Russian strikes kill 2 in Ukraine as Kyiv struggles to counter escalating Russian attacks

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian strikes killed two people and wounded five more across Ukraine, officials said Friday, as Ukraine struggles to counter escalating Russian bombardments that have killed more than 50 people over the past three days.

One man was killed and five people were wounded in Russian strikes on Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region Friday morning, said Mykhailo Semikin, the head of the regional military administration. He said that the attacks hit residential areas and that a child was among the wounded.

Another man was killed in Ivano-Frankivsk in western Ukraine, Svitlana Onyshchuk, head of the regional military administration, reported.

Russia also attacked warehouse facilities in the Bucha district of the Kyiv region on Friday, wounding three people, Ukraine’s Interior Ministry said on Telegram. It said that rescuers were searching for a woman who may still be under the rubble.

Russia and Ukraine are locked in a long-range aerial war while their armies remain largely deadlocked on the front line, more than 4 1/2 years since Moscow’s full-scale invasion.

Elsewhere, a Ukrainian attack on Russia’s eastern Belgorod region killed two people Friday, the area’s regional emergency headquarters said. Regional governor Alexander Shuvayev said that 12 people had been wounded in Ukrainian strikes.

Russian attacks have killed dozens of civilians across Ukraine over the past three days using a mix of ballistic missiles and jet-powered drones. On Thursday, a Russian guided bomb exploded next to public buses filled with passengers in eastern Ukraine, killing 30 people.

A day earlier, a Russian missile strike killed 22 people, including five children, in the northern Ukrainian town of Pryluky.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has warned that Moscow will likely escalate daily attacks as winter approaches, putting pressure on Ukraine as it prepares for winter and hitting the infrastructure keeping its war-battered economy afloat. Recent Russian targets have included energy systems, key industries, railways, post offices, shopping centers, telecom networks, gas stations and grain exports.

Zelenskyy appealed on Thursday for additional defense support from NATO countries.

“It is important that support in words takes concrete form in new packages for Ukraine’s defense,” he wrote in an online post. “Supplies of anti-ballistic capabilities, ammunition for our combat aircraft and investments in interceptors — all of this is directly helping save lives every day.”

Without ammunition for its U.S.-made Patriot air defense systems, Ukraine can’t stop Russian ballistic weapons. It is racing to develop a new generation of interceptors fast enough to catch Moscow’s high-flying jet-propelled drones.

Meanwhile, a Ukrainian drone strike damaged a data center belonging to Russian technology giant Yandex, the company confirmed. It said that several modules at the center in Russia's Kaluga region had been “completely disabled.”

It is the second time in two days that the company has been targeted, with an earlier drone attack Thursday taking a data center in Russia's western Ryazan region offline.

The governor of the Kaluga region, Vladislav Shapsha, said Friday that nine people had been wounded by drone attacks on the region.

Meanwhile, Tver regional governor Vitaly Korolyov said a Ukrainian drone sparked a fire at a factory in Redkino. No casualties were reported.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said that its air defenses downed 505 Ukrainian drones from late Thursday until early Friday.

Davies reported from Manchester, England.

Follow the AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

A man looks through a broken window in a residential house damaged by a Russian strike in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, Friday, Oct. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Kateryna Klochko)

Local residents and emergency workers stand near a crater made by a Russian strike on residential neighbourhood in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, Friday, Oct. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Kateryna Klochko)

Local residents stand in front of building damaged by a Russian strike on residential neighbourhood in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, Friday, Oct. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Kateryna Klochko)

An elderly man sits on the bench in front of building damaged by a Russian strike on residential neighbourhood in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, Friday, Oct. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Kateryna Klochko)

Cars are seen damaged by a Russian strike on residential neighbourhood in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, Friday, Oct. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Kateryna Klochko)

OSLO, Norway (AP) — Former U.N. human rights chief Navanethem “Navi” Pillay, a judge on the International Court of Justice, won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday in Oslo, Norway.

