Europe

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia unleashed a wave of nighttime drone and missile attacks across 10 of Ukraine’s 24 regions, Ukrainian authorities said Friday as they prepare for another winter of infrastructure bombardment by the Kremlin’s forces.

Ukraine’s air force said it intercepted 24 of 38 Shahed drones and one Kh-59 cruise missile launched by Russia.

MOSCOW, November 3. /TASS/: The latest round of anti-Russian sanctions imposed by the US is a continuation of its policy of "inflicting a strategic defeat on Moscow," but Washington "shouldn’t hold its breath," Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.

MOSCOW, November 3. /TASS/: Moscow sees it as a top priority to get the parties in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict zone to cease fire, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.

"We consider it necessary to take urgent measures to reach an immediate ceasefire, open humanitarian corridors to avoid new casualties and provide necessary assistance to the affected civilians," he said at a press conference following talks with his Kuwaiti counterpart Salem Abdullah al-Jaber al-Sabah.

MOSCOW, November 3. /TASS/: Large and medium-sized Russian businesses have grown accustomed to hedging risks in the environment of sanctions that exists today, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

"Sanctions create additional problems. But we have adjusted to the sanctions. We have learned to hedge against sanctions risks," the Kremlin official said, commenting on the introduction of new restrictions by the United States against Russian companies.

MOSCOW, November 3. /TASS/: The corruption within Ukraine is unmatched anywhere in the world, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday.

"In Russia, we have plenty of problems. We, in Russia, and in the entire world are fighting corruption, but corruption in Ukraine has taken on a life of its own - there is nothing like it in the world, you can take it from me," he said at a meeting with the new members of the Russian Public Chamber.

MOSCOW, Nov 3 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that some Western weapons supplied to Ukraine were finding their way to the Middle East through the illegal arms market and being sold to the Taliban.

"Now they say: weapons are getting into the Middle East from Ukraine. Well of course they are because they are being sold," Putin said. "And they are being sold to the Taliban and from there they go onto wherever."

DUBLIN, Nov 3 (Reuters) - Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar on Friday described Israel's actions in Gaza as "something approaching revenge", in some of the strongest criticism of Israel by a leader of a European Union member state.

Gaza health authorities say at least 9,061 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel launched its assault on the enclave of 2.3 million people in retaliation for deadly attacks by Hamas militants on southern Israel.

CAMPI BISENZIO, Italy, Nov 3 (Reuters) - Five people have been killed after rivers burst their banks following torrential rain in the central Italian region of Tuscany, local authorities said on Friday, as Storm Ciaran continued to lash western Europe.

There had been fears that the River Arno could flood the historic city of Florence after nearby towns were swamped, but Tuscan regional president Eugenio Giani said the high water point had passed in mid-morning without major incident.

KYIV, Nov 3 (Reuters) - Russia launched a massive drone attack early on Friday, hitting critical infrastructure in the west and south of Ukraine and destroying private houses and commercial buildings in Kharkiv, Ukraine's second largest city, officials said.

The air force said it shot down 24 "Shahed" drones out of 40 launched by Russia, the biggest drone attack in weeks to target Kharkiv in the northeast, Odesa and Kherson in the south and the region of Lviv on Ukraine's border with Poland in the west.

One X-59 missile was also shot down, the air force said.

MOSCOW, Nov 2 (Reuters) - A top ally of President Vladimir Putin warned Poland on Thursday that the NATO member state was now considered a "dangerous enemy" by Russia and could end up losing its statehood if it continued on its current course.

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, now deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council, made the comments in an 8,000-word article on Russian-Polish relations, saying Moscow now had a "dangerous enemy" in Poland.