3 killed and scores injured as Russia targets Ukraine with new attacks
According to the Ukrainian air force, Russia launched a barrage of 63 drones and decoys at Ukraine overnight. It said that air defenses destroyed 28 drones while another 21 were jammed.
Ukraine's police said two people were killed and six were injured over the past 24 hours in the eastern Donetsk region, the focus of the Russian offensive. One person was killed and 14 others were also injured in the southern Kherson region, which is partly occupied by Russian forces, police said.
The head of the Kharkiv region, Oleh Syniehubov, said that 15 people, including four children, were injured by Russian drone attacks overnight.
Kharkiv city mayor Ihor Terekhov said Russian drones targeted residential districts, educational facilities, kindergartens and other civilian infrastructure.
'Kharkiv is holding on. People are alive. And that is the most important thing,' Terekhov said.
The Russian military has launched waves of drones and missiles in recent days, with a record bombardment of almost 500 drones on Monday and a wave of 315 drones and seven missiles overnight on Tuesday. The recent escalation in aerial attacks has come alongside a renewed Russian battlefield push along eastern and northeastern parts of the more than 1,000-kilometer (over 600-mile) front line.
While Russian missile and drone barrage have struck regions all across Ukraine, regions along the front line have faced daily Russian attacks with short-range exploding drones and glide bombs.
Ukraine hit back with drone raids. Russia's Defense Ministry said that air defenses downed 52 Ukrainian drones early Thursday, including 41 over the Belgorod region that borders Ukraine. Regional Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said three people were injured by Ukrainian attacks Thursday.
The attacks have continued despite discussions of a potential ceasefire in the war. During their June 2 talks in Istanbul, Russian and Ukrainian negotiators traded memorandums containing sharply divergent conditions that both sides see as nonstarters, making any quick deal unlikely.
Speaking at a meeting of leaders of southeast European countries in Odesa, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged the European Union to toughen its latest package of sanctions against Russia. He argued that lowering the cap on the price of Russian oil from $60 to $45 as the bloc has proposed isn't enough.
'Real peace comes with a $30 cap -– that's the level that will truly change thinking in Moscow,' Zelenskyy said.
German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius arrived in Kyiv Thursday on an unannounced visit, noting that the stepped-up Russian attacks on Ukraine send a message from Moscow that it has 'no interest in a peaceful solution at present,' according to German news agency dpa.
Pistorius said his visit underlines that the new German government continues to stand by Ukraine.
'Of course this will also be about how the support of Germany and other Europeans will look in future – what we can do, for example, in the area of industrial cooperation, but also other support,' he said.
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Reuters
19 minutes ago
- Reuters
Russia and Ukraine to hold first peace talks in seven weeks as clock ticks on Trump ultimatum
ISTANBUL, July 23 (Reuters) - Russian and Ukrainian negotiators will meet in Istanbul on Wednesday evening for their first peace talks in more than seven weeks, with Moscow under pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump to strike a deal or face tough new sanctions. The Kremlin played down expectations of any breakthrough at the meeting, which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said this week should focus in part on preparing a summit between himself and Russian President Vladimir Putin. "Naturally, no one expects an easy road. Naturally, this will be a very difficult conversation. The projects (of the two sides) are diametrically opposed," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. A Ukrainian diplomatic source said Kyiv saw a Putin-Zelenskiy meeting as the key requirement for a breakthrough. "The Ukrainian delegation has come to Turkey prepared to take significant steps toward peace and a full ceasefire, but everything will depend on whether the Russian side is willing to take a constructive approach," the source said. A Turkish foreign ministry source said the meeting at the Ciragan Palace was expected to start at 1600 GMT with opening remarks to the two delegations by Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan. Previous talks on May 16 and June 2 led to the exchange of thousands of prisoners of war and the remains of dead soldiers. But those meetings lasted less than three hours in total and made no breakthrough towards ending the war that started with Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Trump has patched up relations with Zelenskiy after a public row with him at the White House in February, and has lately expressed growing frustration with Putin. Last week he threatened heavy new sanctions on Russia and countries that buy its exports unless a peace deal was reached within 50 days, though reaction on financial markets suggested investors were sceptical that he would