Moscow temporarily closes airports as Ukraine targets Russia with drones
June 8 (UPI) -- Ukraine targeted Russia with another drone strike on Sunday, causing two airports serving Moscow and a third nearby to temporarily close.
Russia's Federal Agency for Air Transport said in a statement that restrictions had been put in place and later lifted at Moscow's Vnukovo and Domodedovo airports, as well as at the Kaluga airport about a hundred miles southwest of the capital.
"The restrictions were introduced to ensure the safety of civil aircraft flights," the agency said.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said on Telegram that Russia had shot down multiple drones that had flown towards the city overnight.
"Emergency services specialists are working at the site of the falling debris," Sobyanin said.
The Russian Defense Ministry said on Telegram that it intercepted and destroyed 61 Ukrainian drones over the Moscow region and the regions of Bryansk, Belgorod, Kaluga, Tula, Orel, Kursk, and Crimea. It later said another three were destroyed over the Belgorod, Bryansk and Tula regions.
The strikes came after Tula regional governor Dmitry Milyaev said on Telegram on Saturday that a drone crashed into the Azot chemical plant in Novomoskovsk and caused a fire, which was later put out. He said two people had been injured.
Andriy Kovalenko, the head of the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council's Counter-Disinformation Center, said on Telegram that the Azot plant "is one of the key links in the Russian military-industrial complex."
"It is here that explosives are manufactured, including TNT, which is used in artillery shells, aircraft bombs and missiles," Kovalenko alleged. "After the start of the full-scale invasion of Russia, the enterprise was put on wartime mode. Azot works closely with companies that manufacture shells, UAV hulls, and remote mining equipment."
Meanwhile, Russia praised the efforts of its own drone strikes Sunday, saying on Telegram that it had used drones to strike a MaxxPro armored vehicle operated by "Ukrainian militants" in the South Donetsk direction as well as to destroy an ammunition depot and in the Zaporizhia region.
On Saturday, Russia conducted a large-scale attack on the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, killing multiple people as the death toll continued to grow, according to Kharkiv Mayor Igor Terekhov.
The latest escalations in the war come amid a stalled prisoner exchange deal. Both sides have blamed each other for delays in reaching a deal.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
UPI
2 hours ago
- UPI
Proposed federal budget would limit access to student loans
Students take photos in their caps and gowns at Columbia University in New York City on April 26, 2024. File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo June 28 (UPI) -- The latest version of the Senate's federal budget reconciliation bill would limit the availability of student loans for future borrowers by revising federal student loan programs and regulations. The budget bill that already has passed the House of Representatives and the Senate version would place a maximum amount on how much people could borrow through the federal Parent PLUS and graduate student loans to help them pay for their college educations. The House-approved version would limit undergraduate borrowing to $50,000, while the Senate version would limit that amount to $65,000. Graduate students would see limits of $100,000 for most master's programs, while the borrowing limit for professional degrees would be $150,000 in the House version and $200,000 in the Senate bill. Supporters of the proposed limits say they could save taxpayers more than $300 billion and make it harder for college and university administrators to raise tuition costs and fees. Opponents say it would make it harder for disadvantaged students to attend college. "It's abundantly clear that the budget reconciliation package would reduce access to higher education and healthcare and jeopardize [the University of California's] ability to carry out its public service mission," Chris Harrington, U.C. associate vice president for Federal Governmental Relations, said on Monday in a letter to the state's House delegation in May. The House-approved bill would eliminate Pell Grants for part-time students, subsidized loans for undergrads and Graduate PLUS loans for graduate and professional students, according to the University of California. It also would limit eligibility for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and Medicaid benefits for low-income students. The Senate's version of the proposed fiscal year 2026 budget reconciliation bill numbers 940 pages and might be voted on as soon as Saturday night.
