Russia Shows Off Purported U.S. National Snatched From Ukraine Spy Work

A Russian attack on the northeastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv hit a police station, killing a policeman and wounding more than two dozen other people, the head of Ukraine’s National Police said on November 1.

“Today, the Russian enemy targeted a police station in the center of Kharkiv with 2 missiles, killing a police officer and wounding 26 other police officers and 4 civilians,” Ivan Vygivskiy, the head of Ukraine’s National Police, wrote on Facebook.

Dmytro Chubenko, spokesman of the Kharkiv regional prosecutor’s office, said Russian troops attacked earlier on November 1 with two ballistic missiles, badly damaging two private houses and injuring two people.

The prosecutor’s office said the strike was carried out from the territory of a settlement in the Belgorod region of Russia.

Kharkiv regional Governor Oleh Synyehubov said earlier that a 75-year-old man was killed and three people were wounded by Russian shelling in the town of Derhachi, just north of Kharkiv city.

Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, located only about 35 kilometers from the Russian border, has been struck regularly by Russian drones and missiles recently.

Russian shelling and drone strikes also killed one person and wounded 13 others, and several houses and a school were destroyed in the southern region of Kherson, where Russian forces shelled 19 settlements, towns, and cities over the past 24 hours, regional Governor Oleksandr Prokudin reported on November 1.

Russian forces have been regularly attacking the part of the Kherson region that was recaptured by Ukrainian forces, bombarding it from across the Dnieper River, where they retreated in November 2022 in the face of the Ukrainian advance.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on November 1 took to social media to thank Ukrainians and especially emergency workers and first responders for their unity and spirit of sacrifice.

“After Russian strikes and shelling, and amid the emergency and critical situations the enemy creates against our country, our people can always count on help, no matter the circumstances,” Zelenskiy wrote on X.

“I am grateful to each and every one of you who arrive at the scene after Russian attacks in all our regions, clear the rubble, extinguish fires, provide first aid, and — above all — ensure the rescue of our people.

“The State Emergency Service, police, medical professionals, volunteers, and everyone involved in saving lives — Ukraine is proud of you,” Zelenskiy wrote.

In the Black Sea port of Odesa, a Russian missile struck a fire station, wounding two firefighters, regional Governor Oleh Kiper reported.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s air force said its defenses shot down 31 Russian drones and one missile over nine regions — Kirovohrad, Kyiv, Cherkasy, Vinnytsya, Zhytomyr, Khmelnytskiy, Sumy, Chernihiv and Poltava.

In Russia, the Defense Ministry said its defenses shot down 83 Ukrainian drones over six regions early on November 1.

“36 drones were shot down over the Kursk region, 20 over the Bryansk region, 12 over Crimea, eight over the Voronezh region, four over the Oryol region, and three over the Belgorod region,” the ministry said in a statement on its Telegram channel.

Separately, Aleksandr Bogomaz, the governor of Bryansk, said one person was wounded when a Ukrainian drone crashed into an apartment building in the city of Bryansk.

In the Stavropol region, a drone fell on an oil depot in the city of Svetlograd, regional Governor Vladimir Vladimirov said on Telegram.

After suffering numerous attacks on its civilian and energy infrastructure, Ukraine has in recent months started striking Russian targets — mainly fuel and oil depots used by the military — with its own drones.

With reporting by AFP