At least two killed in ‘horrific' Russian attack on Ukraine's Dobropillia
Vadym Filashkin, the governor of eastern Donetsk region, said a 500kg (1,100-pound) bomb was deployed at 5:20pm (14:20 GMT) on Wednesday, when shoppers were out.
He said two people were killed and 22 injured, with eight nearby apartment blocks and eight cars destroyed.
Video posted online showed areas around the shopping centre on fire with smoke billowing skywards.
'Firefighters are extinguishing the blaze as there is a possibility that people are still inside the shopping centre,' Filashkin told Ukrainian television.
'The occupier dropped the bomb at a time when Dobropillia was crowded with people. Many were out shopping. The occupier specifically targeted the shopping centre. All nearby shopping centres have been either destroyed or damaged.'
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, speaking in his nightly video address, described the attack as 'simply horrific, stupid Russian terror. There is no military logic to their strikes, only an effort to take as many lives as possible'.
The bombing comes after Russia fired hundreds of drones, artillery and a ballistic missile at Ukraine overnight and early on Wednesday, defying Trump's call on Monday to reach a peace deal within 50 days or face severe sanctions.
Russia launched 400 Shahed and decoy drones, as well as one ballistic missile, during the night, the Ukrainian air force said. The strikes targeted northeastern Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, Zelenskyy's hometown of Kryvyi Rih in central Ukraine, Vinnytsia in the west, and Odesa in the south.
The latest bombardments in Russia's escalating aerial campaign against civilian areas came ahead of a September 2 deadline set by Trump for the Kremlin to reach a peace deal in the three-year war, under the threat of possible severe sanctions if it does not.
No date has yet been publicly set for a possible third round of direct peace talks between delegations from Russia and Ukraine. Two previous rounds delivered no progress, apart from prisoner swaps.
Trump on Monday pledged to deliver more weapons to Ukraine, including Patriot air defence systems, and threatened to slap additional sanctions on Russia. They were Trump's toughest public comments towards Russian President Vladimir Putin since he returned to the White House nearly six months ago.
But some US lawmakers and European government officials expressed misgivings that the 50-day deadline handed Putin the opportunity to capture more Ukrainian territory before any settlement to end the fighting.
Other US ultimatums to Putin in recent months have failed to persuade the Russian leader to halt attacks.
Tens of thousands of soldiers have been killed in the war, many of them along the more than 1,000-kilometre (620-mile) front line, and Russian barrages of cities have killed more than 12,000 Ukrainian civilians, the United Nations says.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Al Jazeera
6 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
US-EU trade talks: Will the EU chief clinch a deal with Trump?
United States President Donald Trump is scheduled to hold crunch talks with European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen in Scotland after weeks of intense trade talks between the two sides as Brussels aims to ink a deal with Washington to avoid a transatlantic trade war. Von der Leyen, the European Commission president, will meet with the US president at his Turnberry golf club in Scotland on Sunday. European ministers are hoping the meeting will result in a deal to avoid the 30 percent tariffs that Trump has threatened on EU goods. According to people involved in the talks, European negotiators are aiming for tariffs to be set at 15 percent. Trump told reporters on Friday that the bloc 'want[s] to make a deal very badly'. On July 12, Trump threatened to impose the 30 percent tariffs if no agreement could be secured by his deadline, which expires on Friday. That would come on top of the 25 percent tariffs on cars and car parts and 50 percent levies on steel and aluminium already in place. The EU, Washington's biggest trading partner, has been a frequent target of Trump's escalating trade rhetoric with the president accusing the bloc of 'ripping off' the US. In 2024, EU exports to the US totalled 532 billion euros ($603bn). Pharmaceuticals, car parts and industrial chemicals were among the largest exports, according to EU data. Will the Trump-von der Leyen meeting achieve a breakthrough and end the uncertainty in transatlantic trade ties? What are the main differences between the two sides? The US president told reporters at Turnberry on Friday that there are '20 sticking points'. When asked what they were, he said: 'Well, I don't want to tell you what the sticking points are.' At the same time, he described von der Leyen as a 'highly respected woman' and predicted their meeting on Sunday would be 'good', rating the chances of a deal as '50-50'. On the European side, it is understood that a growing number of EU countries are calling for Brussels to push ahead with an already prepared retaliatory tariffs package on 90 billion euros ($109bn) of US goods, including car parts and bourbon, if talks break down. The two sides, which traded 1.6 trillion euros ($1.8 trillion) in goods and services in 2023, have been negotiating since April 9 when Trump paused what he calls his 'reciprocal' tariffs, which he placed on nearly all countries. During