The supplies were ​destined to be ‌distributed to displaced and war-affected people in frontline areas in Ukraine, and deprive people of critical ‌assistance at a time of ​significant need as forced displacement and evacuations continue from frontline ⁠regions, according to UNHCR. File
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The northwestern port suffered damage this week when it was targeted by drones in a previous attack claimed by Ukraine’s military.
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. File
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Russia’s President Vladimir Putin visits the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology in Dolgoprudny in the Moscow region on January 23, 2026.
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Rescuers work at the site of a logistics hub of a private delivery company hit by Russian missile strikes, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kharkiv, Ukraine on January 13, 2026.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Police officers work at the site of a building hit during a Russian drone strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kharkiv September 16, 2025. Image sued for representative purpose only.
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A firefighter works at the site of destroyed garages of an automotive enterprise hit during Russian drone and missile strikes, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Khmelnytskyi, Ukraine, September 3, 2025.
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A Russian strike on a nine-story building in the city of Sumy in northern Ukraine killed eight people and wounded dozens, an official said Sunday (November 17, 2024), as Russia launched a massive drone and missile attack described by officials as the largest in recent months.

“Among the eight killed in Sumy, 40 kilometers (24 miles) from the border with Russia, were two children,” said Ukraine’s Minister of Internal Affairs Ihor Klymenko. More than 400 people were evacuated from the building.

The rescuers were checking every apartment looking for people who might be still in the damaged building.

“Every life destroyed by Russia is a big tragedy,” said Mr. Klymenko.

The drone and missile attack, which targeted Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, came as fears are mounting about Moscow’s intentions to devastate Ukraine’s power generation capacity ahead of the winter.

Also Sunday (November 17, 2024), President Joe Biden authorized for the first time the use of U.S.-supplied long-range missiles by Ukraine to strike inside Russia, after extensive lobbying by Ukrainian officials.

The weapons are likely to be used in response to North Korea’s decision to send thousands of troops to support Russia in the Kursk region where Ukraine mounted a military incursion over the summer.

It is the second time the U.S. has permitted the use of Western weapons inside Russian territory within limits after permitting the use of HIMARS systems, a shorter-range weapon, to stem Russia’s advance in Kharkiv region in May.

The first reaction from Ukraine to the long-awaited decision from the U.S. was notably restrained.

“Today, much is being said in the media about us receiving permission for the relevant actions. But strikes are not made with words. Such things are not announced. The missiles will speak for themselves,” said Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in his nightly video address.

Earlier, Mr. Zelenskyy said that Russia had launched a total of 120 missiles and 90 drones in a large-scale attack across Ukraine. Various types of drones were deployed, he said, including Iranian-made Shaheds as well as cruise, ballistic, and aircraft-launched ballistic missiles.

Ukrainian defenses shot down 144 out of a total of 210 air targets, Ukraine’s air force reported later on Sunday.

“The enemy’s target was our energy infrastructure throughout Ukraine. Unfortunately, there is damage to objects from hits and falling debris. In Mykolaiv, as a result of a drone attack, two people were killed and six others were injured, including two children,” Mr. Zelenskyy said.

Two more people were killed in the Odesa region, where the attack damaged energy infrastructure and disrupted power and water supplies, said local Gov. Oleh Kiper. Both victims were employees of Ukraine’s state-owned power grid operator, Ukrenergo, the company said hours later.

The combined drone and missile attack was the most powerful in three months, according to the head of Kyiv’s City Military Administration, Serhii Popko.

One person was injured after the roof of a five-story residential building caught fire in Kyiv’s historic center, according to Popko.

A thermal power plant operated by private energy company DTEK was “seriously damaged,” the company said.

Russian strikes have hammered Ukraine’s power infrastructure since Moscow’s all-out invasion of its neighbor in February 2022, prompting repeated emergency power shutdowns and nationwide rolling blackouts. Ukrainian officials have routinely urged Western allies to bolster the country’s air defenses to counter assaults and allow for repairs.

Explosions were heard across Ukraine on Sunday (November 17, 2024), including in the capital, Kyiv, the key southern port of Odesa, as well as the country’s west and central regions, according to local reports.

The operational command of Poland’s armed forces wrote on X that Polish and allied aircraft, including fighter jets, have been mobilized in Polish airspace because of the “massive” Russian attack on neighboring Ukraine. The steps were aimed to provide safety in Poland’s border areas, it said.

Russia’s Defense Ministry on Sunday (November 17, 2024) acknowledged carrying out a “mass” missile and drone attack on “critical energy infrastructure” in Ukraine but claimed all targeted facilities were tied to Kyiv’s military industry.

Although Ukraine’s nuclear plants were not directly impacted, several electrical substations on which they depend suffered further damage, the U.N.’s nuclear energy watchdog said in a statement Sunday. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, only two of Ukraine’s nine operational reactors continue to generate power at full capacity.

