Russian missiles and artillery yesterday pounded cities across Ukraine, killing at least two people and trapping others under rubble, while Poland said it would stop providing weapons to its ally amid a trade dispute.
The early-morning wave of missile strikes was Russia’s largest in more than a month and came as world leaders met at the UN General Assembly in New York.
In a speech there, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy denounced Russia as “a terrorist state.”
Photo: Reuters
Zelenskiy was to meet with US President Joe Biden and congressional leaders in Washington after press time last night with an additional US$24 billion aid package hanging in the balance.
On Wednesday, Zelenskiy said at the UN that Russia had killed tens of thousands of his citizens, calling for Moscow to be stripped of its veto power as one of the permanent members of the UN’s top decisionmaking body.
“Veto power in the hands of the aggressor is what has pushed the UN into deadlock,” Zelenskiy said, adding that it is impossible for the body to stop Russia’s invasion of Ukraine because of Moscow’s ability to veto any effort or initiative at the Security Council.
“Most of the world recognizes the truth about this war. It is a criminal and unprovoked aggression by Russia against our nation, aimed at seizing Ukraine’s territory and resources,” he said.
Poland, which has been a major supporter of Ukraine, said it would stop transferring its weapons to its neighbor as it works to modernize its own military, but denied that the decision was linked to a simmering dispute over a temporary ban on Ukrainian grain imports.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said that the decision would not affect NATO and US weapons transfers through Poland.
“We are no longer transferring any weapons to Ukraine because now we will arm ourselves with the most modern weapons,” he said in an interview on Polsat News on Wednesday.
Air raid sirens sounded repeatedly across Ukraine as Russia launched dozens of missiles and, near the front lines, likely used shorter-range artillery to pound the southern city of Kherson.
Two people were killed in Kherson and at least five injured after a residential building was hit, regional Governor Oleksand Prokudin said.
Seven people were injured in Kyiv, including a nine-year-old girl, Kyiv Mayor Vitalii Klitschko said.
Marharyta Moldokova, 76, who had taken shelter on the floor of her Kyiv home just before hearing the explosion and sound of her window shattering, denounced Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“Everything is not enough for him,” she said. “What does he need?”
The Ukrainian Air Force said it had intercepted 36 of 43 cruise missiles launched deep into Ukraine.
Additional reporting by Bloomberg
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
GEOPOLITICAL CONCERNS: Foreign companies such as Nissan, Volkswagen and Konica Minolta have pulled back their operations in China this year Foreign companies pulled more money from China last quarter, a sign that some investors are still pessimistic even as Beijing rolls out stimulus measures aimed at stabilizing growth. China’s direct investment liabilities in its balance of payments dropped US$8.1 billion in the third quarter, data released by the Chinese State Administration of Foreign Exchange showed on Friday. The gauge, which measures foreign direct investment (FDI) in China, was down almost US$13 billion for the first nine months of the year. Foreign investment into China has slumped in the past three years after hitting a record in 2021, a casualty of geopolitical tensions,
A registered sex offender from the US who went missing after entering Taiwan has been found and would be deported in light of the risk he poses to the public, the National Immigration Agency (NIA) said yesterday. The agency launched a search for Levi Forrest Wallace, 43, after it was informed by the American Institute of Taiwan (AIT) that he had entered Taiwan on Oct. 2 on a tourist visa. He was not on the US government’s wanted list. Wallace was sentenced to 90 days in jail with a two-year probation in 2001 after he was convicted of sexual delinquency of