A delivery cyclist wearing a face mask cycles down a street in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, Sept. 20, 2024, on a day with poor air quality.
| Photo Credit: AP

Authorities in Ukraine advised residents in the capital Kyiv to stay indoors Friday (September 20, 2024) as air pollution, partly caused by fires in the region, blanketed the city.

Ukraine’s Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources said the pollution was a result of the burning of peatlands and other wildfires in the region combined with autumn temperature fluctuations.

The capital woke up to thick smog with the rancid smell of blazing fires in the air. Some people were spotted wearing masks.

Also Read: Ukraine war’s environmental toll to take years to clean up

The Ukrainian capital topped a list of the most polluted major cities early Friday (September 20) in a real-time database by IQAir, a Swiss company that monitors air quality levels. Its air quality appeared to have improved somewhat since as the city came down in the ranking later in the day.

Kyiv’s Department of Environmental Protection and Climate Change said that “the likely cause of this is fires in the Kyiv region.”

Fires have been reported in the Vyshhorod district, around 20km (around 12 miles) north of the capital.

Officials warned about an increased concentration of suspended particles, such as dust, soot, and smoke, in the air. In some areas of the city, air pollution levels have reached the maximum of the 100-point scale.

While human-driven climate change does not directly cause fires, it can increase the risk of wildfire as warming temperatures and increasingly dry air, trees and soil can make it easier for fires to spread. Forest fires around the world have worsened in recent years, with almost twice as much tree cover burning in 2023 than 20 years ago, according to the World Resources Institute.

Wildfire smoke can cause air quality to deteriorate even many miles away from fires. The main concern from the wildfire smoke is fine particle pollution, known as PM2.5. Fine particle pollution can cause short-term problems like coughing, as well as long-term impacts on the lungs and heart.

Pollution is a major health concern — with one major study estimating that pollution kills around 9 million people globally a year.

Residents in Kyiv were advised to close their windows, limit time spent outdoors, drink plenty of water, and use an air purifier.

“Particular attention should be paid to these recommendations by people with respiratory and cardiovascular diseases,” said a statement from the Ecology Ministry.

Autumn temperature variations trap harmful substances in the air, worsening pollution and reducing air quality, the ministry added.

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, firefighters put out a fire following a Russian missile attack in Pavlograd, Ukraine, Friday, Sept. 6, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

Russian strikes on the Ukrainian central city of Pavlograd on Friday killed one person and injured more than 50 others, including three children, authorities said.

Russia has stepped up its aerial attacks on Ukraine since Kyiv launched an unprecedented cross-border offensive into Russia’s Kursk region last month.

Five Iskander ballistic missiles were fired from Russian territory toward Pavlograd in the central Dnipropetrovsk region, according to Ukraine’s air force.

One person died and 55 others were injured, the interior ministry said.

The attack led to “several fires in the city”, including in an apartment in a high-rise building, said regional governor Sergiy Lysak.

He added among the injured were a nine-year-old girl and two boys aged 11 and four.

Russia regularly hits Pavlograd, home to a chemical plant that produces explosives.

The city is located about 100 kilometres (60 miles) from fighting raging in the neighbouring Donetsk region as Russian forces advance there.

It had a population of about 100,000 before the Russian invasion in February 2022.

Images of the strike shared by the interior ministry showed a badly damaged apartment building, where rescuers were working to evacuate residents.

Thick black smoke was coming out of several windows with blown-out glass, and in front of the building, tree branches were strewn all over the ground.

Earlier this week, on Wednesday, seven people died when Russia struck the city of Lviv in western Ukraine.

On Tuesday, Russian strikes on a military training facility in the central city of Poltava killed 55 people, making it one of the deadliest single strikes of the invasion.

Moscow:

Russia said on Sunday that Ukraine launched a major 62-drone attack on Russian regions forcing one oil refinery in southern Russia to halt operations, and that Kyiv’s forces had fired U.S., French and Ukrainian missiles at Russian-held territory.

Russia shot down at least 103 drones, including 62 over Russian regions, as well as Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) over Crimea, French guided “Hammer” bombs and U.S. High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS).

Local officials said six drones crashed onto the territory of an oil refinery in Slavyansk in Russia’s southern Krasnodar region. Interfax news agency said the refinery halted work after the attack.