that time, the US has been charging a flat 10 percent levy on all EU products as well as 25 percent on cars and 50 percent on steel and aluminium. This month, EU Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic said: 'We have to protect the EU economy, and we need to go for these rebalancing measures.' Still, the bloc is understood to be rife with disagreement over trade policies with the US. While Germany has urged a quick deal to safeguard its industries, other EU members, particularly France, have insisted EU negotiators must not cave in to an asymmetrical deal that favours the US. On Saturday, von der Leyen spokesperson Paula Pinho said: 'Intensive negotiations at technical and political [level] have been ongoing between the EU and US. Leaders will now take stock and consider the scope for a balanced outcome that provides stability and predictability for businesses and consumers on both sides of the Atlantic.' What have the US and EU traded with each other? In 2024, the US-EU goods trade reached nearly $1 trillion, making the EU the single largest trading partner of the US. In total, the US bought $235.6bn more in goods than it sold to the 27 countries that make up the EU. On the other hand, the US earned a surplus on services trade with the EU. The US mainly bought pharmaceutical products from the EU as well as mechanical appliances, cars and other nonrailway vehicles – totalling roughly $606bn. The US exported fuel, pharmaceutical products, machinery and aircraft to the EU to the tune of $370bn. Why have they struggled to ink a deal so far? Like all the nations the US runs a trade deficit with, Trump has long accused the EU of swindling his country and is determined that Brussels adopt measures to lower its goods trade surplus with the US. Washington has repeatedly raised concerns over Europe's value-added tax as well as its regulations on food exports and IT services. Trump has argued that these controls act as nontariff trade barriers. Indeed, Sefcovic recently told the Financial Times that he wants to reduce the US-EU trade deficit by buying more US gas, weapons and farm products. And while European leaders want the lowest tariffs possible, they 'also want to be respected as the partners that we are', French President Emmanuel Macron said on Wednesday. On July 14, meanwhile, Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen told reporters in Brussels that 'we should prepare to be ready to use all the tools'. He added: 'If you want peace, you have to prepare for war.' Negotiators in Scotland are hoping it doesn't come to that. This month, Oxford Economics, an economic forecasting consultancy, estimated that a 30 percent tariff could push the EU 'to the edge of recession'. Countermeasures from the EU would also hit certain US industries hard. European tariffs could reduce US farmers' and auto workers' incomes, which are key Trump constituencies.
Al Jazeera
8 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
Trump's ceasefire push fails to stop Thailand-Cambodia border clashes
Cambodia and Thailand have traded accusations of artillery attacks hours after United States President Donald Trump said both countries had agreed to hash out a ceasefire. The attacks on Sunday came after both sides said they were willing to start talks to end the fighting over their border dispute after Trump spoke to their leaders late on Saturday. Four days after the worst fighting in more than a decade broke out between the Southeast Asian neighbours, the death toll stood above 30, including 13 civilians in Thailand and eight in Cambodia. More than 200,000 people have also been evacuated from border areas in the two countries, authorities said. Cambodia said it fully endorsed Trump's call for an immediate ceasefire. Thailand, on the other hand, said while it was grateful to Trump, it could not begin talks while Cambodia was targeting its civilians, a claim that Phnom Penh has denied. 'We have proposed a bilateral between our foreign ministers to conclude the conditions for a ceasefire and drawing back troops and long-range weapons,' acting Thai Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai told reporters before heading off to visit border areas. But artillery fire erupted on Sunday morning, and both nations blamed each other for the attacks. Cambodia's Ministry of National Defence said Thailand shelled and launched ground assaults on Sunday morning at a number of points along the border. The ministry's spokesperson said heavy artillery was fired at historic temple complexes. The Thai army, meanwhile, said Cambodian forces fired shots into several areas, including near civilian homes, early on Sunday and were mobilising long-range rocket launchers. 'Both governments today … blaming the other side for initiating the attacks, saying they both want a ceasefire but the other side has to meet certain conditions first. … We are reaching this sort of deadlock where neither side is able to stand back,' Al Jazeera's Tony Cheng said, reporting from the Thai province of Surin along the Thai-Cambodia border. 