NATO conducts routine exercises to test the nuclear deterrent system

The Russian army announces that all its targets in Ukraine have been "hit" with high-precision weapons

Police officers and rescue workers gather at the bombing site in downtown Kyiv.

EPA

Yesterday, the Russian army confirmed that it had hit all its targets in Ukraine, after strikes in the morning targeted vital facilities in three Ukrainian regions and caused power outages in towns, while the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) began "routine" military exercises to test its nuclear deterrence system in Europe. In light of tension with Russia, which threatened to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine.

The Russian Defense Ministry said on Telegram: “The Russian Armed Forces continued to conduct long-range air and naval strikes with high-precision weapons on military command facilities and energy systems in Ukraine.

All targets were hit.”

Shortly after the explosions, the head of the Ukrainian presidential office Andrei Yermak said: "The capital was attacked by suicide drones."

"The Russians think this will help them, but this shows their desperation," Yermak added on social media.

"Ukrainian army intercepted 37 Iranian Shahed-136 drones and three Russian cruise missiles," the Ukrainian Defense Ministry wrote on Twitter.

In Kyiv, the official in the Ukrainian presidency, Kirilo Tymoshenko, said that "the death toll in the attack carried out by a drone on an apartment building has risen to three."

Earlier, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Shmygal announced that several Russian strikes yesterday morning targeted vital installations in three Ukrainian regions, including the capital, Kyiv, which led to power outages in "hundreds of towns".

He stressed that "all services are currently working to restore electricity," calling on residents of those three areas to reduce electricity consumption, especially during peak hours.

The Ukrainian presidency confirmed that "there are dead and wounded" following the Russian strikes that targeted the Sumy region, where the region's governor, Dmytro Zhivitsky, has reported three deaths so far.

In Dnipropetrovsk, "our soldiers shot down three missiles fired by the enemy," but "a missile hit an energy supply infrastructure facility," according to the presidency.

In Kyiv, explosions were heard in the morning and the sirens were sounded shortly before the first explosion.

An AFP journalist saw one of the marches fall on a building, while two policemen were trying to bring it down with their weapons.

"The enemy can attack our cities, but it will not be able to destroy us," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on social media.

The military administration in Kyiv said that "four strikes were recorded" in the capital, which has been targeted by Russian forces since the beginning of last week.

In the south of the country, the army had earlier reported shooting down 26 Shahed-136 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) on Sunday night, Monday.

On the other hand, Ukraine called, yesterday, for Russia's exclusion from the G-20 conference, a month before the summit scheduled to be held in Indonesia.

And he urged the newly appointed United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Valker Türk, not to target civilian targets in bombing operations.

This comes at a time when NATO has begun "routine" military exercises to test its nuclear deterrence system in Europe.

The alliance stressed that these exercises, scheduled until October 30 and planned before the outbreak of war in Ukraine, represent "regular and repetitive training, and have nothing to do with current world events."

This routine exercise, dubbed "Stadfast Noon", is taking place in a wide air area over Belgium, the United Kingdom and the North Sea, with the participation of 60 aircraft, including American long-range B-52 bombers.

Participate in 14 countries out of the 30 member states of the alliance, without France, which is independent of its policy on nuclear deterrence from the Atlantic Alliance.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg insisted the exercises would go ahead despite tensions with Russia.

"It would be a very bad signal if we suddenly canceled routine, long-planned exercises because of the war in Ukraine," he said last week.

"We must realize that the resolute and predictable behavior of NATO military forces is the best way to prevent escalation," he said.

The alliance confirmed that it did not notice any change in the Russian nuclear arrangements, despite the hardening of the Kremlin's rhetoric.

"But we remain vigilant," Stoltenberg added.

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