International

Iranian-made drones strike Kyiv region

A medical worker runs past a burning car after a Russian attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, Oct. 10, 2022. The Russian missiles that rained down Monday on cities across Ukraine, bringing fear and destruction to areas that had seen months of relative calm, are an escalation in Moscow's war against its neighbor. (AP Photo/Roman Hrytsyna, File)

Iranian-made drones struck the Kyiv region on Thursday, as Russia’s bombardment of Ukraine stretched into a fourth day.

Russia launched its latest attack on the region — home to Ukraine’s capital city — early Thursday morning, Kyiv regional governor Oleksiy Kuleba said on Telegram. No one was killed or injured in the strikes, Kuleba said.

More than 40 towns and cities across the country were targeted by Russian attacks in the last 24 hours, according to Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense. 

Russia renewed its bombardment of Ukraine on Monday, after a key bridge connecting Russia to the Crimean Peninsula was destroyed over the weekend. At least 19 were killed in the first day of strikes, and The Associated Press reported that another 13 were killed in strikes in the last 24 hours.

Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, on Wednesday called Russia’s most recent attacks a “war crime.”

“Russia has deliberately struck civilian infrastructure with the purpose of harming civilians,” Milley told reporters in Brussels.

“They have targeted the elderly, the women and the children of Ukraine. Indiscriminate and deliberate attacks on civilian targets is a war crime in the international rules of war,” he said.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, meanwhile, said the newest Kremlin attacks “reveal the malice of Putin’s war of choice.”

He also called the strikes on civilians a “grim preview of a future in which the appetites of aggressive autocrats outweigh the rights of peaceful states.”

The latest assault came shortly after the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday voted to condemn Russia’s annexation of four occupied areas of Ukraine amid the ongoing war.

The U.N. said 143 nations voted in favor of the resolution criticizing Russia’s “illegal so-called referendums,” with 35 abstaining.

Syria, North Korea, Belarus and Nicaragua joined Russia as the five opposing votes.

Updated at 7:49 a.m.