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Seven children were injured in the attack, which further damaged health and energy facilities, according to Ukrainian authorities and reports from the Russian-occupied territories.
In the Russian-occupied territory, reports also indicated that two civilians were killed and nine others were injured in the Donetsk region.
The overnight attacks damaged energy infrastructure in the Poltavska, Rivnenska and Volynska regions, disrupting power supplies, according to Ukrainian authorities.
The hostilities also caused power outages in six frontline regions, while emergency power outages were also reported in Kyiv.
Scrambling to reach frontline communities
UN agencies continue to provide support to communities in Ukraine’s frontline areas, where reaching them is complicated and dangerous.
A UN Department of Safety and Security team delivered aid supplies on Wednesday to communities close to contact lines in the Zaporizhzhia region, where they described access as “severely restricted”.
Helping winter efforts, UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reported this week that it had helped nearly 70,000 families living on the front lines with cash assistance, provided through a partnership with Ukrainian authorities.
UN team visits restive West Bank
Acting UN Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territories Ramiz Alakbarov and 13 UN Member State representatives have visited Jenin in the West Bank to study the challenges surrounding the ongoing Palestinian olive harvest, displacement and repeated Israeli settler attacks, UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said on Thursday.
In the village of Arraba, the group heard from farmers who have been repeatedly targeted by settler attacks while trying to bring in their olive harvest – which, combined with Israeli access restrictions, has undermined food security.
“Our humanitarian partners briefed the delegation on efforts to protect olive pickers, including by accompanying them to groves and providing legal assistance to challenge Israeli access restrictions,” Dujarric said.
Up to 100,000 Palestinian households depend on olives for their livelihood, but many Palestinians are prohibited from safely harvesting their harvest, said Dr. Alakbarov, while stressing that the crimes committed against olives must stop and the perpetrators must be held accountable by the Israeli authorities.
Prolonged displacement
At a UN clinic in the city of Qabatiya, diplomats met with Palestinians who, since early 2025, have been banned by Israeli authorities from returning to the Jenin refugee camp, where many of their homes have been destroyed.
United Nations Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) briefed the group on the support provided to these families, from food and shelter to other essential services.
Dr. Alakbarov stressed that more funds were needed and urged the Israeli government to allow Palestinians to return in safety and dignity.
Unlawful deaths of the elderly: Overlooked and underreported
Suspicious deaths of elderly people are underreported, investigated and researched worldwide, independent human rights experts said on Thursday, in a call for increased investigations and prevention efforts.
Morris Tidball-Binz, who reports to the UN Human Rights Council on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, saying that age discrimination and other discrimination “too often result in abuse, neglect and other overlooked causes of extrajudicial death.”
The Special Rapporteur stated that “harmful age-based stereotypes that depict older people as weak, sick and near death can normalize their deaths and impersonalize them”.
Deaths that are criminal and preventable
This may mean that criminal deaths or preventable deaths are misreported as a result of aging.
Sepsis can cause natural death, but it can also cause death results prolonged abuse and neglect, Mr. Tidball-Binz.
In his report to the Human Rights Council, the Special Rapporteur details practical steps to increase respect for and protection of the right to life of older people; this includes strengthening investigative processes, data collection, institutional oversight and prevention.
“Professionals must be trained and equipped to recognize, respond and document age-related vulnerabilities and signs of abuse,” said the independent expert appointed by the Human Rights Council, who is not a UN staff member and does not receive a salary for her work.
