(): Russia fired missiles and drones at 11 regions of Ukraine, the Ukrainian air force said on Monday, in a 33rd consecutive night of aerial attacks behind the front line and set a new monthly record of drone barrages.
In Kyiv, multiple explosions and machine gun fire could be heard throughout the night as the Ukrainian capital’s air defences fought off a drone attack for five hours.
No casualties were reported in Kyiv or elsewhere, though a “critical infrastructure object” caught fire in the southern Mykolaiv region, Gov. Vitalii Kim said, without elaborating.Russia has increasingly deployed Shahed drones, rather than more expensive missiles, in its aerial bombardment of Ukrainian cities since its full-scale invasion of its neighbour in February 2022. It launched more than 1,300 Shahed drones at Ukraine in September alone — the highest number of drone attacks in a single month since the war began.
Ukraine, too, has developed a new generation of drones for the battlefield and for long-range strikes deep inside Russia. More than 100 Ukrainian drones were shot down over Russia on Sunday, Russian officials said.
Also Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin released a video marking the second anniversary of the annexation of four Ukrainian territories and again accused the West of turning Ukraine into “a military base aimed at Russia”.
Putin was speaking to mark the annexation of the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions of Ukraine after a referendum held in 2022 which was denounced by the West as a sham. Russia also illegally annexed Crimea in 2014.
Since 2022, Putin said, businesses in the occupied areas are being “actively restored” and hospitals and schools are being rebuilt.
Thousands of Ukrainians fled from the four regions as a result of Russia’s invasion, but Putin said Russia’s military operation in the country was to defend residents’ “well-being” and the “future for our children and grandchildren”.
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PAK-AHMADI
Pakistan’s Punjab police remove inscriptions from Ahmadi gravestones following pressure from religious extremists
Lahore (PTI) Police in Punjab province of Pakistan allegedly defaced the inscriptions on gravestones of the Ahmadi minority community in a cemetery by covering them with black paint following pressure from religious extremists, Jamaat-e-Ahmadiyya Pakistan (JAP) said on Monday.
“Police responding to demands from extremists erased sacred inscriptions on Ahmadi gravestones in a cemetery in Vehari,” JAP official Amir Mahmood told PTI.
He said Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) was pressuring the authorities to remove the sacred inscriptions from Ahmadi gravestones in Vehari, about 330 kilometres from Lahore, or else they would do the job themselves.
The police, however, assured the law enforcement personnel would handle the matter and no religious group’s involvement was needed, Mahmood said.
He said a police team consequently reached the Ahmadi cemetery and blackened the sacred inscriptions on the gravestones by applying paint.
In Pakistan, religious extremists have intensified their hateful campaigns against Ahmadis, leading to increased harassment at workplaces and dismissals from jobs, the JAP said.
“Similarly, the public is being encouraged to boycott Ahmadi shopkeepers. The government needs to take immediate and effective action against these religious extremists and ensure the protection of Ahmadis,” it demanded.