'We just checked in with some contacts on the border. They say they are still hearing exchanges of artillery fire. There were heavy barrages going in from Thailand, most of it from the Thai side going across into Cambodia, but some … rockets coming back in exchange.' Thailand and Cambodia have bickered for decades over undemarcated points along their 817km (508-mile) land border with ownership of the ancient Hindu temples of Ta Moan Thom and the 11th century Preah Vihear central to the dispute. Preah Vihear was awarded to Cambodia by the International Court of Justice in 1962, but tensions escalated in 2008 after Cambodia tried to list it as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and skirmishes over several years killed at least a dozen people. Ceasefire push Trump on Saturday said he had spoken with Phumtham and Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet and they had agreed to meet immediately to quickly work out a ceasefire to end the fighting, which began on Thursday. 'Both Parties are looking for an immediate Ceasefire and Peace,' Trump wrote on social media, adding that tariff negotiations with both the countries were on hold until the fighting stopped. Hun Manet said his foreign minister, Prak Sokhonn, will speak with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio to coordinate with the Thais and warned Bangkok against reneging on any agreement. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also urged both sides on Saturday to 'immediately agree to a ceasefire' and hold talks to find a lasting solution. As fighting continues, those evacuated from areas along the border in both countries are being 'relatively well cared for' at evacuation centres, Cheng said. 'They've got basic things like food, water, a little bit of bedding, but they came with virtually nothing, and they don't know if they're going to be here for days, weeks or even months,' he said from a centre in Surin, where 3,000 people are staying. Civilians on both sides are urging a ceasefire be implemented soon. 'For me, I think it is great if Thailand agreed to stop fighting so both countries can live with peace,' Phnom Penh university student Sreung Nita told the Reuters news agency. A resident in Sisaket in northeastern Thailand, Thavorn Toosawan, told Reuters that 'if there is a ceasefire, things will be better.' 'It's great that America is insisting on the ceasefire because it would bring peace.'
Al Jazeera
11 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,249
Here is how things stand on Sunday, July 27: Fighting Falling debris from destroyed Ukrainian drones disrupted railway power supply and train operations in part of the Volgograd region, the administration of the region in Russia's south said on Sunday. There were no injuries as a result of the attacks, the administration said on Telegram, quoting Governor Andrei Bocharov. Russia downed 99 drones overnight over 12 Russian regions, the Crimean Peninsula and the Black Sea, the Russian Ministry of Defence said. Meanwhile, Russia launched a barrage of drones and missiles in an overnight attack that killed three people in Ukraine's Dnipro and the nearby region on Saturday, Ukrainian officials said. Ukraine's air force said it intercepted 183 drones and 17 missiles, but hits from 10 missiles and 25 drones were recorded in nine locations. Drones once again targeted Moscow, said the city's mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, and an industrial facility in the Penza oblast southeast of the capital, according to the region's governor, Oleg Melnichenko. In the Rostov region, officials said, Ukrainian drones killed two people, and another in Russia's Kursk region on the country's border, regional Governor Alexander Khinshtein said. Russia's Defence Ministry said on Saturday its forces captured two more villages in eastern Ukraine, Zelenyi Hai in the Donetsk region and Maliivka just inside the Dnipropetrovsk region. Ukrainian drones hit a radio and electronic warfare equipment plant in Russia's Stavropol region in an overnight attack on Saturday, an official from the SBU security service told the Reuters news agency. 'Each such attack stops production processes and reduces the enemy's military potential. This work will continue,' the official told the agency. Attacks targeting the plant continued on Sunday. Weapons and military aid Indian firm Ideal Detonators Private Limited, which shipped $1.4m worth of the explosive compound octogen with military uses to Russia in December, said on Saturday it complies with Indian rules and the substance it had shipped was for civilian industrial purposes. The US government has identified the compound as 'critical for Russia's war effort' and has warned financial institutions against facilitating any sales of the substance to Moscow. Diplomacy Russia will launch direct passenger flights from Moscow to North Korea's capital, Pyongyang, on Sunday, Russian authorities said, as the two former communist bloc allies move to improve ties following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The start of regular flights between the capitals for the first time since the mid-1990s, according to Russian aviation blogs, follows the resumption of Moscow-Pyongyang passenger rail service, a 10-day journey, in June. Pope Leo discussed the war in Ukraine on Saturday with Metropolitan Anthony, a senior cleric in the Russian Orthodox Church, in a possible effort to ease ties between the churches strained by Russia's invasion. Ceasefire Peace talks and a settlement in Ukraine have never been on the real agenda of the West, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Saturday, in her first comments on negotiations since Russian and Ukrainian officials held talks on Wednesday. If the West wanted 'real peace' in Ukraine, it would stop supplying Kyiv with weapons, Zakharova said in comments reported by the TASS news agency.
