May 18 (Reuters) – One person was killed by a Russian missile strike on an industrial facility in the southern Ukrainian city of Odesa, while falling debris during an air raid triggered two fires in the eastern districts of Kyiv, officials said on Thursday.
Two more people were wounded in the Odesa attack, military administration spokesman Serhiy Bratchuk wrote on Telegram.
Kyiv mayor Vitaly Klitschko, writing on Telegram, said one fire had broken out in a garage facility in the Darnitsya region of the capital. Debris also fell in the Dnipro region of Kyiv. He said there were no casualties from either of the incidents.
The head of Kyiv’s military administration, Serhiy Popko, said on Telegram that a fire had broken out in non-residential premises in the Desnyansky district, just east of the capital. He provided no information on casualties.
Popko said Kyiv had been attacked by cruise missiles and that all of them were downed by air defences.
In Other Developments
FIGHTING
* Ukraine denied a Russian hypersonic missile had destroyed a U.S.-made Patriot missile defence system during an air strike on Kyiv. Russia’s defence ministry made the assertion on Tuesday after an overnight air attack on the Ukrainian capital.
* Ukraine’s military said it had made new advances in heavy fighting near the eastern city of Bakhmut, and that Russia was continuing to send in new units including paratroopers. The remarks were the latest by Kyiv in the past week to indicate that Russian forces have been pushed back in some areas around Bakhmut after months of combat.
* Russia’s Defence Ministry said its forces were continuing to fight to capture western parts of Bakhmut, the RIA Novosti news agency reported. It also said its forces had hit a large ammunition depot in the Ukrainian city of Mykolayiv.
* Reuters could not verify the battlefield reports.
DIPLOMACY AND ECONOMY
* Ukraine’s foreign minister told a top Chinese envoy at talks in Kyiv that Ukraine would not accept any proposals to end the war with Russia that involved it losing territory or freezing the conflict, the ministry said.
* The Ukraine Black Sea grain deal has been extended for two more months, in what U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres hailed as “good news for the world,” a day before Russia could have quit the pact over obstacles to its grain and fertiliser exports.
* European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has proposed adding 3.5 billion euros ($3.85 billion) to a fund used to finance military aid for Ukraine, EU sources said.
* Zelenskiy says he is making progress in persuading the West to supply Ukraine with fighter jets – with U.S.-built F-16s flown by several NATO nations in particular focus.
* The White House national security adviser said he anticipates some engagement by G7 leaders with Ukrainian President Zelenskiy during the group’s meeting in Japan later this week.
* Price pressure was gradually intensifying after a period of restrained price growth in the second half of last year, Russia’s central bank said. Double-digit annual inflation hit Russia last year soon after its invasion of Ukraine.
* Finland and Denmark’s bank accounts in Russia have been frozen, prompting their embassies to make payments in cash, officials from both countries said.
* Hungary will block the next tranche of EU military support for Ukraine and any new sanctions package against Russia unless Kyiv removes Hungarian bank OTP from its list of war sponsors, its foreign minister said.
