Latest news with #UkrainianCivilians
Yahoo
06-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Russian air travel faces major disruption after Ukraine drone attacks
Russia and Ukraine struck each other with hundreds of drones on Sunday, throwing Russian air travel into disarray days after Moscow launched its largest aerial assault in the three-year-old war. Photos circulating on social media showed crowds huddling at Russian airports including key international hubs in Moscow and St Petersburg, as hundreds of flights were delayed or cancelled due to Ukrainian drone strikes on Saturday and overnight, according to Russia's Transport Ministry. The flight disruption hit Moscow's Sheremetyevo and St Petersburg's main Pulkovo airports. Other airports in western and central Russia also faced disruption. Russian air defences shot down 120 Ukrainian drones during the night-time attacks, and 39 more before 2pm local time on Sunday, Russia's Defence Ministry said. It did not say how many had hit targets, or how many had been launched in total. Early on Sunday, Ukrainian drones injured two civilians in Russia's Belgorod region near the border, governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said. The Ukrainian attacks came just days after Russia pummelled Kyiv with waves of drones and missiles overnight into Friday, in what Ukrainian officials called the largest such strike since Moscow's all-out invasion. The seven-hour onslaught killed at least two civilians, wounded dozens more and caused widespread damage, Ukraine said, while Moscow ramped up its push to capture more of its neighbour's land. In total, Russia launched 550 drones and missiles across Ukraine that night, according to the country's air force. The barrages have coincided with a concerted Russian effort to break through parts of the roughly 620-mile front line, where Ukrainian troops are under severe pressure. Large-scale Russian drone strikes on Sunday injured three civilians in Kyiv and at least two in Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city in the north east, officials said. A large Russian attack involving Shahed drones also targeted port infrastructure in Mykolaiv in central Ukraine, according to governor Vitaliy Kim. He reported warehouses and the port's power grid were damaged but there were no casualties. Hours later, Russia launched a glide bomb and a drone at the front-line town of Kostyantynivka in eastern Ukraine, killing four civilians and injuring a fifth, the prosecutor's office said. The drone struck a car in which a married couple were travelling, killing the 39-year-old woman and 40-year-old man on the spot, it said.

Associated Press
06-07-2025
- Politics
- Associated Press
Russia and Ukraine trade drone strikes, disrupting air travel
Russia and Ukraine struck each other with hundreds of drones on Sunday, throwing Russian air travel in disarray, days after Moscow launched its largest aerial assault in the more than 3-year-old war. Photos circulating on social media showed crowds huddling at Russian airports including key international hubs in Moscow and St. Petersburg, as hundreds of flights were delayed or canceled due to Ukrainian drone strikes on Saturday and overnight, according to Russia's Transport Ministry. The flight disruptions hit Moscow's Sheremetyevo and St. Petersburg's main Pulkovo airports. Other airports in western and central Russia also faced disruptions. Russian air defenses shot down 120 Ukrainian drones during the nighttime attacks, and 39 more before 2 p.m. Moscow time (11 GMT) on Sunday, Russia's Defense Ministry said. It did not clarify how many had hit targets, or how many had been launched in total. Early on Sunday, Ukrainian drones injured two civilians in Russia's Belgorod region near the border, its Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said Sunday. The Ukrainian attacks came just days after Russia pummelled Kyiv with waves of drones and missiles overnight into Friday, in what Ukrainian officials called the largest such strike since Moscow's all-out invasion. The seven-hour onslaught killed at least two civilians, wounded dozens more and caused widespread damage, Ukraine said, while Moscow ramped up its push to capture more of its neighbor's land. In total, Russia launched 550 drones and missiles across Ukraine that night, according to the country's air force. The barrages have coincided with a concerted Russian effort to break through parts of the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line, where Ukrainian troops are under severe pressure. Large-scale Russian drone strikes on Sunday injured three civilians in Kyiv and at least two in Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city in the northeast, officials said. A large Russian attack involving Shahed drones also targeted port infrastructure in Mykolaiv in central Ukraine, according to local Gov. Vitaliy Kim. He reported warehouses and the port's power grid were damaged but there were no casualties. Hours later, Russia launched a glide bomb and a drone at the front-line town of Kostyantynivka in eastern Ukraine, killing four civilians and injuring a fifth, the prosecutor's office said. The drone struck a car in which a married couple were travelling, killing the 39-year-old woman and 40-year-old man on the spot, it said. ___ Follow AP's coverage of the war in Ukraine at