TASS quoted an official at the refinery as saying the charges carried by the Ukrainian-launched drones were bigger than previous attacks and that they included steel balls.

Slavyansk refinery is a private plant with a capacity of 4 million metric tons of oil per year, about 1 million bpd.

A Ukrainian intelligence source told Reuters in Kyiv that Ukraine’s security service SBU and military drones struck the Slavyansk refinery and a military airfield in Russia’s southern Krasnodar region in overnight attacks.

The Ukrainian navy also said it had destroyed the Russian Black Sea Fleet’s Project 266-M Kovrovets minesweeper.

Russia said its forces had defeated Ukraine’s 24th and 42nd mechanized brigades and the 125th Air Defense Brigade at Lukiantsi, Vesele and Radhospne in the Kharkiv region and repelled attacks by Kyiv’s forces at other points in the region.

Russia has reported a rise in Ukrainian attacks on its territory since its forces opened a new front in northeastern Ukraine’s Kharkiv region earlier this month.

President Vladimir Putin says Russia is carving out a buffer zone there to protect Russia from such attacks, which Russia says risk triggering a broader war between Russia and the West if Ukraine uses Western weapons.

Putin said on Friday that Russia had no plans currently to take Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-biggest city,

The White House said on Friday that U.S. policy on not encouraging Ukraine’s use of U.S. weapons against Russian sovereign territory had not changed.

“We do not encourage nor do we enable attacks using U.S.-supplied weapons systems inside Russian territory. That’s the policy,” John Kirby, the White House national security spokesperson, told reporters. “That has not changed.”

That remark came after U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday in Kyiv that the United States does not encourage Ukraine to strike targets inside Russia with U.S.-supplied weapons but believes it is a decision Kyiv should make for itself.

CRIMEA

Russia said on Saturday its forces had captured the village of Starytsia in Kharkiv region and that they had defeated Ukrainian units along the front, including in the Sumy region.

Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 and along with parts of four other regions its forces control, considers the territories – which amount to about 18% of Ukraine – to be part of Russia now. That stance has been rejected by Ukraine and its Western allies.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy says he will not rest until all Russian troops are ejected from Ukraine.

Zelenskiy told Agence France-Presse in an interview that he expected Russia to step up its offensive in the northeast and warned Kyiv had only a quarter of the air defences it needs to defend Ukraine.

AFP also quoted him as saying that while the West did not want Ukraine to lose the war, it was afraid of what a defeat for Russia might mean.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

A Ukrainian drone was chased by two Russian combat helicopters and an airplane in the occupied territory of Crimea. A video of the dramatic chase has been posted by Defence Intelligence of Ukraine (DIU) on X (formerly Twitter) and other social media platforms. Local outlets like news agency RBC-Ukraine said that the drone was unharmed and returned to the base intact. The video, taken by the camera installed on the drone, shows a helicopter chasing the Ukrainian military asset and vanishing from the screen after sometime.

“Two enemy helicopters and a plane failed to shoot down the Ukrainian drone during a long chase,” DIU said in its post on X.

Два ворожих вертольоти та літак за час тривалої погоні так і не змогли збити український безпілотник (ВІДЕО)

https://t.co/yY4iJul8KJpic.twitter.com/w8DBlzwr5i

— Defence intelligence of Ukraine (@DI_Ukraine) September 1, 2023

According to Main Directorate of Intelligence of Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence, the drone was flying in the area of Cape Tarkhankut when Russia scrambled its jet and choppers.

“Some crooked hands,” it quoted the UAV operator as saying about the encounter.

This comes on a day when Russian air defences destroyed a drone approaching Moscow. “There were no casualties or damage, according to initial reports. Emergency services are on the scene,” city’s mayor Sergei Sobyanin wrote on Telegram.

Moscow has been targeted by a barrage of Ukrainian drone attacks in recent weeks after Kyiv vowed in July to “return” the conflict to Russia.

On Thursday, air defences in the Voskresensky district, about 60 kilometres from Moscow, destroyed a Ukrainian drone approaching the capital.

Air defences also destroyed a drone approaching Moscow on Monday, as well as two others over the Bryansk region bordering Ukraine.