Russian forces struck several sites across Ukraine, including a medical facility in the northeastern city of Sumy, after Kyiv carried out a massive drone attack on Russia's Belgorod region, knocking out power to thousands of homes.
Oleh Hryhorov, the head of the Sumy regional military administration, said on October 6 that 166 people, including 11 children, were in the medical facility at the time of the attack. According to preliminary reports, there were no casualties.
Andriy Yermak, the head of Ukraine's Presidential Office, gave further details, saying the roof of a Perinatal Center caught fire as a result of the Russian strike.
"This was one of the most cynical and insidious attacks by the enemy in recent times, as the strike targeted a place where children are born and where staff are constantly present," Oleksiy Kliuyev, a local volunteer said in a video message from the roof of the facility in Sumy.
"Fortunately, no one was injured, as the staff and new mothers were in the basement, not ignoring the air raid warning," he added.
The northeastern city of Kharkiv came under attack by Russian drones on the evening of October 6, local authorities reported.
Oleh Synyehubov, head of the regional military administration, said fires had broken out, and units of the State Emergency Service and emergency medical teams were responding.
Mayor Ihor Terekhov said about two dozen explosions were heard within 20 minutes of the drone attack on Kharkiv.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the country, in the village of Lapayivka in western Ukraine, classmates of a 15-year-old Ukrainian killed a day earlier along with three family members expressed disbelief.
Anastasia Hrytsiv was killed along with three family members when their home was struck during the October 5 attack, which authorities in Kyiv described as one of the worst on western Ukraine.
Energy Facilities Targeted
Russia's Defense Ministry said it had carried out the October 6 strikes on energy infrastructure and oil facilities in 145 different areas, but it did not acknowledge the attack on the Sumy medical facility.
Russia's attacks came after Ukraine launched some 251 drones at the Russian Belgorod region, knocking out power supplies from the Luch electricity substation. The disruption also affected water supplies in some areas due to the shutdown of pumping stations.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said some recent attacks by Ukraine's military on Russian infrastructure have included domestically produced missiles and drones as the country ramps up local production of weapons.
"It's important to understand that in recent days Ukraine has been using exclusively Ukrainian products [and] not just drones," he told a briefing in Kyiv on October 6.
By next year the cost of production of drones and rockets alone is expected to reach $35 billion and that over 40 percent of the weapons currently used on the front lines are made in Ukraine or by Ukraine's partners with its coproduction, he said.
Zelenskyy noted that, contrary to some media reports, supplies of US-produced weapons have not been affected by the ongoing government shutdown in Washington.
Ukraine’s military also targeted a key explosives factory in western Russia and an oil terminal in Russian-occupied Crimea.
According to Ukraine's General Staff, multiple explosions were reported at the Y. M. Sverdlov explosives factory, while a large fire broke out at an oil depot in Feodosia, eastern Crimea.
Ukraine has also been watching weekend elections in the Czech Republic, where billionaire populist Andrej Babis's ANO party placed first.
Babis pledged during the campaign to curb Czech support for Kyiv, including its leadership of an ammunition drive to supply Ukraine with artillery rounds.
Babis is in talks with two smaller parties to form a majority government as Czech President Petr Pavel warned of the consequences of ending the military aid program, which Babis has criticized for being overpriced and opaque.
"If we were to reduce or even end this support, we would primarily harm ourselves, but ending this support would also have a negative impact on Ukraine, if many more lost their lives," Pavel said on October 6.
In the meantime, the EU is actively discussing how to use some 210 billion euros ($245 billion) of immobilized Russian assets to help Ukraine continue its war effort.
The EU froze the funds, which are held in Euroclear securities depository in Belgium, shortly after the start of Russia's invasion in February 2022.
European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde told European lawmakers in Strasbourg on October 6 that any mechanism used to tap the Russian funds must "be done in accordance with international rules."
