October 10, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

US President Joe Biden spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday to condemn Russia's recent missile strikes and pledge continued US security assistance, including advanced air defense systems, according to a White House readout of the call. 

The readout did not provide additional details on what advanced air defense systems were discussed. 

"He also underscored his ongoing engagement with allies and partners to continue imposing costs on Russia, holding Russia accountable for its war crimes and atrocities, and providing Ukraine with security, economic, and humanitarian assistance," the readout continued.

In a statement earlier Monday, Biden said the recent wave of Russian strikes "once again demonstrate the utter brutality of Mr. Putin’s illegal war on the Ukrainian people."

Karim Ahmad Khan, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), said he believes that there will be justice for war crimes committed during Russia's war in Ukraine. 

International law is going to “ensure that there will be a day of reckoning in Ukraine and other situations where any bully, any individual with a gun or with a missile, or with the capacity to inflict terror on the most vulnerable of our next generations, will realize that the law is there,” Khan told CNN on Monday. 

The ICC chief said that he is “extremely concerned” by the civilian deaths following numerous Russian strikes that swept across Ukraine on Monday. He told CNN that the ICC would be conducting a criminal investigation. 

“I have members of my office that last night were in bunkers along with many other civilians. Ukrainian children, women and men and this is a matter that engages issues of morality, issues of law and issues of empathy and humanity," he said.

“We need to be there to get to the truth,” he added.

Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Ukraine will continue to liberate territories across Ukraine despite a wave of Russian missile attacks on Monday. 

“Whatever he [Putin] does, we will continue to liberate our territory,” Kuleba told CNN. 

“This is the war for the existence of Ukraine. This is the war for the existence of international law and rule-based order. So he may escalate, he may do whatever he wants. But we are going to continue fighting and we will win,” he added.

Kuleba said the "vast majority" of targets in the Russian assault were energy facilities, adding saying that he is "not aware of any major military facility that was targeted. It was only energy facilities and civilian houses, apartment buildings.”

He said that he believed the attack was an act of vengeance by Russian President Vladimir Putin following recent defeats on the battlefield. 

When pressed on whether Ukraine was responsible for a massive explosion on a key strategic bridge linking Crimea and Russia, Kuleba said that he doesn’t “know who blew up the bridge. I wouldn't exclude something happening inside of Russia because this bridge is so heavily protected from all sides.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin is incapable of accepting defeat in Ukraine, Finnish President Sauli Niinistö said on Monday at a joint press conference in Oslo with Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre.

Støre was not hopeful of any kind of negotiated resolution and an end to Russian aggression, saying "unfortunately that isn’t an immediate prospect."

Both Nordic leaders condemned deadly strikes on civilian targets in Ukraine on Monday. “This is an unacceptable attack on civilians and a breach on all principles key to humanitarian law and international rules and regulations,” the Norwegian Prime Minister said.

“Nuclear threats, mobilization and sham referenda and annexation of territory under occupation is simply unacceptable and it has to be rebuffed by the democracies of Europe in a very consistent way,” he added.

US Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth called recent attacks from Russian forces on civilians in Ukraine "horrific."

Wormuth said these attacks are an “extension” of the kinds of “tactics” Putin has been using throughout the conflict with Ukraine.

“So it’s very, very concerning, but I think it’s an extension of the kind of tactics that we’ve seen from the beginning of the invasion,” Wormuth added.

Eurpean Parliament President Roberta Metsola told CNN on Monday that the EU needs to do more to help Ukraine in light of Russia’s escalation by providing more military equipment. 

Metsola said sanctions by the European Union were “clearly not enough” and she called on all member states to come together and provide more weaponry, specifically tanks, which the Ukrainians have requested.   

“Ukraine is asking for them, and the European Union has the facility to coordinate what it gives to Ukraine. I know the high representatives very much working on this. I know from military perspective we can do more," she said.

US President Joe Biden said Russian missile strikes hitting Kyiv and other cities in Ukraine on Monday "once again demonstrate the utter brutality of Mr. Putin’s illegal war on the Ukrainian people."

"We again call on Russia to end this unprovoked aggression immediately and remove its troops from Ukraine," Biden said.

The President is expected to join a call with G7 leaders on Tuesday, where Ukrainian President Zelensky is expected to address the group.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba on Monday to reiterate the United States' support following the deadly Russian strikes on Ukraine.

Additionally, US ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink met with President Volodymyr Zelensky. Brink tweeted photos of the meeting.

There have been explosions in the Kryvyi Rih city, said Oleksandr Vilkul, head of the city's military administration in the Dnipropetrovsk region.

"Preliminary - kamikaze drones Shahid [Iranian-made.]" Vilkul wrote on Telegram.

There are no details yet of damage or casualties.