Russian attacks kill 5, including child, in east Ukraine

KIEV

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, emergency workers clear the rubble after Russia attacked the city with guided bombs overnight in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, Monday, Oct. 21, 2024.

Russian drone and artillery attacks killed five people, including a child, in the eastern Ukrainian regions of Sumy and Donetsk on Tuesday, officials said.

Sumy lies across the border from Kursk in Russia, where Ukrainian troops launched a major offensive in August and have been holding swathes of territory.

"Three people, including one child, died as a result of a night-time attack by enemy drones on residential buildings," regional authorities said, referring to the city of Sumy.

"This Russian terror can be overcome only through unity with the world," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in response, urging allies to supply more weapons, including air defense systems.

He also called for "investments in weapons production in Ukraine" and "long-range strikes on Russian military logistics, military airfields and bases of Russian troops."

Separately, emergency services in the eastern Donetsk region, where Russian forces are steadily advancing, said two people had been killed and another wounded by Russian shelling on the town of Myrnograd.

The Ukrainian air force said 60 Russian drones in total had been detected in Ukrainian airspace overnight and into Tuesday morning and that 42 were destroyed.

Sumy, which borders Russia, has been under persistent bombardment since the beginning of the war in 2022, when Russian forces briefly captured sectors of the industrial territory before being pushed back.

Authorities there said more than two dozen Russian drones had been shot down there overnight.

The Ukrainian operation in Kursk is part of a broader roadmap to end Russia's invasion of Ukraine recently outlined by Zelensky.

Meanwhile, North Korea has not sent troops to Russia to help Moscow fight Ukraine, one of its United Nations representatives said on Oct. 21, dismissing Seoul's claims as "groundless rumor."

South Korea's spy agency said last week that Pyongyang sent a "large-scale" troop deployment to help its ally, claiming that 1,500 special forces were already training in Russia's Far East and ready to head soon for the frontlines of the Ukraine war.

"As for the so-called military cooperation with Russia, my delegation does not feel any need for comment on such groundless stereotyped rumors," a North Korean representative said during the U.N. General Assembly in New York.

Seoul's claims were "aimed at smearing the image of the DPRK and undermining the legitimate, friendly and cooperative relations between two sovereign states," the representative told a committee meeting.

Pyongyang and Moscow have drawn closer since Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, with Seoul and Washington claiming that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has been sending weapons for use in Ukraine.

North Korean state media have not commented on the purported troop deployment.

Russia has also not confirmed the troop deployment, but defended its military cooperation with North Korea.