War in Ukraine: Russian opposition leader Ildar Dadin killed on the front, night air attacks on kyiv and Odessa… an update on the situation

L'opposant russe Ildar Dadine avait été emprisonné en Russie pour des manifestations contre Vladimir Poutine. – Wikimedia Commons

Every day, Midi Libre takes stock of the situation in Ukraine. This Sunday, October 6, 2024, discover the latest news about this conflict.

Russia launched nighttime airstrikes on kyiv and Odessa

Russia launched a wave of strikes on kyiv and port infrastructure in Odessa, southern Ukraine, overnight Saturday into Sunday, Ukrainian officials said. One person was injured and warehouses and cargo trucks were damaged in Odessa, the national emergency service said, in attacks that kept much of the country on alert for several hours. The Ukrainian military says it has shot down 56 of the 87 drones launched by Russia over several regions of the country and lost track of 25 others due to electronic jamming.

“The enemy has used its drones against kyiv again overnight!”, Serhiy Popko said on the Telegram messaging app, adding that “Russian drones penetrated the Ukrainian capital in several waves and from different directions”. All the projectiles were destroyed on approach and, according to preliminary information, no damage or injuries have been reported, he said. The air raid alert in the capital and its region sounded three times during the night, lasting more than five hours.

Russia also struck Odessa in the south of the country overnight and several explosions were reported, Hennadii Trukhanov, the port city's mayor, said on Telegram. In Kherson, Governor Oleksandr Prokudin deplored on Telegram the death of one civilian and 15 wounded in Russian attacks on the region over the past 24 hours.

Russian Opposition Leader Ildar Dadin Killed on Frontline

Russian opposition leader Ildar Dadin, who was imprisoned in Russia for protests against Vladimir Putin, has been killed on the frontline in Ukraine, where he was fighting alongside Kiev's forces, relatives and Russian media reported on Sunday.

“It is with deep regret that I must inform you that Ildar Dadin — (in the nom de guerre) Gandhi — died yesterday in the fighting in the Kharkiv region”, in northeastern Ukraine, announced on Facebook the former Russian MP and opposition leader Ilya Ponomarev, his friend who lives in exile in Kiev.

He hailed a “intrepid and determined fighter” who had gone “to the front to fight Putinism”. According to Ponomarev, Ildar Dadin fought alongside the Ukrainian armed forces as part of a “Siberian battalion” and then the “Russian Freedom Legion” , a group that claims to be composed of Russians and which was behind several armed incursions into Russia.

His death was confirmed on Telegram by Russian journalist Ksenia Larina and several independent Russian media outlets. Ildar Dadin was sentenced in 2015 to two and a half years in prison in Russia for organizing solo protests against the authorities.

Detained in a particularly harsh prison camp, he denounced in 2016 in a letter published in the media Meduza the torture and humiliation he was subjected to by his guards.

Mr. Dadin was the first Russian citizen sentenced to prison under a law that came into force in 2014 and which represses protests that have not been authorized in advance by the authorities.