October 10, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

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."

There are power outages across multiple Ukrainian regions on Monday after they were hit by a devastating wave of Russian airstrikes, according to local officials. 

The region of Khmelnytskyi, which lies west of Kyiv, suffered a "massive missile attack," damaging one of the area’s infrastructure facilities, Serhii Hamalii, head of the region, said on Telegram. "Currently, there is no electricity supply, electric transport does not work, water supply is suspended, traffic lights do not work." 

Closer to Kyiv, two missiles were launched at Zhytomyr, Gov. Vitalii Bunechko said on Telegram. One was downed but another hit a "critical infrastructure object," Bunechko said, resulting in partial disruption to the region’s energy supply. 

East of the capital, the Poltava region in central Ukraine also announced widespread power outages.

"This morning is the most difficult in recent times. Russians are massively hitting with missiles and kamikaze drones," Dmytro Lunin, head of the regional military administration, said on Telegram.

"Now there is no electricity and water supply in Poltava ... There may be problems with electricity and water for some time, but all services are already working to restore it.

"During the last air raid, the enemy struck three times at energy infrastructure facilities in Kremenchuk district," Lunin said.

The fatal explosions across Ukraine on Monday targeted energy facilities and people, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Traffic on all subway lines in Kyiv has now resumed, according to the city's mayor.

“The train service on all lines of the metro ... has been resumed,” Vitali Klitschko said on Telegram. The subway system in the Ukrainian capital was suspended earlier on Monday due to multiple Russian strikes across Kyiv.

Kyiv’s metro stations continue to work as shelters, Klitschko said.

Numerous missile and rocket attacks shook Kyiv and other major Ukrainian cities on Monday morning, killing multiple people and damaging critical infrastructure.

Multiple European political figures have roundly condemned Russia's spate of attacks on Ukrainian cities on Monday.

“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.”

“Shocking images coming once again from Ukraine this morning! I strongly condemn Russian missile attacks against civilian targets and critical infrastructure in Ukraine. The only intention behind these attacks is to terrorize the civilian population. Stay strong Ukrainians!” tweeted Luxembourg’s Prime Minister Xavier Bettel. 

Slovakian Prime Minister Eduard Heger tweeted that he condemns "today’s cowardly attacks of Russian forces on #civilians and civilian infrastructure in #Ukraine.

French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna also tweeted to condemn the attacks. “I condemn in the strongest terms today's indiscriminate Russian strikes against Ukrainian cities. Intentionally targeting civilian populations is a war crime,” she said. 

The Italian foreign ministry said it was "horrified by the cowardly missile attacks which hit the center of Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities." 

During a phone call with the Brothers of Italy party leader Giorgia Meloni last week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stressed Ukraine's need for continued support from Italy after a new government is formed following the election there in September. 

In a television appearance Monday, President Vladimir Putin said Russia had struck military and infrastructure targets across Ukraine following the Crimea bridge blast on Saturday.

Putin threatened further "harsh" responses that correspond "to the level of threat to the Russian Federation, have no doubt about it,” while accusing Kyiv of "terrorism."

Ukraine has not claimed responsibility for the attack on the Kerch bridge, a key link between the Russian mainland and Crimea, which Moscow illegally in 2014.