Russia hits Kyiv with missile and drone attack, killing 6 and injuring 52
Kyiv City Military Administration head Tymur Tkachenko said at least 52 other people were injured in the attacks, and that the number was likely to rise.
A large part of a nine-story residential building collapsed after it was struck, Tkachenko added. Rescue teams were at the scene to rescue people trapped under the rubble.
'Missile strike. Directly on a residential building. People are under the rubble. All services are on site,' Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on his official Telegram.
Images from the scene showed plumes of smoke emanating from a partially damaged building and debris strewn on the ground.
At least 27 locations across Kyiv were hit by the attack, Tkachenko said, with the heaviest damage seen in the Solomianskyi and Sviatoshynskyi districts.
U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday he's giving Russian President Vladimir Putin a shorter deadline — Aug. 8 — for peace efforts to make progress or Washington will impose punitive sanctions and tariffs.
Western leaders have accused Putin of dragging his feet in U.S.-led peace efforts in an attempt to capture more Ukrainian land.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
San Francisco Chronicle
18 minutes ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Ion Iliescu, Romania's first freely elected president after 1989 revolution, has died at 95
BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — Ion Iliescu, Romania's first freely elected president after the fall of communism in 1989, who later faced charges of crimes against humanity for his role in the bloody revolution, has died. He was 95. Iliescu, who held de facto military authority during the anti-communist revolt, assumed power after Communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, and his wife Elena, were executed on Dec. 25, 1989. More than 1,100 people died during the uprising, 862 of them after Iliescu had seized power. He repeatedly denied any wrongdoing. Twice re-elected, in 1992 and 2000, Iliescu had largely withdrawn from public life by 2017. In recent years, his health had declined. In 2019, he underwent heart surgery, and he was diagnosed with lung cancer in June. The hospital in the capital, Bucharest, where Iliescu had been receiving medical treatment since Jun. 9, said on Tuesday that he died at 3.55 p.m. local time after medics 'made all efforts to provide him the necessary care and treatment.' Romania's government also confirmed his death and extended its condolences to his family and those close to the former president. It added that it would announce plans for a state funeral soon. In a statement on its official website, Romania's Social Democratic Party, or PSD, which Iliescu founded, called it 'a very sad day for Romania.' 'A prominent figure of the Romanian Revolution and the history of contemporary Romania, Mr. President Ion Iliescu will remain for all of us a symbol of the politician and statesman,' the statement read. 'He had the courage to confront Ceausescu and his dictatorship, and directed Romania irreversibly on the Euro-Atlantic path.' 'He was a strong leader, loved by most, contested by others, as happens in democracy,' it added. In 2018, military prosecutors charged Iliescu with crimes against humanity for failing to prevent 'numerous situations' in which civilians were needlessly killed during the revolution. Prosecutors alleged he had spread false information through state media, creating a 'generalized psychosis' that fueled chaos and bloodshed. The charges against Iliescu, who served as a minister in the communist government until he was sidelined in 1971, refer to a five-day period during the uprising, after Ceausescu had fled Bucharest on Dec. 22, 1989. At the time of Iliescu's death, he had never been convicted, and the case remained open. In January this year, Iliescu's legal woes mounted when prosecutors charged him with crimes against humanity in a second case. Prosecutors allege he implemented policies that led to a violent crackdown on civilian protesters in Bucharest in 1990, who were demanding the removal of former communists from power. Iliescu had called on coal miners from the Jiu Valley to 'restore order' in the capital. At least four people were killed. Despite maintaining good relations with the Soviet Union until its collapse in 1991, Romania became a member of the NATO military alliance in 2004 during his last presidential term. After his last term ended, he served as a lawmaker in the Social Democratic Party, Romania's most dominant political party since communism ended 35 years ago. For two decades after the revolution, Iliescu was Romania's most consequential political figure who helped define the country's new democratic institutions and its Constitution, said Cristian Andrei, a Bucharest-based political consultant. 'His legacy spans from the one to oust Ceausescu to being himself a break in Romania's development and transition to full functioning democracy and market economy,' he told The Associated Press. 'He was later accused by a growing number of Romanians of being the continuator of the Communist apparatus … trying to hold on to power in an authoritarian-communist style.' After Nicusor Dan's victory in Romania's tense presidential rerun in May, Iliescu congratulated the new pro-Western leader in a blog post, noting that Romania 'is going through a complex period' and faces economic, social, and geopolitical challenges. 'Romania needs coherence, dialogue and a firm commitment to strengthening democratic institutions and its European path,' he said. 'I am convinced that you will exercise this responsibility with dignity and a sense of duty to the nation.'