BreakingNews.ie
17-06-2025
- Politics
- BreakingNews.ie
Russian missile and drone attack kills 15 and injures dozens in Ukraine
A night-time Russian missile and drone bombardment of Ukraine has killed at least 15 people and injured 156 others while they slept in their homes, local officials said. At least 14 people were killed as explosions echoed across the Ukrainian capital for almost nine hours during the night, Kyiv City Military Administration head Tymur Tkachenko said. Advertisement The bombardment demolished a nine-storey residential building, destroying dozens of apartments. Russia fired more than 440 drones and 32 missiles at Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said, calling the Kyiv attack 'one of the most terrifying strikes' on the capital. A Russian drone attacks a building during Russia's massive missile and drone air attack in Kyiv (Efrem Lukatsky/AP) Ukraine's Interior Ministry said 139 people were injured in Kyiv. Mayor Vitali Klitschko announced that Wednesday would be an official day of mourning. It was one of the deadliest attacks on Kyiv in recent months and came after two rounds of direct peace talks failed to make progress on ending the war, now in its fourth year. Advertisement Russia has repeatedly hit civilian areas of Ukraine with missiles and drones. The attacks have killed more than 12,000 Ukrainian civilians, according to the United Nations. Russia says it strikes only military targets. Russia has in recent months stepped up its aerial attacks. It launched almost 500 drones at Ukraine on June 10 in the biggest overnight drone bombardment of the war. Russia also pounded Kyiv on April 24, killing at least 12 people in its deadliest assault on the capital in eight months. The intensified long-range strikes have coincided with a Russian summer offensive on eastern and north-eastern sections of the 620-mile front line, where Ukraine is short-handed and needs more military support from its western partners. Uncertainty about US policy on the war has fuelled doubts about how much help Kyiv can count on. Advertisement Mr Zelensky was set to meet US President Donald Trump at a G7 summit in Canada on Tuesday and press him for more help, but the White House announced Mr Trump would return early to Washington on Monday night because of tensions in the Middle East. Mr Zelensky is trying to prevent Ukraine from being sidelined in international diplomacy as tensions escalate in the Middle East and concerns remain over US trade tariffs. Rescuers run to a shelter to hide from a Russian air raid (Efrem Lukatsky/AP) Mr Trump said earlier this month it might be better to let Ukraine and Russia 'fight for a while' before pulling them apart and pursuing peace, even as European leaders have urged him to pressure Russian President Vladimir Putin into accepting a ceasefire and compromising in peace talks. Ukraine's foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, said Russia's attacks during the G7 summit showed Mr Putin's 'total disrespect' for the US and other countries. Advertisement 'Russia not only rejects a ceasefire or a leaders' meeting to find solutions and end the war. It cynically strikes Ukraine's capital while pretending to seek diplomatic solutions,' Mr Sybiha wrote on social media. Ukrainian forces have hit back against Russia with their own domestically produced long-range drones. The Russian military said it downed 203 Ukrainian drones over 10 Russian regions between Monday evening and Tuesday morning. Russian civil aviation agency Rosaviatsia reported briefly halting flights overnight in and out of all four Moscow airports, as well as the airports in the cities of Kaluga, Tambov and Nizhny Novgorod, as a precaution. Advertisement The overnight Russian drone strikes, meanwhile, also struck the southern Ukrainian port city of Odesa, killing one person and injuring 17 others, according to Oleh Kiper, head of the regional administration. Mr Putin 'is doing this simply because he can afford to continue the war', Mr Zelensky said. 'He wants the war to go on. It is troubling when the powerful of this world turn a blind eye to it.' Interior minister Ihor Klymenko examines the site of a missile strike in Kyiv (Efrem Lukatsky/AP) The Russian attack delivered 'direct hits on residential buildings,' the Kyiv City Military Administration said in a statement. A US citizen died in the attack after suffering shrapnel wounds, interior minister Ihor Klymenko told reporters. Thirty apartments were destroyed in a single residential block after it was struck by a ballistic missile, Mr Klymenko said. 'We have 27 locations that were attacked by the enemy. We currently have over 2,000 people working there, rescuers, police, municipal services and doctors,' he told reporters at the scene of one of the attacks. Olena Lapyshniak, 49, was shaken from the strike that nearly levelled her apartment building. She heard a whistling sound and then two explosions that blew out her windows and doors. 'It's horrible, it's scary, in one moment there is no life,' she said. 'There's no military infrastructure here, nothing here, nothing. It's horrible when people just die at night.'


