Key developments on Nov. 7:
- Russian strike on Zaporizhzhia kills 4, injures 33, damages hospital
- Ukraine may have targeted Iranian weapon supply routes in Dagestan strike, media suggests
- South Korea “not ruling out” supplying arms to Ukraine, president says
- Russian drone attack on Kyiv damages buildings, causes fires in five districts
Russian forces attacked the city of Zaporizhzhia on Nov. 7, killing four people and injuring at least 33 others, local authorities reported.
Russia struck Zaporizhzhia five times using guided aerial bombs. The attack partially destroyed an apartment building and houses, and damaged a cancer hospital, according to the statement.
A four-month-old girl and two boys aged one and 10 are among the injured, Governor Ivan Fedorov said.
The number of casualties can increase as the search and rescue operation is ongoing.
Following the attack, President Volodymyr Zelensky urged Kyiv’s partners to provide Ukraine with more air defense systems and to lift restrictions on strikes with Western long-range weapons on targets deep inside Russia.
“Each such Russian strike not only kills people and destroys lives, but also destroys the meaning of any words about the lack of conversations with Russia, phone calls to the Kremlin,” he added.
Ukraine may have targeted Iranian weapon supply routes in Dagestan strike, media suggests
Ukrainian forces may have targeted routes in Dagestan used by Iran to supply weapons to Russia, the War Zone media outlet reported on Nov. 6.
Dagestan authorities reported intercepting a drone attack over Kaspiysk, a port city at the Caspian Sea around 1,000 kilometers from the front line (600 miles), on the morning of Nov. 6. Ukraine’s military intelligence was behind the attack, a source in the agency told the Kyiv Independent.
In the first Ukrainian attack against a naval base in Dagestan, at least two vessels — missile ships Tatarstan and Dagestan — were damaged in the attack, and possibly also several small Project 21631 ships, according to the source. The Kyiv Independent could not immediately verify the claims.
Although the precise consequences of the Ukrainian attack are difficult to establish, the recent strike is still “significant in several ways,” the War Zone’s experts said.
The port in Dagestan is not only a base for the Russian Caspian Flotilla and several military units of the Russian Armed Forces but is also located along the routes used by Iran to deliver weapons to Russia.
Until the recent Ukrainian attack, this route was considered safe for transportation due to being supposedly out of the range of Ukrainian weapons.
While Russian authorities claimed to have intercepted a single drone in the skies, a video shared on social media appears to show another drone hitting its target, resulting in a large explosion.
The incident took place roughly 15 kilometers (10 miles) from a local airport, the Mash news channel claimed, identifying the drone as a Ukrainian A-22 Flying Fox drone.
The nearby Makhachkala airport has suspended operations for an indefinite period due to the incident, local authorities said.
Martin Fornusek
South Korea "not ruling out" supplying arms to Ukraine, president says
South Korea does not rule out providing arms to Ukraine in the light of deepening cooperation between Moscow and Pyongyang, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said at a press conference on Nov. 7.
“Now, depending on the level of North Korean involvement, we will gradually adjust our support strategy in phases,” Yoon told the media.
“This means we are not ruling out the possibility of providing weapons.”
Russian-North Korean ties entered a new level when Pyongyang dispatched around 12,000 troops to join Russia’s war against Ukraine.
Yoon said previously that Seoul might revise its ban on supplying direct military assistance to a war zone in response.
South Korea has provided Ukraine with humanitarian and non-lethal aid but refused to provide weapons, citing legislative restrictions. Some media reports from last year claimed that the country secretly supplied artillery shells to Ukraine via the U.S., though the South Korean government denied the reports.
It remains unclear what weapons South Korea is considering, though Yoon commented that “defensive weapons” would be a priority. A source in South Korea’s Presidential Office told the Yonhap news agency that a direct supply of 155 mm artillery shells is currently not on the table.
Kateryna Denisova
Russian drone attack on Kyiv damages buildings, causes fires in five districts
Russia launched a drone attack on Kyiv overnight on Nov. 7, striking a residential building in the capital, the Kyiv City Military Administration reported.
According to the military administration, the drone strike caused “significant damage” to a unit in the apartment building in the Holosiivskyi district of the city.
The military administration also reported a large fire nearby caused by falling drone debris at an auto repair shop.
Multiple explosions were heard in the outskirts of Kyiv around 1 a.m. local time, according to a Kyiv Independent journalist on the ground.
Ukraine’s Air Force warned throughout the night that Russian attack drones were in the vicinity of the city.
Around 6 a.m. local time, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko posted on Telegram that wreckage also fell in the Pechersk district and caused a fire on the 33rd floor of a residential building. The fire was contained shortly after.
Wreckage from the ongoing attack has also fallen in the Podil district, where a two-story house caught fire, in the Obolon district, where a business center caught fire on the upper floors, and in the Solomianskyi district, where debris fell both in a yard of a private home and onto a private medical facility.
One person was hospitalized in the Solomianskyi district following the attack. No further details are currently available.
The most recent attack is the latest in a series of drone strikes targeting civilian infrastructure in Ukraine’s capital.
The Kyiv Independent news desk
