Ukraine fights back against Russia with deadly drone strike
The targeted facility, identified as the Kupol plant, manufactures drones and air defense systems, and sustained direct hits, causing a fire.
The audacious attack, occurring deep within Russian territory, underscores Ukraine 's focus on developing long-range weaponry and increasing domestic drone productio n.
Both sides in the conflict are increasingly relying on sophisticated drone technology, with Russia having launched a record number of drones at Ukraine recently.
The incident highlights the escalating drone warfare and occurs amid ongoing uncertainty regarding future US military aid to Ukraine.
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Telegraph
an hour ago
- Telegraph
British soldier killed operating drones on Ukraine front line
A former British Army soldier has been killed while serving as a drone operator in Ukraine. Ben Leo Burgess, from Portsmouth, Hampshire, volunteered to join the Ukrainian fight against Russia in 2022 and saw action in some of the most brutal battles of the war. The 33-year-old, who went by the call sign 'Budgie', served at the front for three years until he was killed in the village of Andriivka in Ukraine's Sumy region on June 20, according to local reports. Mr Burgess, from the 78th Air Assault Regiment, was first deployed to the Zaporizhzhia region in south-east Ukraine with the artillery, before moving on to medical evacuations further east in Donetsk. He later specialised in flying first-person-view drones. His friend and fellow British volunteer, identified only by the call sign 'Azrael', told the Kyiv Post: 'He was among the best pilots we had. He came to Ukraine because he truly believed in its freedom. And he died fighting for that.' 'He fought well, fought bravely,' he added. 'We were the last two foreign fighters in our regiment.' 'He was my family here. I've lost many friends in this war – he's my biggest loss.' 'Thank you for protecting' A funeral was held for Mr Burgess in Kyiv on Monday, which was attended by 40 friends, family and soldiers from his regiment. The Ukrainian national anthem was played and both the Ukrainian and British flags were draped over his coffin. Mourners then went to the city's Maidan Square to plant a flag for him at a memorial for fallen soldiers. Handwritten messages on the flag read: 'Thank you for protecting', 'Love you brother, until we meet again', and 'Forever in my mind, heart, and soul'. A Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office spokesman said: 'We are supporting the family of a British man who has died in Ukraine and are in contact with the local authorities.'
Telegraph
2 hours ago
- Telegraph
India is an enemy, not a friend or a neutral
Today, India commissioned a new warship, the INS Tamal. She is the latest in a line of eight Talwar-class stealth frigates. Similar in displacement and length to our own Type 23 frigate, superficially at least, she has a similar array of weapons and sensors. The one exception being the BrahMos anti-ship and land attack missile, theoretically a beast of a weapon with a range over 500 miles at speeds up to Mach 3, which would be far in excess of anything we have. But there is a problem. Tamal was built by Russia in their Yantar shipyard in Kaliningrad. For those of you who follow the Indian Navy, that they have some of their ships built by Russia will not come as news. Already an aircraft carrier, 50 per cent of their submarines and the Talwar class accounts for about 20 per cent of their fleet. Many of these programmes date back decades but of course, the international climate has changed rather a lot. India's dependence on Russia for warships is at least reducing, but should it not already be close to zero? Meanwhile, India's trade in Russian oil reeks of duplicity. Despite Western sanctions, India's refiners guzzle discounted crude, often shipped by dark fleet vessels dodging and falsifying their AIS tracking. By actively engaging with this trade, New Delhi flouts global rules, reaping economic rewards while feigning neutrality. The government's coy silence on sanctioned oil flowing through Indian ports betrays a calculated dodge of accountability, undermining efforts to choke Russia's war chest. India is financing Putin's atrocities. Dark fleet ships thrive with India's tacit aid. Russian insurers secured New Delhi's nod in April 2025 to cover tankers shunned by Western firms. This greenlights sanctioned oil deliveries, breaching the G7's $60-per-barrel cap. India's lack of oversight lets these old and poorly maintained ghost ships flood its ports, with Russian crude imports hitting a 10-month peak in May. Meanwhile President Modi surveys all with eyes and mouth firmly closed. His Moscow visits in 2024–2025 saw dark fleet deals, only curbed after US prodding this January. Modi's refusal to address insurance loopholes or vessel opacity shows a man who doesn't care about right and wrong, only money. He is quite willing to finance Putin if it means cheaper oil: in