Russian cluster munitions kill family of three in Donetsk region
Russian forces killed three civilians, including a 13-year-old girl, in Cherkaske in the Donetsk Region (Oblast) on the morning of 12 October, the head of the Oblast Military Administration, Vadym Filashkin, and the regional police reported. Four other people were injured in the attack.
Photo credit: Vadym FilashkinFilashkin said that Russian forces shelled the settlement using a Smerch multiple-launch rocket system firing cluster munitions.
“The shell hit a house. The lives of an entire family were destroyed in a single strike,” the administration head said, urging people to evacuate from the oblast.
The police specified that the explosion killed the 13-year-old girl, her 36-year-old mother and her 62-year-old grandmother. The injured include three men (born in 1948, 1955 and 1964) and an 18-year-old man.
Russian forces also launched Smerch strikes on a residential area of Sloviansk in the Donetsk Oblast, injuring an elderly woman. Russia launched three Smerch MLRS strikes on a residential area of Sloviansk at around 10 a.m. on 12 October, head of the Sloviansk City Military Administration Vadym Liakh said on his Facebook page.
Photo credit: Vadym LiakhRussian forces damaged and destroyed at least 44 houses, as well as cars, according to the oblast administration.
A 77-year-old woman was injured. She was hospitalised and is receiving treatment.
ZMINA previously reported that overnight on 8–9 October, Russia attacked Ukraine with 136 drones, 93 of which were jet-powered Shaheds. Air defence forces neutralised 114 drones at the time, but the strikes killed people in Ivano-Frankivsk and Zaporizhzhia.
Furthermore, Russian forces attacked Kyiv and the Kyiv Oblast with missiles and drones on 10 October. The strikes injured at least six people and damaged energy infrastructure. Some residents were left without electricity and water, and the metro and above-ground electric public transport were temporarily suspended in the capital.
Over the week leading up to 11 October, Russian forces used about 1,450 guided aerial bombs, 75 missiles of various types and over 1,640 attack drones against Ukraine, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. About 60% of the drones were jet-powered.
To provide background, US president Donald Trump has not secured an end to Russia’s war within 24 hours of taking office, as he had promised. Furthermore, numerous Ukrainian and international experts point out that the U.S., as a guarantor state under the Budapest Memorandum, is pressuring Kyiv into capitulation.
- Kremlin ruler Vladimir Putin and Russia’s Presidential Commissioner for Children’s Rights Maria Lvova-Belova over the alleged unlawful deportation and transfer of Ukrainian children from occupied territories to Russia (March 2023);
- military officials Sergei Kobylash and Viktor Sokolov over strikes on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure (March 2024);
- Sergei Shoigu and Valery Gerasimov over alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity linked to missile strikes on Ukraine’s electric infrastructure between 10 October 2022 and 9 March 2023 (June 2024).
US President Donald Trump said he has reached an agreement with Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin to supply Russian diesel fuel to the United States and global markets. Trump agreed with Putin to immediately supply more than 300,000 tons of diesel, another 500,000 in November, and a further 1 million tons thereafter. Trump added that a further 3 million will be delivered within a short period of time based on the condition of Russian diesel refineries.
In a related move, the US Treasury Department announced a partial lifting of sanctions on Russian diesel through April 2027.
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