Ukraine issued a nationwide air-raid alert as Russian missiles hit critical infrastructure in Kyiv on November 23 and the European Union parliament designated Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism in a symbolic move hours after a missile strike killed a newborn baby in southern Ukraine.
"The deliberate attacks and atrocities carried out by the Russian Federation against the civilian population of Ukraine, the destruction of civilian infrastructure, and other serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law amount to acts of terror," a resolution approved by EU lawmakers said.
The parliament said it "recognizes Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism and as a state, which uses means of terrorism."
The move, which carries no legal consequences, was welcomed by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Twitter.
"Russia must be isolated at all levels and held accountable in order to end its long-standing policy of terrorism in Ukraine and across the globe," Zelenskiy tweeted.
Meanwhile, an air-raid alert was issued across all Ukraine and explosions were reported in several regions of southern and southeastern Ukraine, while in Kyiv, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said a Russian missile hit a critical infrastructure objective, without giving details.
"Hitting one of the capital's infrastructure facilities. Stay in shelters! The air alert continues," Klitschko wrote on Telegram.
Earlier, Vitaly Kim, the governor of the southern Mykolayiv region, reported aerial "threats" on Odesa, Mykolayiv, and Kherson regions.
Russian forces have increasingly targeted Ukrainian critical infrastructure in recent weeks as they faced setbacks on the battlefield following their February 24 invasion.
Earlier, a missile strike on a maternity ward killed a newborn baby in the southern Zaporizhzhya region, Governor Oleksandr Starukh reported on November 23.
"The enemy has once again decided to try to achieve with terror and murder what it wasn't able to achieve for nine months and won't be able to achieve," Zelenskiy said on Facebook after the attack on the hospital in Vilnyansk, located 18 kilometers from the regional capital of Zaporizhzhya.
"Instead, it will only be held to account for all the evil it has brought to our country," he added.
On the battlefield, Ukrainian forces repelled multiple Russian attacks in the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces reported on November 23.
Russia has been pressing an offensive along a stretch of front line west of the city of Donetsk, using some of the forces it moved following its withdrawal from around the city of Kherson in the south.
"The enemy does not stop shelling the positions of our troops and settlements near the contact line [in the Donetsk region]," the Ukrainian military said.
The Ukrainian Army repelled attacks in 11 locations in Donetsk and Luhansk, the military said, including Bilohoryivka, Bakhmut, Kurdyumivka, and Severniy, the military said.
"Over the past day, the enemy launched five missile attacks on populated areas of the Kharkiv and Donetsk regions and carried out some 45 multiple-rocket attacks on the positions of our troops," it said.
The Ukrainian military also said on November 23 that it has identified a center for the training of operators of both Russian and Iranian drones in Sevastopol, in Russian-occupied Crimea.
"The duration of training for the specialist drone operators is up to three weeks. Currently, about 30 servicemen are being trained," the military added.
The statement came after the Moscow-installed governor of Sevastopol said Russian air defenses had repelled a drone attack on an electricity and heating plant in the Balaklava district of the city. (SJ/RFE)
