War in Ukraine: 23 injured in Russian attacks in Kharkiv, use of banned gas… update on the situation

Ukraine's capital, east and south hit by Russian drones and missiles

Russian missiles damaged residential buildings in Kharkiv, eastern Ukraine, and Odessa, in the south, while a salvo of drones hit the capital Kyiv and caused temporary power outages in the region south of Mykolaiv, Ukrainian authorities reported on Monday.

Russia, whose rapid advance in eastern Ukraine, is at the same time carrying out night attacks on towns far behind the front line using drones “suicides” cheap and drones “lures” at low prices, which put pressure on Ukrainian air defenses.

Of the 145 drones used overnight, Ukraine shot down 71 and lost track of 71 others, the Ukrainian Air Force said.

In Kyiv, the capital, residents said they heard the hum of drone engines flying over the city for several hours into the night. Automatic fire was also heard as Ukrainian air defenses attempted to shoot down these drones. No casualties or significant damage have been reported at the moment in the capital and its surroundings.

President Volodymyr Zelensky called on Kyiv's allies to step up pressure on Russia so that it no longer receives the necessary components for the weapons systems: “These Russian attacks on the lives of Ukrainians can be stopped”he declared. “With pressure, sanctions, by blocking the occupiers' access to the components they use to create the tools of this terror, by supplying weapons to Ukraine and by showing a determination that must be unshakeable”he added.

A Russian missile attack Monday on the eastern city of Kharkiv injured at least 23 people and damaged more than 40 buildings, the regional governor and national police reported.

In the southern city of Odessa, an attack damaged residential buildings and injured ten people, Ukraine's Interior Ministry said.

Energy infrastructure in the Mykolaiv region, also in the South, was targeted by a nighttime drone attack, causing power outages, while strikes hit industrial sites in the Zaporizhzhia region, in the South-East , also indicated the Ukrainian authorities.

Ukraine needs improved air defenses, says Zelensky

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has called on Ukraine's Western partners to prioritize helping build an air defense system capable of protecting the population after Ukraine shot down 50 of 73 drones launched overnight against the country.

The Ukrainian president said in his evening video message that Ukraine was working with its allies to also find a response to Russia's use last week of a new medium-range ballistic missile.

Reuters was part of a small group of Western journalists who had access to the debris of the machine on Sunday.
Volodymyr Zelensky also said that an investigation was underway to determine the technical specifications of the missile and “find together a response to this action which constitutes an escalation”.

“The world has air defense systems capable of defending against this type of threat too”he said. “That’s what we need to focus on.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin justified the first firing of the Orechnik hypersonic missile, against the city of Dnipro, in Ukraine, by Kyiv's use of American and British missiles to strike Russian territory. According to him, no countermeasures exist to intercept this new weapon.

United States 'dismayed' by Moscow's alleged use of banned gas in Ukraine

Western countries and Russia locked horns Monday at a meeting over chemical weapons control, with a U.S. official saying “dismayed” by Moscow's alleged use in Ukraine of banned tear gas as a means of war.

The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) announced on November 18 that it had discovered CS riot gas in samples provided by Ukraine, coming from the area where it is fighting Russian forces it accuses of have recourse.

The Hague-based OPCW Chemical Weapons Convention prohibits the use of riot control agents, including CS gas, “as a means of war”.

“I remain dismayed by the scale and frequency of Russia's use of riot control agents as a means of warfare against Ukrainian forces.”declared the American Undersecretary of State for Arms Control, Bonnie Jenkins, during the annual meeting of the OPCW.

“Russia already lied when it said it did not intend to invade Ukraine. It also lied when it said it was not using riot control agents in violation of the Convention”she again told the delegates.

This is the first time that the use of anti-riot gas has been confirmed in areas where fighting is taking place in Ukraine, according to the OPCW, which however stressed that it is not seeking to identify the source.

Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of using chemical weapons for nearly three years of war.

Russia's representative, Kirill Lysogorsky, hit back, saying that “the West is trying to settle scores with countries it considers undesirable.”

“The kyiv regime continues to systematically use toxic chemicals and riot control agents against the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and the civilian population” he accused.

For its part, the European Union judged, through its special envoy Stephan Klement, that Russia “did not provide credible answers […] on the increasing number of reported cases of the use of riot control agents as means of warfare by its forces in Ukraine.