Latest news with #Kursk
Al Jazeera
15 hours ago
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,220
Here is how things stand on Saturday, June 28: Fighting Ukraine's military has said it struck four Russian Su-34 warplanes at the Marinovka base outside Russia's city of Volgograd, some 900km (550 miles) from the Ukrainian border. A Russian missile attack has killed at least five people and wounded more than 20 in Samar in Ukraine's southeast, in the second strike on the industrial city in three days. Russian troops have captured the village of Nova Kruhlyakivka in Ukraine's eastern Kharkiv region, Russia's state news agency TASS reported. A Russian attack has damaged an 'important power facility' in Ukraine's southern Kherson region, causing power cuts in some settlements in the region, regional governor Oleksandr Prokudin said. A Ukrainian drone attack on Russia's Kursk region injured a war correspondent from Chinese news outlet Phoenix TV, Russian authorities said, as they urged the United Nations to respond to the incident. Ukraine's air force said it downed 359 out of 363 drones and six of eight missiles launched by Russia in an overnight attack. Russia's drone production jumped by 16.9 percent in May compared with the previous month, data from a think tank close to the government showed, after President Vladimir Putin called for output to be stepped up. Ceasefire deal United States President Donald Trump said he thinks something will happen in Russia's war in Ukraine that would get it 'settled', citing his recent call with Putin but offering no other details. Putin said relations between Russia and the US were beginning to stabilise, attributing the improvement to efforts by President Trump. Putin reiterated that he had 'great respect' for the US leader and was willing to meet him. Putin also said Moscow was ready to hold a new round of peace negotiations with Ukraine, potentially in Istanbul, although the time and venue have yet to be agreed. NATO Lithuania has notified the UN that it is leaving the treaty banning antipersonnel landmines. It joins Latvia, Estonia, Finland and Poland – all NATO and European Union members bordering Russia – in withdrawing from the treaty, citing the increased military danger from their Russian neighbour. The Kremlin said Estonia's stated readiness to host NATO allies' US-made F-35A stealth jets, capable of carrying nuclear weapons, posed a direct threat to Moscow. Putin said Russia was looking to cut its military expenditure from next year, contrasting that with NATO's plan to raise its collective spending goal to 5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in the next 10 years. Sanctions Senator Ron Wyden, the top Senate Finance Committee Democrat, pressed US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to commit to enforcing Ukraine-related sanctions against Russia and to clarify comments about Russia rejoining an international bank payments network. Wyden also sought answers on how the US-Ukraine critical minerals deal and investment agreement would help improve Ukraine's post-war security and not benefit any entity or country that aided Russia's war effort. Ukraine plans to ask the EU to sanction Bangladeshi entities it says are importing wheat taken from Ukrainian territories occupied by Russia, after its warnings to Dhaka failed to stop the trade, a top Ukrainian diplomat in South Asia said.
Arab News
a day ago
- Politics
- Arab News
Chinese journalist hurt by Ukrainian drone attack in Russia: network
BEIJING: A Chinese TV journalist was wounded by a Ukrainian drone attack in Russia's Kursk region while reporting near targeted facilities, his employer said Friday. Lu Yuguang, a reporter with the state-affiliated Phoenix TV, 'was wounded in the head' on Thursday afternoon and was sent to hospital for treatment, the broadcaster said. In a video circulated by Russian state television on Friday, Lu was seen speaking to reporters with a white bandage over his head. Lu was with a film crew in the village of Korenevo at the time of the strike, Russia's foreign ministry said. It accused Kyiv of 'deliberately attacking' journalists and called on 'responsible governments to condemn' it. Beijing's foreign ministry also said it was 'deeply concerned' that a Chinese journalist had been wounded. 'The Chinese side calls on all parties to commit to a political resolution of the Ukraine crisis and jointly work toward easing tensions,' spokesman Guo Jiakun said. China has portrayed itself as a neutral party in Russia's more than three-year war with Ukraine. But Western governments say Beijing's close ties have given Moscow crucial economic and diplomatic support.
Al Arabiya
a day ago
- Politics
- Al Arabiya
Ukrainian drone attack on Kursk injures Chinese reporter
A Ukrainian drone attack on Russia's Kursk region on the border with Ukraine injured a war correspondent from the Chinese news outlet Phoenix TV, Russian authorities said late on Thursday, urging the United Nations to respond to the incident. 'A Ukrainian drone today struck the village of Korenevo in the Korenevsky district,' acting governor of the Kursk region, Alexander Khinshtein, said on the Telegram messaging app. 'A 63-year-old correspondent, Lu Yuguang, who went to the border area on his own, was injured.' Khinshtein said in a later post that the journalist had skin cuts to his head and after treatment, refused hospitalization. Russia's foreign ministry called on the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and other international organizations to 'promptly respond and give a proper assessment' of the incident. 'The targeted attack .... indicates the intention of the Kyiv regime to silence and de facto destroy representatives of any media that seek to convey objective information,' Maria Zakharova, the foreign ministry's spokeswoman, said in a Telegram post. Reuters could not independently verify the reports. There was no immediate response from Ukraine's foreign ministry and President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's office to Reuters' request for comment outside business hours. Phoenix TV reported the incident but has not issued a separate statement. According to Russia's state and official media outlets, Lu has been reporting on the war since its early days. Russia launched the war with a full-scale invasion on Ukraine in February 2022. Lu told Russia's state news agencies that he was feeling fine. 'Western journalists are not visible at all (in Kursk),' Lu said in a video posted by TASS on social media, with his head in bandages, 'We, Chinese journalists, want to convey what happened in the Kursk region.' Russia and Ukraine have launched numerous cross-border attacks since the start of the war. Parts of Kursk were seized and occupied by Ukrainian forces in a surprise offensive in August 2024 before they were driven out earlier this year.
