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ABC News
9 hours ago
- ABC News
Ukrainians live through record strikes as Russia ramps up new drone tactics
Eight-year-old Andrii and his six-year-old brother Maksym's wooden fort is covered with cloth netting. Protection, they said, from the drones fired from Russia. The children, who live just 15 kilometres from the Russian border in the north-eastern Kharkiv region, play with plastic guns. They scamper through abandoned trenches and the charred shells of armoured vehicles, and keep watch from their makeshift fort. When fighting intensifies, their mother Varvara Tupkalenko takes them back to the family's apartment in nearby Kharkiv, the regional capital. But Ukraine's second city itself is a major target, and the swarms of drones that pound it at night terrify the boys. Europe's largest land conflict since the Second World War is now in its fourth year and does not appear to be easing. The rhythm of attacks has been increasing in recent months since diplomatic efforts to end the war have stalled. Air strikes targeting cities are getting worse, with record numbers of drones and missiles flying overhead. Analysts say Russia appears to have a new tactic: launching hundreds of weapons simultaneously from different altitudes and directions, encircling a city. "This is an obvious escalation of terror by Russia," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote in a post to social media. Russian forces launched 728 drones and 13 missiles on the night of July 8, according to US think tank the Institute for the Study of War. It was the largest combined drone and missile strike of the war, and about a 34 per cent increase from the previous record high of 550 earlier this month. Lutsk, a city that's home to airfields used by the Ukrainian army, was the hardest hit, according to Mr Zelenskyy. It lies near the border with Poland in western Ukraine, a region that is a crucial hub for receiving foreign military aid. Another 10 regions were struck, killing one person in the Khmelnytskyi area, and wounding two in Kyiv, officials said. Kyiv's military downed almost all the drones, but some of the six hypersonic missiles caused unspecified damage. The attack came just days after US President Donald Trump announced that arms shipments to Ukraine would resume, and aimed unusually sharp criticism at Russian President Vladimir Putin. A day later, hours before a conference in Rome at which Kyiv won billions of dollars in aid pledges, Kyiv was struck with a record bombardment. It lasted for nearly 10 hours, killing two people and wounding 26, according to figures from the national emergency services. The Institute for the Study of War assessed that recent major attacks have occurred off the back of diplomatic efforts, such as the US and Ukraine offering a 30-day ceasefire in March. Russia also launched more than 500 drones in the early hours of July 4, American Independence Day, just hours after Mr Trump and Mr Putin had a telephone conversation. Russia expert Matthew Sussex from the ANU's Strategic and Defence Studies Centre said the Russian president was sending a message. Russian authorities have also reported dozens of attempted Ukrainian drone attacks over the last week, including four bound for Moscow. The Ukrainian capital of 3 million people has endured several consecutive weeks of escalating Russian attacks. Civilians say they face nightly terror, kept awake by air raid sirens and endless booms of explosions. "Most people don't even sleep in our beds anymore," Kyiv-based journalist Emmanuelle Chaze told ABC The World. Russia's defence ministry said it had hit "military-industrial" targets in Kyiv as well as military airfields. It denies targeting civilians although towns and cities have been hit regularly in the war and thousands have been killed. June saw the highest monthly civilian casualty count in Ukraine since the Russian invasion began in February 2022, according to UN data. It said it reflected a "worsening trend", with 6,754 civilians killed or injured in the first half of 2025 – a sharp 54 per cent rise compared to the same period in 2024. Professor Sussex said attacks had been "really bad" and the situation was becoming more difficult for Ukrainians. He described that Russia was conducting "double taps" where a target would be struck twice — usually once firefighters had arrived. "First of all they attack a target, then wait until the first responders get there and then attack it again," he told the ABC. "And they've started to also target recruitment centres for the Ukrainian armed forces when people are basically lined up waiting to get their call up." Russia has been ramping up local production of drones, increasing both the quantity and quality of their supply. Maksym Beznosiuk, a strategic policy expert and director of UAinFocus, an independent platform connecting Ukrainian and international experts, said Russia was producing new drones with a range technological upgrades. "This is making it possible to launch massive bombardments of Ukrainian cities that overwhelm Ukraine's limited air defences and terrorise the civilian population," he wrote in analysis for the Atlantic Council. The mix of new drones with hypersonic cruise missiles was making barrages more difficult to defend against. Professor Sussex said Russia's Khinzhal missiles were particularly hard to counter. Russia was also now flying its Shahed attack drones at much higher altitudes. Ukrainian Air Force spokesperson Colonel Yuriy Ihnat reported that Russian forces used more than 400 decoy drones in a record strike on July 8 in order to overwhelm air defences. Professor Sussex said improving the situation for Ukraine would depend on how much Europe could come to the table, and whether Russia could keep its economy on a war footing. This week, Ukraine's allies pledged more than 10 billion euros ($17.8 billion) to help rebuild the country, and the EU announced another 2.3 billion euros in support. Mr Trump has signalled willingness to send more Patriot air-defence missiles, which have proven critical to defending against fast-moving Russian ballistic missiles. Mr Zelenskyy said the record strikes called for "biting sanctions" to be imposed on Moscow. Mr Trump also said he was considering supporting a bill that would impose steep sanctions on Russia, including 500 per cent tariffs on nations that buy Russian oil, gas, uranium and other exports. "Even if Trump does it partially (import the sanctions bill), that still puts pressure on the Russian economy at a time that inflation remains very high, interest rates remain very high, and there are also ruptures going on within the Putin elite," Professor Sussex said. Analysts say Russia's massive bombardments are largely aimed at demoralising the Ukrainian population and breaking morale. But often it can instead harden their resolve, with many residents determined to hold on to some normality. When 24-year-old translator Kateryna emerged after the record strikes on Kyiv this week, she got on with her daily routines. "I took a cold shower, drank two coffees, sat and thought for a bit, realised that for now I can't change anything, then went to work," she said while waiting at a bus stop. "That's it."