A local journalist died Sunday (November 17, 2024) as Ukrainian drones struck Russia’s embattled Kursk region, its Gov. Aleksei Smirnov reported.

Moscow’s forces have for months strained to dislodge Ukrainian troops from the southern province after a bold incursion in August that constituted the largest attack on Russia since World War II and saw battle-hardened Ukrainian units swiftly take hundreds of square miles (kilometers) of territory.

In Russia’s Belgorod province, near Ukraine, a man died on the spot after a Ukrainian drone dropped explosives on his car, local Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov reported.

Another Ukrainian drone on Sunday targeted a drone factory in Izhevsk, deep inside Russia, according to anti-Kremlin Russian news channels on the Telegram messaging app. The regional leader, Aleksandr Brechalov, reported that a drone exploded near a factory in the city, blowing out windows but causing no serious damage. “A man was briefly hospitalized with a head injury,” Brechalov said.

Kyiv:

A top US official said Wednesday that Washington could not predict when a vital $60-billion military aid package for Ukraine would be passed in Congress, as Volodymyr Zelensky called for Western air defences after a Russian missile attack killed at least five.

A fresh round of aerial bombardments by both sides left civilians dead on Wednesday as strikes escalate in the third year of the war.

Kyiv’s army is facing manpower and ammunition shortages amid political wrangling in the US Congress that has raised uncertainty over the future of Western support.

Addressing the stalled aid bill while on a visit to Kyiv on Wednesday, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said: “It has already taken too long. And I know that, you know that.”

“I’m not going to make predictions about exactly when this will get done, but we are working to get it done as soon as possible… but I cannot make a specific prediction today,” he told reporters at a press conference in the Ukrainian capital.

Republicans in the US House of Representatives have been blocking a sweeping aid package since last year, with the funding caught up in domestic arguments over President Joe Biden’s immigration policies.

Washington is Ukraine’s most important military backer and has provided tens of billions of dollars in support since Moscow invaded in February 2022.

Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Tuesday that he was shocked the package of aid has not yet been unlocked.

And on Wednesday, President Volodymyr Zelensky said the West had vital air defence systems that could save Ukrainian lives if delivered to his country.

– ‘Get that money’ –

Despite the aid delay, Sullivan said he was “confident” the impasse would be overcome.

“We will get that money out the door,” he said.

Both Moscow and Kyiv said civilians had been killed in fresh aerial barrages Wednesday.

“Five people were killed by a Russia missile in Kharkiv today,” Zelensky said in his evening video address.

Another nine were injured and five more were unaccounted for as search and rescue operations continued into the night, local officials said. They warned the death toll could rise.

Ukrainian police said a Russian missile slammed into an eight-storey building and a factory in the city, which lies 30 kilometres (20 miles) from the Russian border, at around 1:00 pm local time (1100 GMT).

Pictures showed a blaze raging inside the building and at least five fire engines on site. Ukraine’s emergency services published photos as darkness fell, showing windows of the factory blown out and firefighters walking through the charred interior.

Zelensky reiterated his call for air defence systems after the attack.

“Our partners have these defence systems. And our partners need to understand that air defences must (be used to) protect lives,” he said in a video address.

– ‘Massive strikes’ –

Directly across the border from Kharkiv, the governor of Russia’s Belgorod region said multiple attacks had killed three people.

“Since early morning, the Graivoron district has come under massive strikes, including with the use of multiple rocket launcher systems,” Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said Wednesday in a post on Telegram.

Two people were killed there, and another man was killed in the regional capital, also called Belgorod, when shrapnel from a shelling attack hit his car, Gladkov said.

Kyiv has escalated drone, rocket and artillery fire on the region over the last two weeks, in a wave of attacks launched ahead of Russia’s presidential elections. Pro-Ukrainian paramilitaries have also attempted armed raids across the border.

Some schools in Belgorod would shift to remote learning, Gladkov said, a day after he ordered 9,000 children to be evacuated from areas closest to the Ukrainian border.

– ‘Victory’ –

In Moscow, Russian President Putin vowed he would restore order to the border regions, as the fallout from his invasion continues to spill into Russian territory.

“The first thing is of course to ensure security. There are different ways, they are not easy, but we will do them,” he said, without elaborating.

Speaking inside the Kremlin’s gilded Andreyev Hall, Putin also said his win in a weekend presidential vote in which he faced no competition would be followed by success on the battlefield.

“Victory in the elections is just a prologue to those victories that Russia so badly needs and that will definitely come,” he said.

Russian forces have secured their first territorial gains in almost a year and this week claimed to have made further advances in the eastern Donetsk region.

Ukraine also reported civilian fatalities in areas close to the fighting on Wednesday.

In the south of the country, Russian shelling killed two people outside the city of Kherson and in the east, another two were killed near Vugledar in the Donetsk region.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)