Ukraine updates: 3 Red Cross staff killed by shellfire

A Russian missile hit a civilian ship carrying grain from Ukraine that had already left Ukrainian waters in the Black Sea, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on X.

According to Zelenskyy, a shipment of wheat was destined for Egypt. "Fortunately, there were no casualties, according to preliminary reports," he added.

Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said a Russian strike was a "brazen attack" on freedom of navigation and global food security.

Meanwhile, Ukraine's navy spokesman told Reuters that the vessel hit by a Russian missile was in Romania's maritime economic zone at the time of the strike.

However, Romania's Naval Authority told Reuters that the grain vessel, which Ukraine says was hit by a Russian missile in an overnight attack, was not in Romanian territorial waters.

"All I can tell you about the ship in question at the moment was that it was not in our territorial waters," the authority's spokesperson Irina Puscasu told Reuters. "Our assistance has not been requested in any way."

As Ukraine faces its third winter of war since Russia's full-scale invasion, the World Health Organization has issued a stark warning of a potential health crisis.

"Ukraine is approaching its third winter amid a full-scale war, likely its most challenging yet. The renewed focus on health is more critical than ever," Hans Kluge, the WHO's regional director for Europe, told reporters in Kyiv.

Since the start of war, the UN agency has recorded nearly 2,000 attacks on Ukraine's health care infrastructure, which it said is having a severe impact on the largely public health system.

"In just the past 6 months, targeted attacks have damaged Ukraine's energy infrastructure. Frequent power outages are already taking a toll with danger signs for the winter," Kluge said. "This could jeopardize the storage and distribution of vaccines, leading to a rise in vaccine-preventable diseases."

Other concerns WHO include potential contamination of the water system due to frequent power outages and growing signs of antimicrobial resistance due to misuse of antibiotics.

"We have stories of wounds that simply will not heal due to resistance to antibiotics," Kluge said. "This could have consequences far beyond Ukraine if drugs become ineffective."

Kluge also mentioned the risk of increased mental health problems. "An estimated 10 million people are at risk of mental health problems, ranging from mild to severe," he said.

WHO plans to install 15 heating units at hospitals at risk of further attack as well as a network of treatment clinics in areas where health care access is difficult, as part of initiatives by local Ukrainian authorities and Western governments. The agency is also racing to provide generators and other backup power options, and also help implement state-planned health system reforms.

About 45 Indian nationals have been discharged from the Russian army and efforts are underway to secure the release of another 50 Indians, an Indian foreign ministry spokesman said.

During Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Moscow in July, Russia had promised to discharge any Indians who had been falsely induced to join its army and then forced into active combat in Ukraine.

In recent months, there have been reports of Indians being recruited into the Russian army with the promise that they would not see combat and would only serve in support roles. Despite these promises, they were trained in the use of weapons and then deployed to the Ukrainian front.

In addition to Indians, the Russian army has also recruited Sri Lankans and Nepalis to fight in Ukraine.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) confirmed on Thursday that three staff members were killed by shelling in eastern Ukraine.

The ICRC statement from the organization's president came after Kyiv announced a Russian attack had struck ICRC vehicles.

"I condemn attacks on Red Cross personnel in the strongest terms. It's unconscionable that shelling would hit an aid distribution site," ICRC President Mirjana Spoljaric said, adding that "our hearts are broken today as we mourn the loss of our colleagues and care for the injured."

Poland remains in favor of increasing pressure on the Russian government over its invasion of Ukraine, Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said after meeting with US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken.

"We should continue to deliver (Ukraine) advanced air defence systems ... and lift restrictions on the use of long-range weapons," Sikorski told journalists at a joint news conference with Blinken.

Blinken is wrapping up a three-nation, Ukraine-focused European tour in Poland after hearing repeated appeals from Ukrainian officials to use Western-supplied weapons for long-range strikes inside Russia.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy acknowledged that a Russian counteroffensive is underway against Ukrainian troops in Russia's Kursk region. The move comes over a month after Kyiv launched an assault in Kursk. 

"Russians have launched counteroffensive actions, which is going in line with our Ukrainian plan," Zelenskyy told a press conference in Kyiv.

Meanwhile, Russia said its army had recaptured 10 settlements in its Kursk border region. "Units of the 'North' group of troops liberated 10 settlements within two days," the defense ministry said in a statement posted on its Telegram channel.

The key eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk has lost access to drinking water, as well as natural gas for cooking and heating, officials say. 

A water filtration station in Pokrovsk was damaged in recent fighting, and more than 300 hastily drilled water wells are the city's last source of drinking water, Donetsk regional governor Vadym Filashkin said. 

A day earlier, Russians destroyed a natural gas distribution station near Pokrovsk, Filashkin said. About 18,000 people remain in the city, including 522 children, he said. 

More than 20,000 people have left in the past six weeks as Russian forces close in on residential areas, Filashkin said. "Evacuation is the only choice for civilians," he added. 

Pokrovsk is one of Ukraine's main defensive strongholds and a key logistics hub in the Donetsk region, which lies on part of the 1,000-kilometer (600-mile) front line.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said a Chinese-Brazilian peace proposal is "destructive" and serves only as a "political statement" in an interview with the Brazilian media outlet Metropoles.

According to Metropoles, Zelenskyy once again criticized the stance of the Brazilian government in the face of the war in Ukraine, saying that Brazil is "pro-Russian."

"The Chinese-Brazilian proposal is also destructive, it's just a political statement," Zelenskyy said . "How can you offer 'here is our initiative' without asking anything from us?"

In May, Brazil and China signed a joint statement calling for peace talks between Russia and Ukraine. The statement called for the participation of both countries in the talks.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is visiting Poland. His trip follows talks in Ukraine on Wednesday. 

He will first meet with Polish President Andrzej Duda in the capital, Warsaw. He will then meet with Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski and Prime Minister Donald Tusk. 

The US State Department said the talks will focus on deepening defense and energy cooperation, as well as working together as NATO allies to support Ukraine's defense. 

Poland is one of the main military backers of Ukraine, which is fighting off a full-scale Russian invasion. The EU and NATO member also plays an important role as a logistical hub for Western aid to Kiev.

Russian drones inflicted significant damage on the energy infrastructure of the northern Ukrainian town of Konotop in an overnight attack that injured at least 14 people and cut off electricity to the settlement.

There were 10 explosions during the attack and the power system is in critical condition, according to regional officials.

"At the moment, energy workers are doing everything they can to provide electricity to the hospital and the water supply system," Mayor Artem Semenikhin said in the early hours of Thursday. The hospital remained open, he added.

Semenikhin said authorities in Konotop had no idea when power would be restored, and that they were planning water supplies on an hourly basis.

Regional prosecutors and local officials said the attack also damaged seven apartment buildings, medical and educational facilities, a store, a bank and a section of the town's tramway.

Konotop is in the Sumy region, which has been particularly targeted by Russia in recent weeks. Ukraine used Sumy as a staging ground for a surprise incursion across the border into Russia's Kursk region last month in an attempt to seize the battlefield initiative as Russian forces advance in eastern Ukraine.

The strike on Konotop was part of a broader Russian attack using 64 drones, the Ukrainian air force said. It shot down 44 of them over nine different regions, it added.

dh/kb (AP, AFP, dpa, Reuters)