Panel disputes Kyiv strike And prospects for peace

Sep 28

Oman TV's discussion with Talal Abu Al-Shaar in Moscow, Imad Abu Al-Rub in Kyiv and Joe Tabet in Washington examines the latest reciprocal attacks, civilian protection, military objectives, Western aid and negotiations. Abu Al-Shaar presents Russian precision-strike claims and suggests schools might be used for troops, weapons or command; he cites alleged Ukrainian attacks on a school and dormitory and later says no war is without casualties. Abu Al-Rub describes debris near his home and footage of today's direct school hit, calls the affected buildings civilian and rejects civilian targeting on either side, while explicitly declining to assert deliberate Russian targeting. He shows a book recovered near the previously struck National Academy and argues Ukraine can withstand a costly period of attrition. Tabet attributes deliberate civilian targeting to Russian strategy, citing U.S. hearings, and says U.S. ceasefire efforts have failed, with further sanctions or arms support possible. His assertions about covert CIA support, an October 18 sanctions deadline and a recent meeting involving what he calls the late Lindsey Graham are unverified claims in this discussion. Abu Al-Shaar argues sanctions and arms escalation will not change Moscow's aims and discusses buffer zones and continued fighting. Abu Al-Rub stresses aid, reciprocal security arrangements, prisoner/body exchanges and readiness for talks without unilateral Russian terms. Later exchanges revisit possible negotiations, Minsk/Istanbul precedents, territorial concessions and the effect of European energy costs. No settlement, scheduled meeting, new sanction or completed arms delivery is established.

ABC shows a man escaping through a window during what it calls an advanced jet-powered drone attack on Kyiv, naming the National Academy of Sciences among the damaged buildings. France 2 identifies the burning Academy building, interviews an older survivor who says a wall fell on him, and reports a provisional one woman killed and six injured. Residents' allegations that Russia is deliberately terrorizing civilians remain attributed. TSN identifies the site as the Academy Presidium on Volodymyrska Street. Its main lead reports one killed and six injured, including former National Security and Defense Council secretary Volodymyr Horbulin; citing Dzerkalo Tyzhnia and the Academy press service, it identifies the dead woman as his assistant and says contact with a department head has been lost. Its closing recap says one killed and at least seven injured. The field report preserves an earlier one-dead, three-hospitalized count and an official's warning that casualties could rise. Firefighters withdraw under a renewed drone threat and then resume work; the missing colleague's fate is not resolved. Fox cites at least seven dead and more than eighty wounded across the wider Russian bombardment. Oman TV cites more than six civilian deaths and dozens injured across ongoing attacks in Ukraine. These wider totals are not Academy-specific. Oman also relays Moscow's claim of repelling hundreds of Ukrainian drones. The subsequent Kyiv medical-centre strike remains a separate event. TV Brasil's September 28 brief says two employees escaped by the stairs while firefighters prepared a rescue, after footage of people at the windows. It describes the Academy building as completely destroyed, whereas TSN's lead describes half the building destroyed. The brief gives no casualty total; the different damage descriptions are preserved without independently resolving them. Democracy Now's September 29 bulletin reports two people killed at the Academy, updating the earlier one-dead accounts, and airs survivor Svitlana Solianyk describing civilian suffering. Its nine-dead, eighty-wounded total refers to the wider Russian attack wave, not the Academy alone. It quotes Zelenskyy saying eighty of 120 drones were a newer jet-powered model. The report does not identify whether the second reported Academy fatality is the colleague previously described as missing. Fox's September 29 follow-up uses the Academy strike and scientists' window escape as the starting point for a technical report. Griffin identifies a Russian drone with a Chinese-made jet engine; Mark Montgomery explains the difficulty of intercepting faster drones. The connected RFE/RL component findings are separately indexed. This report adds no Academy casualty count and does not supersede the earlier sources' different tolls. Chinese component origin does not by itself establish direct Chinese state provision of the weapon. In Oman TV's October 1 panel, Kyiv-based Imad Abu Al-Rub shows a book he says he picked up outside the previously struck Academy, describing it as a record of scientific awards. He uses the Academy as an example of damaged civilian institutions while explicitly declining to assert deliberate Russian targeting of civilians. This is his attributed aftermath recollection; it gives no revised Academy casualty or structural-damage count and does not independently authenticate the book's provenance.