UPI
3 hours ago
- UPI
Haitians to lose TPS status in September
June 28 (UPI) -- The Department of Homeland Security is ending Temporary Protected Status for nearly 350,000 Haitians living in the United States as of Sept. 2. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the TPS status for Haiti ends on Aug. 3 and becomes effective 30 days later. "This decision restores integrity in our immigration system and ensures the Temporary Protected Status is actually temporary," DPS officials said on Friday in a news release. "The environmental situation in Haiti has improved enough that it is safe for Haitian citizens to return home," the DHS release continues. DHS officials said Haitian citizens can use the department's mobile app to arrange their return to Haiti. Several natural disasters, including hurricanes, floods and earthquakes, have impacted Haiti over the past decade, including a magnitude 7.2 earthquake in 2021. While DHS officials say such environmental conditions are safe, the State Department since March 2024 has issued a travel advisory cautioning U.S. citizens against visiting Haiti due to crime, civil unrest and limited availability of healthcare services, The Washington Post reported. Noam acknowledged Haitian crime and civil unrest in a federal notice that was released on Friday. "Widespread gang violence in Haiti is sustained by the country's lack of functional government authority," Noem said in the federal notice. "This breakdown in governance directly impacts U.S. national interests, particularly in the context of uncontrolled migration," Noem added. She said it is time for the United States to prioritize its national security. Ending TPS protection affects and endangers more than 500,000 Haitian nationals who are living in the United States, House Haiti Caucus co-chair Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., said in a prepared statement on Saturday. She called it an "act of policy violence that could literally be a death sentence for Haitian nationals." "Haitians of all ages who have planted and grown roots in the United States over the past 15 years are now at risk of being removed from safe communities, taken from their families and having their lives uprooted," Pressley said. She called on the Trump administration to "reverse course" in the matter.
New York Post
4 hours ago
- New York Post
At least 35K Ukrainian children abducted since start of war, forced into Putin's ‘Russification' programs
As least 35,000 Ukrainian children are believed to be missing – abducted by Russian troops and forced into indoctrination programs since the start of the Kremlin's brutal three-year invasion. The children all had the misfortune to live behind what are now Russian lines — the regions of Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson in the southeast of Ukraine. 7 These children from an orphanage in the Donetsk region of Ukraine were brought to a camp in Russia. AP Some were orphans — abducted from care homes or from the battlefield after the death of their parents, Ukrainian authorities said. Other parents were tricked into sending their children on school trips to Crimea, billed as a retreat to escape the fighting, only to never hear from them again, according to reports. 7 Many of the children from the Ukrainian city of Mariupol are believed to have been abducted. Anadolu Agency via Getty Images It's believed the kids captured have been forced into 'Russification' programs — kept in so-called 're-education camps,' according to experts at the Yale Humanitarian Research Lab. The US research team has been working to keep track of Ukrainian children that have disappeared since the start of Russia's 2022 war on Kyiv and has identified dozens of these camps — at least 13 in Belarus and 43 in Russian-annexed Crimea and across mainland Russia. 7 Two Ukrainian children at a camp in Russia. AP There, the kids are being indoctrinated into Russian strongman Vladimir Putin's vision, raised to speak Russian — not Ukrainian — and forced to sing the Russian national anthem daily. Some of the children forcibly removed from their homes were as young as four months, according to researchers. Other kids have reportedly been sent to Kremlin-backed military boot camps, training to fight for Moscow in the brutal war against their own country. 7 Shocking footage on Russian TV showed Ukrainian children assembling weapons. Newsflare Shocking images from Russian state television have shown young Ukrainian boys and girls assembling and firing assault rifles, all while the Russian flag and a portrait of the Russian tyrant loomed in the background. The Kremlin, meanwhile, has claimed to have abducted a staggering 700,000 Ukrainian children from the occupied territories. 7 The Kremlin paraded children taken from Mariupol to mark the first anniversary of the start of Putin's war. Russians have been open about what they've called 'rehoming' Ukrainian children, who have been portrayed as having been abandoned by their families. Moscow's state television has aired news segments where kids arriving from Ukraine are gifted teddy bears by their adopted Russian families. Even the Kremlin's Children's Rights commissioner, Maria Lvova-Belova, has publicly bragged about adopting a boy from the city of Mariupol, which was seized by Russian forces in 2022 following a bloody, months-long siege. 7 Ukrainians have protested for the release of the children taken to Russia. Any attempts to recover the children has been met with stiff resistance from the Kremlin, which has even refused to give Ukrainian authorities a list of their names, according to the Yale team. Only a few hundreds of those forcibly removed were able to escape or return home, with the help of Ukrainian organizations like Bring Kids Back. 7 People in Belgium lighting candles for the children abducted from Ukraine. Getty Images
