Russia blasts Ukraine with more aerial attacks as part of an intensified campaign

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian missiles, bombs and drones battered three regions of Ukraine in targeted nighttime attacks, officials said Friday, as Russia mounts an intensified aerial campaign that Ukrainian officials say they need more Western help to counter — even as doubts deepen over what Kyiv can expect from a new U.S. administration.

Since the war began almost three years ago following Russia’s full-scale invasion of its neighbor, the Russian military has repeatedly used its superior air power to blast civilian targets across Ukraine. More than 10,000 Ukrainian civilians have been killed in the conflict, according to the United Nations.

A 500-kilogram (about 1,000 pounds) glide bomb severely damaged a high-rise apartment building in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, in the middle of the night, regional Gov. Oleh Syniehubov said. At least 25 people, including an infant, were injured, he said.

Glide bombs, for which Ukraine has no effective countermeasure, obliterate their targets, sending out a powerful shock wave and often leaving a wide crater.

In the southern city of Odesa, a Russian drone attack killed one person and injured nine others overnight, regional Gov. Oleh Kiper said.

In the capital Kyiv, falling wreckage from intercepted missiles injured four people, regional Gov. Ruslan Kravchenko said.

In total, Russia fired 92 drones and five missiles at Ukraine during the night, Ukraine’s air force said. Four missiles and 62 drones were intercepted, and 26 drones were jammed electronically, it claimed.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his country needs more help to fight back against Russia’s military might, even as uncertainty deepens about what Western aid Ukraine can expect after Donald Trump was elected this week as the next U.S. president.

“It is important to act together and decisively at the international level every time Russia tries to destroy our lives,” Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram. “This is the only way to achieve a just peace and stop the deaths of our people.”

Russia launched about 2,000 drones at Ukraine in October, about one-third more than the previous month, making it the third month in a row that there was a significant rise, the U.K. Defense Ministry said Friday.

Russian fire rates have climbed since the middle of the year, it said, adding that the latest high monthly numbers will likely become the norm.

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

This photo, provided by head of the Odesa Regional Military Administration Oleh Kiper, firefighters work on the site of a damaged building after Russian attack in Odesa, Ukraine, early Friday, Nov. 8, 2024. (Telegram Channel of Odesa Region Governor Oleh Kiper via AP)

This photo, provided by head of the Odesa Regional Military Administration Oleh Kiper, shows the site of a Russian attack in Odesa, Ukraine, early Friday, Nov. 8, 2024. (Telegram Channel of Odesa Region Governor Oleh Kiper via AP)

In this photo provided by Kharkiv Regional Administration, an apartment building is seen damaged by a Russian attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine, early Friday, Nov. 8, 2024. (Kharkiv Regional Administration via AP)

In this photo provided by Kharkiv Regional Administration, an apartment building is seen damaged by a Russian attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine, early Friday, Nov. 8, 2024. (Kharkiv Regional Administration via AP)

Local women react on destruction of a residential building destroyed by a Russian airstrike in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, Thursday, Nov. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Kateryna Klochko)

NEW YORK (AP) — A defense lawyer asked jurors to put themselves in frightened subway riders' shoes Monday at the trial of a Marine veteran charged with choking an irate, homeless man to death after an outburst on a New York underground train.

Prosecutors countered that Daniel Penny was way too forceful and reckless in responding to Jordan Neely.

Both sides gave closing arguments Monday at Penny's trial on manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide charges. Penny, who gripped Neely’s neck for about six minutes, claims he was defending fellow passengers. He has pleaded not guilty.

Prosecutors say Penny was justified in using some physical force after Neely shouted in a crowded train about being willing to die, willing to go jail or — as Penny and some other passengers recalled — willing to kill. But prosecutors argue that Penny recklessly went way too far in dealing with an unarmed man.

"You obviously cannot kill someone because they are crazy and ranting and looking menacing, no matter what it is that they are saying,” Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Dafna Yoran told jurors Monday.

Defense attorney Steven Raiser asked jurors to imagine they were on that train when Neely got on, “filled with rage and not afraid of any consequences.”

“You’re sitting much as you are now, in this tightly confined space. You have very little room to move and none to run," Raiser told jurors, saying his client “put his life on the line” for strangers.

“Who would you want on the next train with you?” he asked.

Penny's reaction to Neely touched raw nerves and fueled debate about race relations, public safety, urban life and different approaches to crime, homelessness and mental illness.

Some in New York and around the country see Penny, a 26-year-old Marine veteran turned architecture student, as a valiant protector of fellow subway riders who feared the erratic Neely was on the verge of violence. Others view Penny as a white vigilante who summarily killed a Black man who was in need of help.

The case sparked demonstrations that lambasted Penny and rallies that lauded him. In the defense argument Monday, Raiser sought to undercut some prosecution witnesses' credibility by saying they were testifying “in the shadow of protesters” who gathered outside the courthouse to demand justice for Neely.

Neely, 30, once was among the city's corps of subway and street performers and was known for his Michael Jackson impersonations. But after his mother was violently killed when he was a teenager, Neely was diagnosed with depression and schizophrenia, was repeatedly hospitalized, struggled with drug abuse and had a criminal record that included assault convictions.

During the monthlong trial, the anonymous jury heard testimony from subway passengers who witnessed Penny's roughly six-minute restraint of Neely, as well as police who responded to it, pathologists, a psychiatric expert, a Marine Corps instructor who taught Penny chokehold techniques and Penny's relatives, friends and fellow Marines. Penny chose not to testify.

Jurors watched videos recorded by bystanders and by police body cameras and saw how Penny explained his actions to officers on the scene and later in a stationhouse interview room.

“I just wanted to keep him from getting to people,” he told detectives, demonstrating the chokehold and describing Neely as “a crackhead” who was “acting like a lunatic.”

“I'm not trying to kill the guy,” he insisted.

Multiple witnesses said Neely shouted about needing food and something to drink, whipped his jacket to the floor and started screaming. They differed in descriptions of his movements and whether they were threatening. Several passengers said they were alarmed, and some were thankful when Penny subdued Neely.

City medical examiners ruled the chokehold killed Neely. A pathologist hired by Penny’s defense contradicted that finding, saying Neely was killed by a variety of other factors.

Prosecutors noted that the veteran continued to grip Neely's neck after the train stopped and anyone who wanted to get out could do so, after bystanders urged Penny to let go, and even after Neely had been still for nearly a minute.

“You, the jurors, should unequivocally state with your verdict that no person’s life can be so unjustifiably snuffed out," Yoran said Monday.

The defense says Penny held on because Neely tried to break loose at points and the pressure on the man's neck wasn't consistent enough to kill him.

Penny wanted only to hold Neely for police, and so used a “simple civilian restraint” instead of a “textbook chokehold” that would be applied to render someone unconscious, Raiser told jurors.

“The police weren’t there when the people on that train needed help. Danny was,” the attorney said.

Daniel Penny arrives at the court after break in New York, Monday, Nov. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

Daniel Penny leaves the courtroom for a lunch break in New York, Monday, Nov. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)