San Francisco Chronicle
18 minutes ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Hezbollah threatens to resume firing missiles at Israel if it intensifies operations in Lebanon
BEIRUT (AP) — The leader of Lebanon's Hezbollah warned Tuesday that if Israel intensifies its military operations against his group, the Iran-backed armed faction will resume firing missiles toward Israel. Naim Kassem's comments came as Lebanon's Cabinet was meeting to discuss Hezbollah's disarmament. Beirut is under U.S. pressure to disarm the group that recently fought a 14-month war with Israel and was left gravely weakened, with many of its political and military leaders dead. Since the war ended in November with a U.S.-brokered ceasefire, Hezbollah officials have said the group will not discuss its disarmament until Israel withdraws from five hills it controls inside Lebanon and stops almost daily airstrikes that have killed or wounded hundreds of people, most of them Hezbollah members. Israel has accused Hezbollah of trying to rebuild its military capabilities. Israel's military has said the five locations in Lebanon provide vantage points or are located across from communities in northern Israel, where about 60,000 Israelis were displaced during the war. Since the ceasefire, Hezbollah has claimed responsibility for one attack on a disputed area along the border. In a televised speech Tuesday, Kassem said Hezbollah rejects any timetable to hand over its weapons. 'Israel's interest is not to widen the aggression because if they expand, the resistance will defend, the army will defend and the people will defend,' Kassem said. 'This defense will lead to the fall of missiles inside Israel.' Since the war ended, Hezbollah has withdrawn most of its fighters and weapons from the area along the border with Israel south of the Litani river. Last week, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun reiterated calls for Hezbollah to give up its weapons, angering the group's leadership. The ceasefire agreement left vague how Hezbollah's weapons and military facilities north of the Litani river should be treated, saying Lebanese authorities should dismantle unauthorized facilities starting with the area south of the river. Hezbollah maintains the deal only covers the area south of the Litani, while Israel and the U.S. say it mandates disarmament of the group throughout Lebanon. Kassem said Hezbollah rejects a government vote over its weapons, saying such a decision should be unanimously backed by all Lebanese. The Israel-Hezbollah war started a day after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack against Israel from Gaza. It left more than 4,000 people dead and caused damage worth $11 billion.
Business Insider
18 minutes ago
- Business Insider
A front-line Ukrainian unit says it made a new kind of robot to shoot down Russian planes and helicopters
A front-line Ukrainian military unit said it built a new robot that can shoot down Russian aircraft. It is said to be the first weapon of its kind in this conflict. The remote-controlled robot offers air defense solutions to front-line fighters without requiring soldiers to expose themselves to the prolific threat of drones. Ukraine has constantly found itself needing air defense options for both its cities and for its troops fighting along the front lines, and has found innovative ways to get there. "Russian aviation poses a threat not only to peaceful cities but also directly to the front line," Ukraine's 28th Mechanized Brigade explained in a post on the Telegram messaging app, adding that Russian planes, helicopters, and reconnaissance drones appear over infantry positions regularly. In the past, soldiers could use man-portable air defenses to shoot down the aircraft, "but now the situation has changed," the 28th said, according to a translation of the statement. Russian drones"literally hang in the air, tracking every movement and not even allowing soldiers to raise their heads from the trenches." The unit said it responded to this problem by arming a ground robot with an "Igla" surface-to-air missile system, developing the country's first air defense system mounted on an uncrewed ground vehicle (UGV). The 9K38 Igla is a Soviet-era man-portable air defense system, known as MANPADS. It is essentially a shoulder-launched weapon that fires munitions at higher-threat targets like planes, helicopters, and cruise missiles that might be beyond the reach of machine guns. It's unclear how many targets this robotic system will have the chance to engage. Over the course of the war, Ukraine has destroyed or damaged over 300 Russian aircraft and helicopters, per the open-source intelligence site Oryx, which tracks equipment losses on both sides, but aircraft of all different types are still flying. Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine triggered an arms race, with Moscow and Kyiv rushing to develop and field new technology that could help give them an edge in the grinding conflict. Drone warfare and robotics have emerged as leading areas of innovation by far, as uncrewed systems are being used in combat on the ground, in the air, and at sea. Russia and Ukraine have continuously tried to adapt their drones to outsmart the enemy. The air defense robot is one of the latest examples of innovation with UGVs. The Ukrainian armed forces, for instance, have been experimenting with automated machine gun turrets, which allow troops to keep their heads down in combat. Front-line units are mounting .50-caliber machine guns and grenade launchers on ground vehicles. And a Ukrainian company is said to have developed a new ground combat robot that can carry and launch multiple first-person-view drones, acting like a mothership. Other UGVs can carry out additional combat and logistics missions, such as delivering ammunition to troop positions, evacuating wounded soldiers, placing land mines, and detonating next to enemy armored vehicles.
