BRUSSELS — Russia hit Ukrainian cities from the air for the fourth day in a row on Thursday, and as new missiles fell and bodies from earlier barrages were pulled from the rubble, the death count rose to more than three dozen, officials said.
The new toll emerged as Western allies met to figure out how to strengthen Ukraine’s hand on the battlefield without enlarging the deadliest, most destructive conflict to be fought in Europe since World War II.
Prodded by the expanded attacks ordered by Russia’s president, Vladimir V. Putin, Western nations were working to hasten deliveries of sophisticated air-defense systems to Ukraine, and European Union officials said they planned to begin training Ukrainian soldiers on E.U. soil.
“At the moment when Putin is increasing escalation, we have, in turn, to continue to support Ukraine as much as needed and for how long is needed,” the European Union’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell Fontelles, said at a meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels.
Over the years, the European bloc has trained soldiers in countries like the Central African Republic, Mali, Mozambique and Somalia, and Ukrainian troops have been trained this year in Germany, but by Americans. But some member nations were leery of the latest plan, for the European Union to take on the training of Ukrainian troops, concerned that the mission would increase the risks of their becoming embroiled in the war. Even so, the plan, which has been under negotiation for weeks, is set to get formal approval from European foreign ministers on Monday, Mr. Fontelles said.
The urgency to respond to Ukraine’s demands for more aid was underlined as missile and drone strikes were reported across the country, from Kyiv in the north and Lviv in the west — which until this week had largely had a respite from attack — to cities in the south and east that had known little peace since the invasion began in February.
In the southern city of Mykolaiv, Russian missiles left seven people buried under the rubble of an apartment block, the authorities said. An 11-year-old boy was rescued after spending six hours buried in a crumbled five-story building, said the head of the regional military administration. Officials later said that the same debris had yielded the remains on an 80-year-old woman and a 31-year-old man.
On Thursday, as NATO defense ministers met in Brussels, the beginnings of a new air-defense network for Europe came into focus, with many pointing to the impetus of Russia’s missile and rocket attacks in Ukraine.
The Joint Air Defense Initiative — commonly referred to as the European Sky Shield — is a German-led effort by 15 nations thus far, officials said on Thursday. Its intent is to standardize short-, medium- and long-range air defense missiles, as well as radars, for use in warding off potential attacks.
The State of the War
“We know that we need to do more,” the Netherland’s defense minister, Kajsa Ollongren, said in a briefing with reporters after the ministerial conference, adding, “We also realize we shouldn’t do it country by country, so we join our forces.”
As Russian forces continued to lose ground on the battlefield in Ukraine, the Kremlin said on Thursday that it would help residents leave the southern province of Kherson, one of four provinces illegally annexed by Moscow. The announcement followed a plea by the Russian-appointed leader of the region that seemed timed to deflect attention from the bombardment of Ukraine.
“We, the inhabitants of the Kherson region, of course, know that Russia does not abandon its own people,” said Volodymyr Saldo, who is viewed as a traitor by the government in Kyiv.
Oct. 13, 2022, 6:05 p.m. ET
With anxiety growing that Europe faces a harsh winter, officials moved on Thursday to try to ease the effects of energy-supply disruptions tied to the war.
France began pumping natural gas directly to Germany for the first time under an agreement struck by both governments after Russia began cutting off gas supplies to Europe. And Spain proposed increasing its gas deliveries to France by 18 percent in the coming months.
The Kremlin was making its own energy moves.
In an apparent move to reassert Moscow’s hold over European energy markets, Mr. Putin on Thursday offered to export more gas via Turkey and turn the country into a regional supply hub for Russian gas exports to European countries. He met with Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, on the sidelines of a summit in Astana, Kazakhstan.
The Russian and Turkish leaders have had a complicated relationship, with sometimes mutual gains. For Mr. Putin, the benefits include energy and arms sales, investment and a close connection to a member of NATO, even as the organization tries to isolate him. For Mr. Erdogan, they involve cheap energy, a large export market, Russian tourism and apparent Russian acquiescence to his efforts to crush Kurdish separatism in Syria.
“If there is an interest from Turkey and our potential buyers in other countries, we could consider the possibility of building another gas pipeline system and creation of a gas hub in Turkey for sales to other countries,” Mr. Putin said. “To third countries, primarily, of course, to European ones, if they are, of course, interested in this.”
With the gas trade between Russia and the rest of Europe disrupted by the war, the Kremlin has been looking for ways to divert gas sales to other countries. On Monday, Mr. Putin said Russia would soon start building a pipeline to China.
Ukraine itself is suffering serious power disruptions from the latest attacks. Rolling blackouts are affecting towns and cities across the country, and officials said the strikes had damaged about 30 percent of Ukraine’s electrical infrastructure. It could be weeks before repairs to the system are finished, they said.
“This heating season will be very difficult,” said Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, director of Ukrenergo, which operates Ukraine’s electric systems.
This week, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine told the international community just how much money his country currently needed to rebuild and keep its economy afloat: $57 billion. He gave that figure to the boards of governors of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Mr. Zelensky said that $17 billion would be needed to rebuild schools, hospitals, transport systems and housing, with $2 billion going toward expanding exports to Europe and restoring Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.
After the bombardment of Ukraine began on Monday, Mr. Putin said he had ordered it in retaliation for a truck-bombing that badly damaged the vital Kerch Strait Bridge connecting Russia to the occupied Crimea Peninsula. Moscow has tried to minimize the impact of the attack, but new satellite imagery suggests that it has, in fact, been substantial.
The images captured hundreds of cargo trucks backed up and waiting to cross from Crimea into Russia by ferry, some five days after the bombing. The images, captured on Wednesday by Maxar Technologies, show a big backup at the port in Perch and a line of trucks miles away at an airport that is apparently being used as a staging area.
Oleg Ignatov, a senior Russia analyst at the International Crisis Group, said the long lines for the ferry crossing had been exacerbated by security checkpoints set up after the bridge explosion.
“They want to prevent another attack because they failed so badly before,” he said.
Matina Stevis-Gridneff reported from Brussels, Valerie Hopkins from Moscow and Eric Nagourney from New York. Reporting was contributed by John Ismay from Brussels, Safak Timur from Istanbul, Stanley Reed from London, Matthew Mpoke Bigg from London and Ben Shpigel from New York.