News.com.au
16 hours ago
- News.com.au
Bosnia commemorates Srebrenica genocide 30 years on
Thousands of mourners on Friday commemorated in Srebrenica the genocide committed 30 years ago by Bosnian Serb forces, one of Europe's worst atrocities since World War II. The remains of seven victims were laid to rest during the commemorations, which mark the bloodiest episode of Bosnia's inter-ethnic war in the 1990s. They included those of Sejdalija Alic, one of more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys killed by Bosnian Serb forces after they captured the eastern town on July 11, 1995. His grand-daughter Anela Alic, whose father was also killed in the massacre and was buried earlier, came to attend the funeral. "I never saw my father ... and today, my grandfather is being buried, just some of his bones, next to his son. "It's a deep sadness... I have no words to describe it," the 32-year-old added, in tears. She was born in early 1994 after her pregnant mother was evacuated in a Red Cross convoy from the ill-fated town. The victims of Srebrenica, which was at the time a UN-protected enclave, were buried in mass graves. So far about 7,000 victims have been identified and buried while about 1,000 are still missing. In a bid to cover up the crime, the Bosnian Serb forces had the remains removed to secondary mass graves, causing many of the bodies to be shredded by heavy machinery, according to experts. - 'Tombstone to caress' - "For 30 years we have carried the pain in our souls," said Munira Subasic, president of the association Mothers of Srebrenica. She lost her husband Hilmo and 17-year-old son Nermin in the massacre. "Our children were killed, innocent, in the UN-protected zone. Europe and the world watched in silence as our children were killed." The seven victims buried under white tombstones on Friday at the memorial centre after a joint prayer included a 19-year-old man and a 67-year-old woman. The remains of most of the victims are incomplete and in some cases consist only of one or two bones, experts said. Families have waited for years to bury their loved ones, hoping that more remains would be found. But Mevlida Omerovic decided not to wait any longer to bury her husband Hasib. He was killed at the age of 33, at one of five mass-execution sites of the massacre, the only atrocity of Bosnia's 1992-1995 war qualified as genocide by international justice institutions. "Thirty years have passed and I have nothing to wait for anymore," said Omerovic, 55. She wants to be able to visit the grave of her husband, even though only his jawbone will be in the coffin. By visiting the graves the victims' relative try to find some comfort. "I have only this tombstone to caress, to pray next to it," said Sefika Mustafic standing next to the graves of her sons Enis and Salim, who were both teenagers when killed. "I'd like to dream about them but it doesn't work. I've said thousands of times 'Come my children, Come into my dream' ... I say it when I pray, when I come here, but it doesn't work." - Serb denial - Canadian veteran Daniel Chenard, deployed with UN peacekeepers here from October 1993 until March 1994 when the Dutch troops took over, attended commemorations haunted by the feeling of guilt for decades. "I forgave myself... I found peace. I always wanted to tell them (victims' families): 'I apologise... I'm sorry for abandoning you'. "We (UN troops) did what we could ... but the tragedy still happened," the 58-year-old said, in tears. Bosnian Serb wartime political and military leaders Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic were sentenced to life imprisonment by an international tribunal, notably for the Srebrenica genocide. But Serbia and Bosnian Serb leaders continue to deny that the massacre was a genocide. Last year, an international day of remembrance was established by the United Nations to mark the Srebrenica genocide, despite protests from Belgrade and Bosnian Serbs. On Friday, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic voiced condolences to the Srebrenica victims families on behalf of citizens of Serbia calling the massacre a "terrible crime". "We cannot change the past, but we must change the future," he posted on X.
News.com.au
20 hours ago
- News.com.au
High-ranking Ukrainian spy ruthlessly assassinated in daylight Kyiv ambush
Chilling video captured the moment a high-ranking Ukrainian spy was ruthlessly gunned down in a brazen, broad daylight ambush on the streets of Kyiv and left for dead. Col. Ivan Voronych, a senior security officer in Ukraine's Security Service, was crossing the street in the Holosiivskyi district on Thursday when an armed attacker ran up and blasted him with bullets at close range before fleeing, according to disturbing surveillance footage obtained by Ukrainian media and reports. The assailant, who reportedly used a silenced pistol, was seen sprinting across a parking lot outside Voronych's apartment building moments before unleashing five fatal rounds. 'With five shots at close range while leaving the apartment today at 8am, the enemy killer did his dirty work,' Roman Chervinsky, a former Ukrainian intelligence officer, told The Telegraph. He emphasised that Voronych had been 'fighting the enemy since 2014.' Voronych, who led high-level special operations, counter-terrorism and security missions, was found with multiple gunshot wounds and pronounced dead at the scene — with a fellow officer accusing Russia of plotting the vicious assassination, the outlet reported. 'A criminal investigation has been opened into the murder of an SSU employee in Kyiv's Holosivskyi district,' a spokesperson for the security service told Ukrainska Pravada. 'The Security Service and the National Police are taking comprehensive measures to establish all the circumstances of the crime and bring those responsible to justice.' The attack comes nearly three months after senior Russian military general Yaroslav Maskalik was killed in a fiery car explosion in Moscow — one day after the Kremlin launched a deadly strike on Ukraine. A bomb planted in a parked car was remotely detonated in April as Maskalik, deputy head of the Russian Armed Forces' main operations directorate, walked by the car located near his home, law enforcement sources said at the time. Both Russia and Ukraine have conducted targeted killings since the war began in February 2022.