BreakingNews.ie
03-06-2025
- General
- BreakingNews.ie
Zelensky condemns ‘brutal' rocket attack after four killed in Ukrainian city
A Russian attack on the Ukrainian city of Sumy on Tuesday, in which at least four people were killed and many others injured, was described by President Volodymyr Zelensky as 'brutal'. According to authorities, a barrage of multiple rockets struck apartment buildings and a medical facility in the centre of the north-eastern city a day after direct peace talks made no progress on ending the three-year war. Advertisement Mr Zelensky said one of the rockets fired at Sumy pierced the wall of an apartment building but failed to detonate. 'That's all you need to know about Russia's 'desire' to end this war,' Mr Zelensky wrote in a post on Telegram. 'It is clear that without global pressure, without decisive action from the United States, Europe, and everyone in the world who holds power, (Russian president Vladimir) Putin will not agree even to a ceasefire.' At talks in Istanbul on Monday, delegations from the warring countries agreed to swap dead and wounded troops. But their terms for ending the war remained far apart. Advertisement Russian President Vladimir Putin (Gavriil Grigorov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP) The war has killed more than 12,000 Ukrainian civilians, according to the United Nations, as well as tens of thousands of soldiers on both sides along the roughly 620-mile front line where the war of attrition is grinding on despite US-led efforts to broker a peace deal. Though Russia has a bigger army and more economic resources than Ukraine, a spectacular Ukrainian drone attack that Ukrainian officials said damaged or destroyed more than 40 warplanes at air bases deep inside Russia was a serious blow to the Kremlin's strategic arsenal and its military prestige. Both Mr Zelensky and Mr Putin have been eager to show US president Donald Trump that they share his ambition to end the fighting, thereby aiming to avoid possible punitive measures from Washington. Ukraine has accepted a US-proposed ceasefire, but the Kremlin effectively rejected it. Mr Putin has made it clear that any peace settlement has to be on his terms. Advertisement A senior Ukrainian delegation led by first deputy prime minister and economy minister Yuliia Svyrydenko has travelled to Washington for talks about defence, sanctions and post-war recovery, Andrii Yermak, the head of Ukraine's presidential office, said. The delegation will meet with representatives from both major US political parties, as well as with advisers to Mr Trump, Mr Yermak added. Dmitry Medvedev, a former Russian president who now serves as deputy head of the country's Security Council chaired by Mr Putin, indicated there would be no let-up in Russia's invasion of its neighbour. 'The Istanbul talks are not for striking a compromise peace on someone else's delusional terms but for ensuring our swift victory and the complete destruction of (Ukraine's government),' he said. Advertisement In an apparent comment on the latest Ukrainian strikes, he declared that 'retribution is inevitable'. 'Our army is pushing forward and will continue to advance,' Mr Medvedev said, adding that 'everything that needs to be blown up will be blown up, and those who must be eliminated will be'. Ukrainians on the streets of Kyiv welcomed their country's stunning drone strike on Russian air bases but were gloomy about the chances for a peace agreement. The Russians 'won't negotiate peace with anyone,' said 43-year-old Ukrainian serviceman Oleh Nikolenko. 'Russia has invested too many resources in this war to just … stop for nothing.' Advertisement Anastasia Nikolenko, a 38-year-old designer, said diplomacy cannot stop the fighting. 'We need to show by force, by physical force, that we cannot be defeated,' she said. Russia has recently expanded its attacks on Sumy and in the Kharkiv region following Mr Putin's promise to create a buffer zone along the border that might prevent long-range Ukrainian attacks hitting Russian soil. Sumy is about 15 miles from the Russian border. It had a prewar population of around 250,000.


