China is providing intelligence to Russia to enable Moscow to better launch missile strikes inside Ukraine, a senior Ukrainian intelligence official has said. Ukrainian Foreign Intelligence Agency official Oleh Alexandrov told the state news agency Ukrinform that China was passing on satellite intelligence on targets, including those benefiting from foreign investment. “There is evidence of a high level of cooperation between Russia and China in conducting satellite reconnaissance of the territory of Ukraine in order to identify and further explore strategic objects for targeting,” he said. “As we have seen in recent months, these sites may belong to foreign investors.”
One person was killed and about 30 others injured after two Russian drones struck trains at a station in Ukraine’s northern Sumy region. The region’s governor, Oleh Hryhorov, said eight people had been taken to hospital. The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, called the attack “brutal” on Telegram, posting a video of a wrecked, burning passenger carriage and others with their windows blown out. “The Russians could not have been unaware that they were targeting civilians. This is terrorism, which the world has no right to ignore,” Zelenskyy wrote.
The head of Ukraine’s railways, Oleksandr Pertsovsky, said Russia was intensifying a campaign of airstrikes on the network in an attempt to isolate frontline communities ahead of winter. “We clearly see the intensification of enemy attacks on the railway infrastructure,” Pertsovsky told reporters. “There is no military purpose whatsoever. The only purpose is to sow panic among people … That the connection will be destroyed and people will be left alone.”
The Ukrainian military on Saturday reported it again hit one of Russia’s largest oil refineries. It said a night-time drone strike caused blasts and a fire at the Kirishi refinery near St Petersburg, more than 1,200km (745 miles) from the Ukrainian border. Telegram news channels from Russia and Ukraine posted videos they said had been sent in by residents near the city of Kirishi. They show drone-like objects whizzing against a night sky lit up by an orange glow, as blasts thunder in the background. The local governor, Alexander Drozdenko, on Saturday reported that seven drones were shot down overnight near Kirishi. He said a fire had been put out in its “industrial zone”, without specifying what was hit or commenting on damage. Ukraine has repeatedly struck the Kirishi refinery, with the most recent strike on 14 September also sparking a blaze, according to Russian officials.
Lithuania suspended air traffic at Vilnius airport due to balloons possibly flying in its airspace on Saturday, and flights have been diverted to neighbouring Poland and Latvia. Lithuania, a strong supporter of Ukraine, shares a 679km border with Belarus, a close ally of Russia. The incursion into Lithuania follows drone sightings and air incursions at airports in Copenhagen and Munich in recent weeks.
Populist billionaire Andrej Babiš’s triumph in the Czech parliamentary elections is expected to reduce the EU member country’s support for Ukraine. Babiš has said he would review a Czech-led international drive to supply artillery shells to Ukraine, launched by the previous government, and “discuss it with President Zelenskyy” if necessary. “We are clearly pro-European and pro-Nato,” he added to dispel fears he might draw the Czech Republic closer to EU mavericks Hungary and Slovakia, refusing military aid to Ukraine and opposing sanctions on Russia.
