The town of Avdiivka, in eastern Ukraine, has been the target of “massive” bombing by Russian forces since Tuesday morning, October 10, who are “trying to encircle it,” the head of the city told AFP. of the local military administration. “The Russians are striking massively with their artillery, since 8 a.m., without interruption until now […] The enemy is trying to encircle the city,” Vitaly Barabas said early in the afternoon. “For more than a year, there has been a risk that the city will be occupied, but today the situation has changed. quickly worsened,” he added.
According to him, some 1,600 residents still live in Avdiivka, compared to 30,000 before the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The Russians occupy the east and south of the town and have been trying for months to take it under their pincers. The city, many buildings in the center of which have been destroyed in recent months, is located 13 km from Donetsk, the Russian-controlled capital of the eponymous region.
Zelensky in Bucharest for talks
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived in Romania during the day for talks with his counterpart Klaus Iohannis, a visit which comes after several Russian bombings targeting Danube ports located on the border between the two countries. “I arrived in Bucharest, Romania, to speak with Klaus Iohannis and to strengthen our good neighborly relations,” Volodymyr Zelensky said on X (formerly Twitter), thanking his neighbor for his support against Moscow.
On the agenda of the discussions, the security situation in the Black Sea while Russia has intensified its attacks in recent months in the Danube region, very close to Romania, a member of NATO, where drone debris was discovered several times. Among the other themes discussed during this first visit since the invasion of Ukraine, “the expansion of cross-border connections and the development of economic relations”, specified the Romanian presidency in a press release.
Since the launch of the Russian offensive which hinders access to the Black Sea, Romania has become an essential crossroads for the transport of goods, in particular cereals, exported by Kiev. Ultimately, 60% of total Ukrainian grain exports should pass through its territory. And unlike Poland, Hungary and Slovakia, Romania did not extend in September the embargo on the import of Ukrainian grain, which had been approved by Brussels in the spring on a temporary basis.
In Russia, two civilians killed by a Ukrainian strike
Two civilians were killed this Tuesday in a Ukrainian strike against the Russian region of Belgorod, bordering Ukraine, local governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Telegram. “Today, the village of Popovka, in the Krasnoyaruja district, was the target of two strikes by the Ukrainian army. To our great sadness, a civilian was killed,” he lamented. He then also announced the death of “an elderly woman, seriously injured by shrapnel, who died in the ambulance.”
kyiv says it shot down 27 Russian drones in southern Ukraine
kyiv said it had shot down 27 attack drones in southern Ukraine, launched overnight from Monday to Tuesday by Russia in a new series of night attacks. Ukrainian forces destroyed “27’Shahed-131/136′”, Iranian-made drones, in “the regions of Odessa, Mykolaiv and Kherson”, the Ukrainian Air Force said on Telegram today. Tuesday morning.
In total, Moscow launched 36 devices from Cape Tchaouda, in the east of the Crimean peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014, added the same source.
Two Ukrainian defense officials suspected of embezzlement
Two Ukrainian officials from the Ministry of Defense are suspected of having embezzled more than six million euros on the purchase of bulletproof vests, an anti-corruption body said on Tuesday, a new case of corruption in this country facing the Russian invasion. According to the State Bureau of Investigation, a former deputy defense minister in charge of army logistics and the head of a department in the ministry responsible for supplies are suspected of “embezzlement through abuse of power in large scale”.
The two men, whose names have not been revealed, “ordered personal protective equipment of insufficient quality from abroad” by pre-paying for it in full and without respecting “the planned quality control procedure”, according to the same source. “As a result, the Ukrainian armed forces received poor-quality body armor that cannot be used in combat without endangering lives,” the Bureau of Investigation further denounced. The two men, who are in custody, face up to 12 years in prison.