follow through. Three sources close to the Kremlin told Reuters last week that Putin, unfazed by Trump's ultimatum, would keep on fighting in Ukraine until the West engaged on his terms for peace, and that his territorial demands may widen as Russian forces advance. On Wednesday, Russia said its forces had captured the settlement of Varachyne in Ukraine's Sumy region, where Putin has ordered his troops to create a buffer zone after Ukraine mounted a shock incursion into Russia last year and held onto a chunk of its territory for months. Reuters could not independently confirm the battlefield report. In recent weeks, Russian forces have launched some of their heaviest air attacks of the war, focusing especially on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv. Ukraine has hit back with attacks of its own, and last month inflicted serious damage on Russia's nuclear-capable strategic bomber fleet by smuggling drones close to air bases deep inside the country. Zelenskiy said earlier this week that the agenda for talks was clear: the return of prisoners of war and of children abducted by Russia, and the preparation of a meeting between himself and Putin. Putin turned down a previous challenge from Zelenskiy to meet him in person and has said he does not see him as a legitimate leader because Ukraine, which is under martial law, did not hold new elections when Zelenskiy's five-year mandate expired last year. Russia also denies abducting children. The Kremlin said this week it was unrealistic to expect "miracles" from the talks. At the last meeting on June 2, Russia handed Ukraine a memorandum setting out its key demands, including: full withdrawal of Ukrainian forces from four regions of the country that Russia has claimed as its own; limits on the size of Ukraine's military; enhanced rights for Russian-speakers in Ukraine; and acceptance by Kyiv of neutral status, outside NATO or any other alliance. Ukraine sees those terms as tantamount to surrender, and Zelenskiy described the Russian stance as an ultimatum. Ukraine wants an immediate ceasefire, reparations, international security guarantees and no restrictions on its military strength.
Reuters
19 minutes ago
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Suspect linked to Russian language cybercrime forum arrested in Ukraine
PARIS, July 23 (Reuters) - A person suspected of being the administrator for the Russian language cybercriminal forum was arrested in Ukraine this week, the French public prosecutor's office and the pan-European police body Europol said on Wednesday. Europol said the suspect - whose name has not been given - was thought to have earned more than 7 million euros ($8.20 million) via the forum. "The forum's administrator was not only a technical operator but is believed to have played a central role in enabling criminal activity," a Europol statement said. "Acting as a trusted third party, he arbitrated disputes between criminals and guaranteed the security of transactions. He is also believed to have run a private messaging service tailored to the needs of the cybercriminal underground," it added. Europol said the cybercrime forum had more than 50,000 registered users and served as a key marketplace for stolen data, hacking tools and other illegal services. The suspect was arrested in Kyiv on Tuesday in a police operation involving Ukrainian authorities, according to French police and Europol. ($1 = 0.8536 euros)
The Guardian
21 minutes ago
- The Guardian
‘War is very funny for the first couple of years': how Russia's invasion transformed Ukraine's comedy scene
Anton Tymoshenko is exhausted. Ukraine's most famous standup comedian – Volodymyr Zelenskyy doesn't count, since he is the president – has just returned from a gruelling European tour, involving 36 shows in 50 days. He played in Berlin, Paris and London. And Birmingham, where Tymoshenko tried unsuccessfully to buy Peaky Blinders merchandise. His audiences were made up of Ukrainians living abroad, many refugees. The tour raised nearly half a million dollars, all of which will go to Ukraine's armed forces. As well as being tired, Tymoshenko is angry at the situation his country finds itself in after Russia's invasion. 'War is very funny for the first couple of years. Then it becomes not so funny,' he says, speaking in Kyiv's popular comedy venue, the Underground Standup club. He quotes Mark Twain's observation that humour is tragedy plus time. 'We have tragedy plus tragedy plus tragedy,' he says, after a week in which Moscow has pummelled Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities with hundreds of kamikaze drones and missiles. The war has transformed Ukraine's once small standup scene. A decade ago most comedians spoke in Russian. The well resourced Kremlin flooded Ukrainian channels with Russian programmes and music. In 2022, when Russian tanks arrived, all comedians switched to performing in Ukrainian. In the weeks after Russia's attack they met online, told jokes, and shared content, with some beaming in from enemy-occupied territory. 'The war gave us a cultural boost,' Tymoshenko says. 