Kyiv, Ukraine: Ukraine said it had struck part of Russia’s air defense system in annexed Crimea overnight, as Moscow said it repelled a major attempted missile strike on the peninsula on Monday.
Kyiv has increased attacks on the Black Sea peninsula, annexed by Moscow in 2014, since it launched a counteroffensive against Russian forces earlier this year.
“The Armed Forces successfully hit a strategic object of the air defense system on the western coast of occupied Crimea,” the Ukrainian army’s strategic communications unit said on social media.
It gave no further details and Russia gave no official comment.
Later on Monday, Russia said its air defenses had successfully shot down eight Ukrainian missiles fired at the peninsula.
“On October 30, at around 13:00 (1000 GMT), an attempted attack by the Kyiv regime with eight Storm Shadow cruise missiles at targets on the Crimean peninsula was stopped,” Russia’s defense ministry said.
“As a result of air defense systems repelling the attack, all missiles were shot down,” it added.
Storm Shadows are British-supplied missile systems with a range of over 250 kilometers (155 miles) that enable Kyiv to hit targets deep behind the frontlines in the east and south of Ukraine.
One person was injured from falling debris, the Russian-installed governor of Sevastopol said.
Russian military bloggers had overnight reported Ukraine was stepping up its attacks on the peninsula.
The influential Rybar Telegram channel — which is close to the Russian army — said Kyiv had launched a “combined attack.”
It alleged Ukraine had launched two US ATACMS missiles which fell near the village of Olenivka, on the western coast of Crimea.
Rybar said Russian forces were not able to down the missiles “but thanks to measures taken earlier there was no serious damage.”
The social media account alleged that “half an hour later” Black Sea Fleet sailors discovered three Ukrainian naval drones near Sevastopol.
Rybar said one of them was “destroyed,” while another two tried to enter the Bay of Khersones before being shot at and sunk by Russian forces.
Ukraine has regularly targeted Russia’s Black Sea Fleet in Crimea.
In September, Kyiv said it had hit a symbolic army headquarters in Sevastopol.
Ukraine says hit Russian air defense system in Crimea
Ukraine says hit Russian air defense system in Crimea
35 million Nigerians ‘risk hunger after global funding collapse’
- The UN can only aim to deliver $516 million to provide lifesaving aid to 2.5 million people this year, down from 3.6 million in 2025, which in turn was about half the previous year’s level
ABUJA: Nearly 35 million Nigerians are at risk of hunger this year, including 3 million children facing severe malnutrition, the UN said, following the collapse of global aid budgets.
Speaking at the launch of the 2026 humanitarian plan in Abuja, UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator Mohammed Malick Fall said the long-dominant, foreign-led aid model in Nigeria is no longer sustainable and that Nigeria’s needs have grown.
Conditions in the conflict-hit northeast are dire, Fall said, with civilians in Borno, Adamawa, and Yobe states facing rising violence.
BACKGROUND
UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator Mohammed Malick Fall said the foreign-led aid model in Nigeria is no longer sustainable and that the country’s needs have grown.
A surge in terror attacks killed more than 4,000 people in the first eight months of 2025, matching the toll for all of 2023, he said.
The UN can only aim to deliver $516 million to provide lifesaving aid to 2.5 million people this year, down from 3.6 million in 2025, which in turn was about half the previous year’s level.
“These are not statistics. These numbers represent lives, futures, and Nigerians,” Fall said.
He also said the UN had no choice but to focus on “the most lifesaving” interventions given the drop in available funding.
Shortfalls last year led the World Food Programme to also warn that millions could go hungry in Nigeria as its resources ran out in December and it was forced to cut support for more than 300,000 children.
Fall said Nigeria was showing growing national ownership of the crisis response in recent months through measures such as local funding for lean-season food support and early-warning action on flooding.