Russia Today
2 days ago
- Politics
- Russia Today
Chinese journalist injured in Ukrainian strike on Russian region
Chinese journalist Lu Yuguang was injured in a Ukrainian drone strike in Russia's western Kursk Region, officials have said. The reporter told TASS that a UAV struck while the Phoenix TV crew was filming an interview with local residents. According to Governor Aleksandr Khinshtein, Lu was taken to hospital with head injuries. He added that Ukrainian forces targeted the village of Korenevo, located less than 30 kilometers from the border. The journalist told TASS he refused hospitalization because his injuries were 'light' and he 'had a lot of work here.' The Russian news agency published a video of Lu with a bandaged head. Lu expressed 'deep gratitude' to Russian combat medics, who treated him at the scene and stitched his wounds. 'There was a lot of blood,' he said, adding that the medics initially feared the injuries were more serious. According to Lu, a first-person view (FPV) kamikaze drone hit the crew as they were speaking to locals outside their homes. 'We were recording a standup when an FPV drone flew by. And that was it,' he told TASS, noting that he was wearing a press vest. 'They did not care.'Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova condemned the attack as a 'terrorist act.' 'The targeted strike on a Chinese news crew shows Kiev's intent to silence and effectively eliminate any media workers seeking objective coverage of the conflict,' she wrote on Telegram. Lu, 63, is a veteran military correspondent who has worked in Russia since the early 2000s. He covered the 2004 terrorist attack on a school in Beslan and has received numerous awards for his work. Since 2022, he has been reporting on the Ukraine conflict, including from the front lines. This is not the first time journalists have been targeted by Ukrainian forces. In March, a Russian Izvestia newspaper crew was hit by artillery fire, killing a journalist, cameraman, and driver, and severely injuring another reporter. Two days later, a Channel One correspondent was killed while on assignment in Russia's Belgorod Region bordering Ukraine.
BBC News
2 days ago
- Politics
- BBC News
Ukrainian forces halt Russian advance in Sumy region, says army chief
The head of Ukraine's army, Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi, has said his troops have stopped Russian advances in the northeastern border region of a visit to the front on Thursday, Syrskyi said the line of combat had been "stabilised" and that the Russian summer offensive in the area had been "choked off".However, Syrskyi also added that he had personally gone to check on fortifications in the region and that more were urgently comments on the successes of the Ukrainian troops in Sumy back recent statements by Ukrainian officials that Russia's pressure on the region was declining. However, the situation remained "volatile", Border Guard spokesperson Andriy Demchenko said earlier this borders the Russian region of Kursk, parts of which were seized and occupied last year by Ukrainian forces in a surprise offensive before being almost totally driven out months Kursk incursion was an embarrassment for Russia and in April President Vladimir Putin announced a plan to create "security buffer zones" along the border to provide "additional support" to areas in Russia which border Ukraine's Kharkiv, Sumy and Chernihiv has been pushing in the Sumy area with renewed effort since then. In late May Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky said 50,000 of Russia's "largest, strongest" troops were concentrated along the border and were planning to create a 10km (6-mile) buffer in maps: Tracking the war with RussiaThere has been criticism about the lack of fortifications in some areas of the Sumy region - and in his statement on Thursday Syrskyi tried to quell growing public concerns over delays in their construction. "Additional fortifications, the establishment of 'kill zones', the construction of anti-drone corridors to protect our soldiers and ensure more reliable logistics for our troops are obvious tasks that are being carried out," he said. However, Syrskyi acknowledged that these improvements had to be done better and more the early days of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the lack of fortifications in certain parts of Ukraine allowed Moscow to make advances across the country - from its northern borders and from the illegally annexed Crimean peninsula. The window of opportunity to build fortifications in Sumy safely and quickly was in autumn 2024, when Ukrainian troops were still advancing in the Russia's border Kursk region and Sumy remained relatively unscathed. Now may be too late, as Russia is undoubtedly well aware of the sections of the front line that lack strong fortifications. In the last several months Moscow has claimed to have captured several villages while pummelling the city of Sumy with heavy missile strikes, killing dozens. A single ballistic missile attack on 13 April killed at least 34 people and injured 117. DeepState, a group that monitors the latest frontline developments in Ukraine, has quoted sources as confirming that combat is raging in various unfortified areas of Sumy. The delays with erecting "much-needed fortifications" or the "low quality of some of the dugouts" could no longer be ignored, DeepState analysts said. Asked about the summer offensive at a forum in St Petersburg last week, Putin said Russia did not "have the goal of capturing Sumy, but I don't rule it out". He said Russian forces had already established a buffer zone of 8-12km in full-scale invasion of Ukraine, launched in February 2022, is now well into its fourth year. Large-scale Russian drone attacks on Ukrainian cities are on the rise. In recent weeks the capital Kyiv was targeted with record numbers of drones that overwhelm air defences and cause deadly explosions. Recent rounds of talks between Ukraine and Russia resulted in large prisoner exchanges but have so far failed to produce any tangible progress towards a ceasefire. Earlier this week Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte said that European and Canadian allies had pledged €35bn (£30bn; $41bn) to Ukraine. But there remains nervousness in Kyiv over the level of US President Donald Trump's commitment to the Ukrainian cause and his volatile relationship with Zelensky. However, Trump said on Wednesday a meeting he held with Zelensky on the sidelines of the Nato summit in The Hague "couldn't have been nicer". He told BBC Ukraine's Myroslava Petsa at a press conference afterwards that he was considering supplying Kyiv with US Patriot air defence missiles to defend itself against Russian strikes. "We're going to see if we could make some available. You know, they're very hard to get," he said.
