Russia and Ukraine trade deadly strikes

KIEV

A firefighter tries to put out blazes at the Intrade trade center following a Russian drone strike on Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine. (AP Photo)

Russia bombarded at least four Ukrainian regions overnight with missiles and drones, killing four people, officials said on Sept. 22, and Ukraine’s forces damaged another Russian oil refinery in their latest long-range strike.

The ongoing exchange of daily aerial attacks, while positions on the battlefield’s front line barely change, provided a backdrop to the visit by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to the United States.

Zelensky was due to meet other world leaders, including U.S. President Donald Trump, at the U.N. General Assembly in New York. The Ukrainian leader is hoping to recruit their help to end Russia’s more than 4.5-year-old full-scale invasion of his country.

Russian President Vladimir Putin isn’t due to attend the annual event.

The war, which Western officials say has killed more than 500,000 Russian troops, has had global repercussions.

The repeated attacks on Russian refineries, following Moscow’s strikes on Ukraine’s power grid, have caused international shortages of diesel and price spikes, according to Trump. However, the global crunch also came after the Iran war led to curtailed oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz.

Zelensky also wants help to ensure the flow of Ukrainian grain and other farm products to world markets through the Black Sea. Russian attacks on cargo vessels have severely disrupted Kiev’s exports, hurting its economy and threatening global supplies.

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Sept. 22 that his country would provide Ukraine with more radars to help protect its power grid.

He said on social media that he discussed with Trump the possibility of a truce between Moscow and Kiev on strikes on energy infrastructure and a “moratorium” on Black Sea attacks.

Zelensky began his New York visit by meeting with U.S. senators, thanking them for what he called strong bipartisan support for Ukraine and for recently passing a tougher Russian sanctions bill that Trump has signed into law.

Peace and security will be closer once the bill is fully implemented, he said.

Ukraine said that it struck the Kuibyshev oil refinery in Samara, southeast of Moscow, in an overnight attack.

Several drones hit their targets, sparking a large fire at the facility, according to a statement from Ukrainian special forces.

The refinery, owned by Rosneft, is a key fuel supplier for central Russia, producing gasoline, diesel, fuel oil and other petroleum products, the statement said. Ukraine said that it struck the same refinery last June.

The Russian Defense Ministry on Sept. 22 said that its forces downed 297 Ukrainian drones over 14 Russian regions overnight, as well as the illegally annexed Crimean Peninsula.

Russia’s overnight attack on Ukraine included anti-ship missiles, ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and more than 200 drones, Ukraine’s air force said.

The strikes killed four people in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro, said Oleksandr Hanzha, head of the Dnipropetrovsk regional military administration.

The strikes across Ukrainian regions damaged homes, businesses and storage facilities, wounding at least five people, authorities said. Five people were wounded in the capital, Kiev, according to officials.