'Russian comedy isn't really comedy since they don't tell the truth, especially about politics.' Since those difficult early months, standup has become enormously popular. In 2023, Tymoshenko filled Kyiv's 3,000-seat Palace of Ukraine. Last year, he toured North America, performing for the first time in English – a challenge that forced him to test out punchlines with friends. His New Jersey set involved gags about bomb shelters ('even if you tell a bad joke, people will stay') and weapons ('I understand you can't send them all. You need to keep some for your schools.') And Joe Biden ('He's very similar to Ukrainians. He looks like he can die at any second.') He acknowledges a debt to Zelenskyy, whose comedy studio Kvartal 95 was highly successful in Ukraine and noughties Russia, during Vladimir Putin's first years in the Kremlin. Long before he went into politics, Zelenskyy was celebrated as an entertainer and actor. 'Without him we would have had Russian stuff,' Tymoshenko says. At some point, however, the studio developed a 'monopoly on humour', producing dozens of TV shows and films, including the drama Servant of the People. In it, Zelenskyy plays the president, a role that propelled him in 2019 to a real-life landslide election victory. 'They tried to be everywhere and it became bad,' Tymoshenko says. He prefers Zelenskyy as a wartime leader. 'It's cool to have a guy like him in power. You get pretty strong Black Mirror vibes. It's not normal but the world is not normal, so it fits,' he says. Tymoshenko describes his own style of humour as 'pretty dark'. He jokes about death: 'Some people lost nothing. Some people lost everything. The challenge is to find a direction that works for everyone. People are tired of war. You have to find an original way to make them laugh and to not depress them.' Svyat Zagaikavich, the founder of the Underground Standup club, began performing in 2012 in a flat and cafe. After Putin's annexation of Crimea two years later, the club moved to new central premises in a subterranean former Irish pub opposite the Golden Gate, a Kyiv landmark. In Zagaikavich's view, Ukrainian standup has come of age: 'It's really dark humour. There are a lot of jokes about dead Russians. Before, some comedians would show stupid people by talking in Ukrainian. Now they do it by speaking Russian. You joke and do everything in life like it's for the last time.' For those stressed by war, comedy has an important social function, he says. 'We get a lot of feedback, like, 'You saved me from my mental problems.' Earlier we thought we comedians were doing cool work. Now we have a mission. It's to stop people from going crazy,' he says. Zagaikavich presents Ukraine's version of the humorous British quizshow QI. Its ex-host Stephen Fry was in Kyiv in 2022 for a conference on mental health, invited by Ukraine's first lady Olena Zelenska. He visited the club and gave Zagaikavich a signed photo with the words: 'Stephen Fry died here.' On a Sunday in mid-July, 100 people came to Ukraine's QI show, which was recorded in a theatre on Kyiv's much-bombed left bank. 'It's like therapy for us. It brings us together. We're tired of being serious about the war. You need to relax and chill out,' one fan Angelina Gromova, says. Another, Anna Prudii, says she watched Russian comedy before dumping it in 2014 for Ukrainian acts. 'It has helped me a lot. It cheers me up. In the last three years it became very popular,' she says. About Zelenskyy, she was diplomatic: 'I watched his show with my parents. It's of its time.' Comedian Nastya Zukhvala says that when she began doing standup organisers would give one token slot to a female performer. Now comedy is more equal, she says: 'We have more masculine men, running around doing rat-tat-tat. At the same time there is a lot of work for women. Sexism isn't the most effective way of fighting.' Zukhvala, who is a regular QI panellist, says her feminist brand of comedy has become 'rougher' and more patriotic because of the war. 'It's about everyday life. Everyone who lives in such crazy times and who prefers to resist becomes funnier,' she says. She is one of a dozen comedians who have done international tours to raise money for Ukraine's army. Zukhvala visited the UK. It was a mixed experience: there was a low point in Glasgow, she says, when the owner of a fish and chip shop told her to go home and 'kill Putin'. Tymoshenko and Zukhvala have performed all across Ukraine, including in the southern frontline city of Kherson. Russian soldiers and drone operators are camped out just across the Dnipro River. 'The city is almost empty. It's a very intense feeling. It wasn't a standard show. There were a lot of old people,' she says. After three years in Kyiv, Tymoshenko says his parents have recently returned to their home village outside Nikopol, another frontline city under regular artillery and drone fire. He grew up there in the countryside 'playing with sticks', before moving to Kyiv to study political science. The authors he read – Plato and Aristotle – do not reflect the non-ideal world today, a place of 'brute power and money'. He believes there will not be much to laugh about when the war finally ends: 'I'm sure Ukraine will win and Russia will burn. But we've lost so many people. You can't imagine Victory Day as 'Wow!'.' In the meantime, he suggests things are looking up for Ukrainian female comedians. 'We will only have female ones because we men will all have died,' he says blackly.