this, he is an enemy of the West, not a friend and not a neutral. Militarily the dependence on Russian equipment doesn't make much sense either. We are increasingly seeing how poor some Russian kit is. I suggested that the BrahMos was an impressive missile system earlier and, on paper at least, it is. But manufacturers' brochures and warfighting reality can be very different things. Putin's supposedly unstoppable Kinzhal and Zircon weapons have both proven to be very stoppable using American made interceptors, and by no means their best ones either. To give another example, I sailed up the Elbe in company with the Tamal's sister ship, the INS Teg, on her maiden voyage back in 2012. It was very clear from my position 100 yards astern of her that she was unable to maintain the ordered speed of six knots required to keep formation. It was clear because every time she pulsed one engine to try and do so, huge plumes of black smoke belched out of her funnels and onto nearby sailing vessels. Speaking to one of her senior officers once alongside it became clear that 10 knots was her minimum sustainable speed (using just one engine) and that they had had to place sentries all the way up the funnels such was the risk of fire from the build-up of soot as they tried to move slower than that. Maybe she was running on a tank of Russian oil just to add insult to injury, I don't know. The point is, either by design incompetence, or political interference leading to the same, India had acquired a ship that was unable to move slowly through the water. This will never appear on a brochure but practically, of course, it is a serious problem: an anti-submarine frigate that cannot move slowly and quietly is not a great deal of use. Another problem is choosing a country currently that is at war to service your systems and parts. The contract to deliver the S-400 air defence units is seemingly going ahead despite the number of missiles Russia has burned through defending against Ukrainian counterattacks. And this before we get to how much less effective the S-400 has been in real life compared to the claims. Tanks, rifles, fighter jets and nuclear submarines can be added to missiles and ships on a list that looks set to endure for decades. In sum, Indian dependence on Russian weapons is slowly reducing but it could not be clearer that this isn't from any desire to do the right thing. New Delhi's unhelpful practices around illegal Russian oil are rapidly increasing. And, speaking to a recently retired senior official this morning, India's neighbours get the same message – it's India first and the rest of you be damned. Soon India is going to have to choose a side, or we're going to have to treat them the way they're basically treating us: as an enemy.
The Guardian
2 hours ago
- The Guardian
US says it has halted healthcare fraud schemes worth nearly $15bn
The US justice department said on Monday that it halted a series of healthcare fraud schemes that sought to bilk the federal government out of $14.6bn. The operation, which the department called the largest healthcare fraud initiative in its history, led to criminal charges against 324 defendants and the seizure of more than $245m in cash, luxury cars and other assets. The actual loss to the US government totaled about $2.9bn, officials said. 'Today marks a decisive moment in our fight to protect American taxpayers from fraudsters and to defend the integrity of America's healthcare system,' Matthew Galeotti, the head of the justice department's criminal division, told reporters during a press conference. Those charged include 93 doctors and other medical professionals accused of submitting false claims to government healthcare programs like Medicare and Medicaid. Some of the schemes were run by transnational criminal organizations based outside the US, that have been perpetrating increasingly complex fraud operations targeting the American healthcare system, justice department officials said. One such scheme, which prosecutors said was run out of Russia and eastern European countries, led to charges against 19 defendants, 12 of whom have been arrested. The group used a network of foreign straw owners to buy dozens of US medical supply companies and, using stolen American identities, submitted more than $10bn in fraudulent claims to Medicare, according to the justice department. Among those whose identities were compromised was Gerald Quindry, a 73-year-old retired engineer on Medicare. He was billed $15,500 for urinary catheters, though his doctor never ordered them nor did Quindry want nor receive them, as the Washington Post reported. Quindry – who told the Post, 'obviously, somebody deserves to be in jail' over the plot – had complained to Medicare, but program representatives had initially seemed unbothered. 'It's not being done by small-time operators,' said Dr Mehmet Oz, the administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. 'These are organized syndicates who are designing to hurt America.' Guardian staff contributed