BreakingNews.ie
03-06-2025
- General
- BreakingNews.ie
Zelensky condemns ‘brutal' rocket attack after three killed in Ukrainian city
A Russian attack on the Ukrainian city of Sumy on Tuesday, in which at least three people were killed and many others injured, was described by President Volodymyr Zelensky as 'brutal'. According to authorities, a barrage of multiple rockets struck apartment buildings and a medical facility in the centre of the north-eastern city a day after direct peace talks made no progress on ending the three-year war. Advertisement Mr Zelensky said one of the rockets fired at Sumy pierced the wall of an apartment building but failed to detonate. 'That's all you need to know about Russia's 'desire' to end this war,' Mr Zelensky wrote in a post on Telegram. 'It is clear that without global pressure, without decisive action from the United States, Europe, and everyone in the world who holds power, (Russian president Vladimir) Putin will not agree even to a ceasefire.' At talks in Istanbul on Monday, delegations from the warring countries agreed to swap dead and wounded troops. But their terms for ending the war remained far apart. Advertisement Russian President Vladimir Putin (Gavriil Grigorov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP) The war has killed more than 12,000 Ukrainian civilians, according to the United Nations, as well as tens of thousands of soldiers on both sides along the roughly 620-mile front line where the war of attrition is grinding on despite US-led efforts to broker a peace deal. Though Russia has a bigger army and more economic resources than Ukraine, a spectacular Ukrainian drone attack that Ukrainian officials said damaged or destroyed more than 40 warplanes at air bases deep inside Russia was a serious blow to the Kremlin's strategic arsenal and its military prestige. Both Mr Zelensky and Mr Putin have been eager to show US president Donald Trump that they share his ambition to end the fighting, thereby aiming to avoid possible punitive measures from Washington. Ukraine has accepted a US-proposed ceasefire, but the Kremlin effectively rejected it. Mr Putin has made it clear that any peace settlement has to be on his terms. Advertisement A senior Ukrainian delegation led by first deputy prime minister and economy minister Yuliia Svyrydenko has travelled to Washington for talks about defence, sanctions and post-war recovery, Andrii Yermak, the head of Ukraine's presidential office, said. The delegation will meet with representatives from both major US political parties, as well as with advisers to Mr Trump, Mr Yermak added. Dmitry Medvedev, a former Russian president who now serves as deputy head of the country's Security Council chaired by Mr Putin, indicated there would be no let-up in Russia's invasion of its neighbour. 'The Istanbul talks are not for striking a compromise peace on someone else's delusional terms but for ensuring our swift victory and the complete destruction of (Ukraine's government),' he said. Advertisement In an apparent comment on the latest Ukrainian strikes, he declared that 'retribution is inevitable'. 'Our army is pushing forward and will continue to advance,' Mr Medvedev said, adding that 'everything that needs to be blown up will be blown up, and those who must be eliminated will be'. Ukrainians on the streets of Kyiv welcomed their country's stunning drone strike on Russian air bases but were gloomy about the chances for a peace agreement. The Russians 'won't negotiate peace with anyone,' said 43-year-old Ukrainian serviceman Oleh Nikolenko. 'Russia has invested too many resources in this war to just … stop for nothing.' Advertisement Anastasia Nikolenko, a 38-year-old designer, said diplomacy cannot stop the fighting. 'We need to show by force, by physical force, that we cannot be defeated,' she said. Russia has recently expanded its attacks on Sumy and in the Kharkiv region following Mr Putin's promise to create a buffer zone along the border that might prevent long-range Ukrainian attacks hitting Russian soil. Sumy is about 15 miles from the Russian border. It had a prewar population of around 250,000.