile and air strikes on residential areas of the Kherson, Donetsk and Odesa oblasts left dozens more injured.
Russia is prepared to go to court over the Nord Stream pipeline explosions, with a foreign ministry spokeswoman saying on Saturday that Russia has filed “pre-trial claims” against Denmark, Germany, Sweden and Switzerland. Maria Zakharova accused the West of attempting to “sweep the matter under the carpet”, maintaining that the explosions that ruptured the multi-billion dollar pipeline in September 2022 – seven months after Russia invaded Ukraine – “an egregious act of international terrorism”.
NATO members Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland will seek European Union funding to build a network of bunkers, barriers, distribution lines and military warehouses along their borders with Russia and Belarus, Estonia’s officials have said. The three Baltic countries initially announced the plan for a “Baltic Defence Line” in January. In May, Poland announced a similar project called the “Eastern Shield” with a purpose to strengthen its borders with the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad and Belarus.
Russia appears to be expending a “significant amount of effort” to influence the debate around allowing Ukraine to use Western-provided weapons to directly attack Russia, the Institute for the Study of War said.
In a new analysis, the Institute noted that even a small number of successful Ukrainian long-range strikes on Russia “could have asymmetric impacts and prompt Russian forces to move significant military and storage facilities outside the range of Western-provided weapons”.
In particular, Vladimir Putin has recently reintroduced several of the Kremlin’s previously most effective narratives into both the Western and Russian information spaces in recent weeks, the Institute said.
Russian authorities appear to be expending a significant amount of effort to influence the Western debate about allowing Ukraine to use Western-provided weapons to conduct long-range strikes against military objects in Russia.⬇️(1/3)
— Institute for the Study of War (@TheStudyofWar) September 28, 2024
This Russian effort suggests a deep concern… https://t.co/3lO2zUkbFK pic.twitter.com/8iwvzA8jNT
2/ Putin reintroduced several of the Kremlin's previously most effective narratives into the Western and Russian information spaces in recent weeks and tailored his typical boilerplate language to specifically target the ongoing Western debate about allowing Ukraine to conduct… pic.twitter.com/xTBXeO8XTb
— Institute for the Study of War (@TheStudyofWar) September 28, 2024
