Ukraine Says 21 Killed by Russian Missiles Ahead of G-20 Summit

(Bloomberg) — Ukraine said at least 21 people were killed in missile attacks following a massive barrage on its energy infrastructure as Group of 20 leaders discuss how the war will end at a meeting in Brazil. 

Ten people were killed and 47 people, including four children, were wounded in the Black Sea port of Odesa on Monday, the regional prosecutor’s office said on Telegram. Eleven were killed when a residential building was hit late Sunday in the town of Sumy near the northeastern border with Russia, according to local authorities.

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Russia launched one of its largest assaults against energy infrastructure and other targets across Ukraine on Sunday, seriously damaging several power plants and triggering emergency power cutoffs throughout the country as temperatures fall before winter. A total of about 120 missiles and 90 drones were launched by Kremlin forces, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. 

Zelenskiy called the recent attacks “demonstration strikes” before the G-20 summit in Brazil. In a post on X, the Ukrainian leader said that the only way to prevent future attacks was to give Ukraine “the capability to destroy Russian launch systems, supply chains, arsenals, and war factories at their source.”

Ukraine’s allies are increasingly recognizing that fighting will need to end with a negotiated outcome as neither side is likely to secure a decisive victory and will have to compromise, according to people familiar with the matter. 

US President Joe Biden has authorized Kyiv to use a long-range missile system to strike Russian and North Korean forces in Russia’s Kursk region, across the border from Sumy, according to people with knowledge of the matter. 

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The change in policy is a response to the deepening alliance between Pyongyang and Moscow and is also intended to give Ukraine a stronger negotiating position, two months before Donald Trump takes office with a pledge to end the war quickly, the people said. 

The Kremlin said the reported US authorization of strikes into Russian territory amounted to a “qualitatively new round of tension.” 

With Russia’s invasion approaching the 1,000-day mark, Zelenskiy visited an airborne brigade defending the city of Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, where some of the fiercest fighting has taken place in recent weeks, as well as nearby Kramatorsk.

“It’s only due to your strength that the east is still not totally occupied by Russia,” Zelenskiy said, addressing troops in a video published on his Telegram channel on Monday.

—With assistance from Kateryna Chursina.

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