October 10, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg criticized “Russia’s horrific and indiscriminate attacks on civilian infrastructure in Ukraine.”

Stoltenberg tweeted that he had spoken with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba.

He added that NATO “will continue supporting the brave Ukrainian people to fight back against the Kremlin’s aggression for as long as it takes.”

European allies roundly condemned Russian airstrikes that hit Kyiv and other major Ukrainian cities on Monday morning.

“Deeply shocked by Russia’s attacks on civilians in #Kyiv and other cities in Ukraine. Such acts have no place in (the) 21st century. I condemn them in the strongest possible terms,” the European Union's foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell said.

"We stand with Ukraine. Additional military support from the EU is on its way,” Borrell tweeted Monday.

Belgium’s Prime Minister Alexander De Croo tweeted that the "bombardment of Kyiv and of civilian targets in many other cities is a reprehensible act by Russia.

"It is an unacceptable escalation of violence that strengthens Belgium's resolve in supporting the people of Ukraine and their brave fight for a free and sovereign nation," he added.

Moscow has declined to confirm Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko's announcement that Russia and Belarus will “deploy a joint regional group of troops."

When asked about Lukashenko's comments, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said: "Interaction in various fields, including defense, is constantly discussed in the course of bilateral contacts between Putin and Lukashenko."

In recent days, tensions between Belarus and Ukraine have risen, with the Belarusian Foreign Ministry accusing Kyiv of planning an attack on its territory.

In turn the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said "this information is not true."

"Ukraine has never encroached on foreign territories. We strictly adhere to the fundamental norms and principles of international law and the UN Charter," the ministry added.

"(In) Belarus, military inspections have been extended until October 15. Also, once again, the closure of the airspace in the southern regions of this country was continued," the Ukrainian military said at the weekend.

Russian President Vladimir Putin listed a catalogue of alleged acts of “terrorism” by what he called the “Kyiv regime” at the Russian Security Council meeting on Monday, accusing "Ukrainian special services" of the “sabotage act on the Crimean bridge.”

He went through a list of what he called acts of terrorism including “terrorist shelling of the citizen towns in Donbas for over eight years,” and alleged acts of terrorism against Russian energy infrastructure, including electric power facilities, the gas transportation infrastructure and “an attempt to undermine one of the sections of the Turkish Stream gas transportation system.”

He warned of a harsh response that corresponds to the level of threat towards the Russian Federation in case of further "acts of terrorism."

More on the explosion: An explosion early Saturday severely damaged parts of the Crimean bridge, which is a road and rail bridge between annexed Crimea and the Russian Federation. Kyiv has not claimed responsibility for the blast on the enormous 19-kilometer (about 12-mile) bridge, which was built after Moscow annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014, an annexation regarded by the West as illegal.

The crossing was opened by Putin himself in 2018, and Ukrainian reaction to the explosion has been gleeful and triumphant.

Here's a look at where the bridge is located:

A Russian missile landed near Romania’s embassy in the Ukrainian capital this morning, according to foreign minister Bogdan Aurescu.

“I strongly condemn (the Russian) missile strikes against civilian objectives in ‪#Kyiv's centre & other cities, in blatant violation of int'l humanitarian law, resulting in loss of human lives,” he tweeted on Monday.

“Glad that the personnel of (the Romanian) Embassy is safe, even if one strike hit only 850m away (from) its HQ,” Aurescu added.

The announcement comes after the German Foreign Office said a building containing Germany's visa office in Kyiv was damaged in today's wave of Russian strikes on Ukraine.

President Alexander Lukashenko announced Belarus and Russia will “deploy a joint regional group of troops,” according to Belarusian state media.

"Due to the aggravation on the western borders of the Union State, we agreed to deploy a regional grouping of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus,” Lukashenko said Monday, according to state news agency Belta.

Lukashenko's declaration deepens the military cooperation between the two countries -- and follows claims made by Belarus that Ukraine is planning to attack its territory.

When Moscow its invasion of Ukraine in late February, it followed a substantial deployment of Russian forces and aviation in Belarus.

However, Lukashenko has not committed Belarus troops to Russia's "special military operation."

Last week, he said Belarus "has been caught up in the Russia-Ukraine war but that it is not an active military party to the conflict."

He added that Belarus was “participating” in the war by preventing its spread into Belarus and by preventing “a strike on Belarus under the guise of a special military operation from Poland, Lithuania and Latvia.”

He also said Belarus was not planning to announce any mobilization but that it intends to learn from Russia’s experience.

“If the threat level reaches the current level, as it is now, we start deploying the Union State grouping," he said on Monday.

Lukashenko is quoted as saying that the grouping has now started, and he believes it has been underway for two days.

However, it is unclear what comprises the grouping and where it is deployed.

The series of Russian missiles launched at Ukraine on Monday morning was aimed at “critical infrastructure to destroy the country’s energy supply," according to a Ukrainian government official.

Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, also warned Ukrainians to be prepared for blackouts.

“Power facilities from Lviv to Zaporizhzhia, Kyiv to Khmelnytskyi region, Dnipro and Vinnytsia, Ivano-Frankivsk region, Sumy region, Kharkiv region, Zhytomyr region, Kirovohrad, and the entire south are targeted,” Tymoshenko said on Telegram.

“This may affect the stability of energy supply, so we need to be prepared for the consequences of such shelling, up to rolling blackouts,” he added.

The G7 group of nations will hold an emergency meeting via video conference on Tuesday, the office of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz confirmed to CNN. Scholz is the current G7 president under its rotating leadership. 

The G7 consists of the seven leaders from some of the world’s largest economies: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States. Russia was indefinitely suspended from the group — then the G8 — in 2014 after its illegal annexation of Crimea.

At least 10 people have died and 60 are injured in Ukraine after a wave of Russian attacks across the country on Monday morning, police spokesperson Maryana Reva said in an interview on Ukrainian TV. 

The police are collecting evidence of the “Russian atrocities,” Reva added. 

A building containing Germany's visa office in Kyiv has been damaged in today's Russian attacks on the Ukrainian capital, the German Foreign Office said in a tweet. 

“A building in #Kyiv, which also houses the German visa office, was damaged by rocket fire this morning. Since the beginning of Russia’s war of aggression, these offices have not been used by our embassy. Our colleagues at the Embassy in Kyiv are well,” the German Foreign Office tweeted.

The office also posted German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock's statement on the strikes — translated from German to English — calling the strikes on major cities and civilians "despicable and unjustifiable."