Russian strikes killed five civilians and wounded dozens in Ukraine, officials said on Saturday, after Russian President Vladimir Putin warned that sending European troops into Ukraine would amount to direct conflict with Russia.
Ukraine is under mounting pressure from Russia’s intensifying air campaign that uses ballistic missiles and jet-powered drones to pierce defences.
Moscow’s attacks have targeted Ukraine’s power grid ahead of winter in what officials say is action to demoralise civilians.
Two people were killed and one wounded when Russian drones struck a residential area overnight in the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia, regional head Ivan Fedorov said.
One person died and three others were wounded in strikes on Kryvyi Rih, according to officials.
In the Black Sea port of Odesa and the surrounding area, 28 people were wounded in what regional head Oleh Kiper called a “massive attack”.
Among the buildings hit was a residential high rise block, whose upper floors were completely destroyed.
Later on Saturday, two people were killed in a Russian attack on a grocery store in Ukraine’s Zhytomyr region, local officials said.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukrainian forces struck two chemical industry facilities in Russia, one in Samara and one in Perm.
The governors of the regions did not immediately comment, but Russian independent online news outlet Astra reported drone attacks on chemical plants in both regions.
Mr Putin, speaking to reporters at the Brics summit in India on Friday, said: “Now they’re talking about how they’re considering sending troops into Ukraine. That means a war with Russia.”
Some European leaders have pledged their commitment to a potential peacekeeping force, a prospect that Moscow has repeatedly described as unacceptable.
Mr Putin also denied Russia posed any threat to Europe, saying “there is no such threat and never has been”.
“We do not threaten, nor do we intend to threaten, European countries,” he said.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Thursday that two incidents along Ukraine’s borders with Poland and Moldova this week were a preview of potential intensified Russian provocations at Ukraine’s border crossing points with Europe.
Two people died when Russian drones hit the Starokozache border crossing between Ukraine and Moldova on Tuesday, and a “direct threat” to a Polish-Ukrainian crossing point on Wednesday was only avoided thanks to co-operation between Warsaw and Kyiv, he said.
Meanwhile, Mr Zelensky told Deutsche Welle, in an interview published on Saturday, that he would meet Mr Putin if both leaders were invited to the Group of 20 summit of rich and developing nations in December in Miami.
Mr Putin’s foreign policy adviser, Yuri Ushakov, said on Saturday that the possibility of Mr Putin attending the summit had not yet been discussed.
The Kremlin in the past has said that Mr Zelensky can come to Moscow if he wants a meeting with Mr Putin, a proposal Kyiv has rejected.
“If he really wants to meet with Putin, Putin has already said that he could fly to Moscow,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Saturday.
Also on Saturday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov affirmed that Russia is “ready for negotiations”, but that the so-called “special military operation”, as Moscow refers to its war in Ukraine, “will not be suspended during this period of negotiations”.
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