The South Africa-born Pillay, 85 years old, was recognized for her efforts to promote peace and international law, said Jørgen Watne Frydnes, Chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee.

Pillay’s work “is a source of hope and inspiration to all those who seek to bring about a more peaceful world,” Watne Frydnes said announcing her win.

Watne Frydnes said the committee had not yet been able to reach Pillay to inform her she had received the peace prize, which is often considered the most prestigious honor on the planet.

“At a time when the number of wars and conflicts is rising, and when judges and institutions of international law are under political attack, the Nobel Committee wishes to issue a reminder that the ability to resolve conflicts without force or violence is dependent on the international rule of law,” the committee wrote in a news release.

“An international legal system in which war criminals are held to account and the victims of abuse see justice served is a precondition for a peaceful world.”

The Norwegian Nobel Committee in Oslo received nominations for 287 candidates for this year’s prize, with just over a quarter of them organizations. Experts say the committee typically focuses on the durability of peace, the promotion of international fraternity and the quiet work of institutions that strengthen those goals.

Last year, Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado won the Nobel Peace Prize for her struggle to achieve a democratic transition in the South American nation, winning recognition as a woman “who keeps the flame of democracy burning amid a growing darkness.”

Machado gave Trump her Nobel medal shortly after the United States ousted then-President Nicolás Maduro. But it was largely a symbolic gesture: the Nobel Committee has said the honor itself cannot be transferred.

Nominations can be made by a select group of people and organizations, including heads of state or politicians serving at a national level, university professors, directors of foreign policy institutes, past Nobel Prize recipients and members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee itself.

Four of this year's Nobels were announced earlier this week. The Nobel for medicine went to three scientists whose work led to a tool that uses light to help unravel how the brain works. The physics award recognized a scientist’s efforts to demystify a rare group of neutrinos. The chemistry prize recognized two scientists for untangling mysterious mirror images in molecules, a discovery that has been used to develop countless drugs.

Canadian poet, essayist and translator Anne Carson won the literature prize Thursday for “bold and inventive” works that fuse the classical and the modern and blur the boundaries of poetry and prose.

The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences will be announced Monday.

The prize money this year is 12 million Swedish kronor (about $1.2 million), whether for an individual, small group of laureates or organization.

This year marks the 125th anniversary of the peace prize, which so far has gone to 112 individuals and 28 separate institutions since its inception in 1901. The Red Cross has won three times and the U.N. refugee agency twice.

The prize has gone unawarded on 19 occasions, most of them during the world wars. In 1948, the year Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated, no prize was awarded; he had been nominated 12 times and never won.

In 1939, a Swedish member of parliament nominated Adolf Hitler, then withdrew the nomination, saying it was never meant seriously.

Dazio reported from Berlin and Lewis reported from Stavanger, Norway.

AP Nobel Prizes: https://apnews.com/hub/nobel-prizes

The Chairman of the Nobel Committee, Jørgen Watne Frydnes, announces the Nobel Peace Prize 2026 at the Nobel Institute in Oslo, Norway, Friday, Oct. 9, 2026. (Javad Parsa/NTB Scanpix via AP)

The Chairman of the Nobel Committee, Jørgen Watne Frydnes, announces Navanethem Pillay as the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize laureate at the Nobel Institute in Oslo, Norway, Friday, Oct. 9, 2026. (Javad Parsa/NTB Scanpix via AP)

FILE - U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights South African Navanethem Pillay prior to the 23rd session of the Human Rights Council, at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, May 27, 2013. (Salvatore Di Nolfi/Keystone via AP, File)

FILE - U.N. human rights chief Navanethem Pillay prior to the opening of a session of the Human Rights Council at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, June 18, 2012. (Salvatore Di Nolfi/Keystone via AP, File)

FILE - A Nobel diploma and medal are displayed, Dec. 8, 2020, during a ceremony in New York. (Angela Weiss/Pool Photo via AP, File)