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Russia pounds Ukraine with hundreds of drones, killing at least one person

Russia pounds Ukraine with hundreds of drones, killing at least one person

BreakingNews.ie6 days ago
Russia has launched hundreds of drones at Ukraine, killing at least one person in a stepped-up bombing campaign that has dashed hopes for a breakthrough in efforts to end the war.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia fired more than 300 drones overnight into Saturday, along with more than 30 cruise missiles.
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One person died when Russian forces attacked the Black Sea port city of Odesa with more than 20 drones and a missile, the city's mayor, Hennadii Trukhanov, said, while five people were rescued when a fire broke out in a residential high-rise building.
A residential building burns in Odesa (Ukrainian Emergency Service/AP)
According to Mr Zelensky, six other people were wounded in the attack on Odesa, including a child, and critical infrastructure was damaged in Ukraine's north-eastern Sumy region.
The Ukrainian president also thanked international leaders 'who understand how important it is to promptly implement our agreements' aimed at boosting Ukraine's defence capabilities, including joint weapons production, drone manufacturing, and the supply of air defence systems.
Moscow has been intensifying its long-range attacks on Ukrainian cities. It often batters Ukraine with more drones in a single night than it did during some entire months in 2024, and analysts say the barrages are likely to escalate.
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On July 8, Russia unleashed more than 700 drones — a record.
Russia's Defence Ministry said it shot down 71 Ukrainian drones overnight into Saturday. Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin said 13 were shot down as they approached the Russian capital.
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‘Good work, guys. Surgical' — British guns rattle Russia
‘Good work, guys. Surgical' — British guns rattle Russia

Times

time12 minutes ago

  • Times

‘Good work, guys. Surgical' — British guns rattle Russia

When the big gun booms, the earth shakes. The shockwave from the AS90 self-propelled howitzer is so strong it pulverises falling raindrops, sending a fine spray into the faces of the Ukrainian artillery crew as they launch a high explosive round towards the Russian trench line. 'Waiting…' a voice crackled over a radio, then: 'Fire, Fire!' Again the behemoth vehicle rocked back on its haunches. 'Load!' came the radio command. A Ukrainian loader sweated in the dugout as he fed the 45kg shells into 45 tonnes of British engineering. Another was setting the fuses, while inside the mobile howitzer, a gunner manoeuvred the cannon to the instructions from his commander. 'Aim point Azimuth [number]! Waiting … Fire, Fire!' The crew fired six rounds in quick succession, targeting five Russian soldiers in a trench, and after each shot making minor adjustments to their aim. Then, as quickly as they had taken their positions, the soldiers filed back into their bunker. An enemy 'FPV' [First Person View] suicide drone was hovering above, hunting for the crew's firing position. Its Russian operator was too late to save his comrades, but was no doubt looking to exact revenge. The crew of Ukraine's 2nd Self-Propelled Artillery Battery, Third Assault Brigade, hunkered down in their bunker under a tree line: eight men crowded into a cramped, muddy space big enough for only two bunkbeds and two desks. One soldier played back video from their own drone above the Russian lines, to show their work. • How Kyiv is grappling with Kremlin assassins on the home front 'That was our shot. We fired, and here is the impact,' said 'Bear', the radio operator, as he watched the blast strike a treeline in puffs of smoke. 'Look, it hit the target. There's the bunker in the tree line. Here's another one — hitting the same place where they're hiding. That's good work, guys. Surgical.'In May the British Army retired its 89 AS90s, handing them all over to Ukraine. The Third Assault Brigade received at least 12, replacing their Soviet-era 2S19 Msta-S. They are pleased with their new weapon. 'If the gun is in good condition — if we've checked it and everything's fine — it works really well. It feels like it was built with the operator in mind,' said 'Skrypa', the crew commander. The tracked vehicle's interior is spacious compared with their old Soviet artillery, and it is better armoured and better absorbs the powerful, brain-shaking vibrations of the 155mm gun. They have also withstood an intensity of use they were never designed for, according to the crew, who allow for some wear and tear. 'These are good guns. They can fire up to eight times more than the declared barrel lifespan,' Lev, a sergeant, said. 'But after 8,000 shots, maybe you'll hit on the fifth shot instead of the third.' The Third Assault Brigade is an elite unit comprised only of volunteers, motivated by strong nationalist sentiment. They are holding the Russians back around the strategic town of Izyum, which was occupied, then liberated, in the first year of the war. Its recapture would allow the Russians to bear down on Ukraine's army further south in the Donbas, cutting key supply lines, so General Syrsky has deployed one of his best brigades there and ordered them to hold. In other areas of the front the Ukrainians are being gradually driven back, hampered by a dire lack of infantry. The key towns of Pokrovsk and Kostyantynivka are being encircled and slowly reduced to rubble. By contrast, the Third Assault Brigade have a full complement and have held the Russians to a crawl for more than a year, despite intense assaults. 'When the enemy begins pushing toward our infantry, we engage to stop them from even getting close,' Skrypa said. 'I had a situation where about 30 [Russians] started gathering in a tree line, preparing to attack our guys — storm troopers. But they didn't make it. We fired several shells, and that was it, none of them wanted to come back.' • Putin gives Russian passport to US citizen who spied on Ukraine The Ukrainians' use of British AS90s has pleased their UK allies. 'The UK's AS90 artillery platforms, which with its high rate of fire, survivability and good mobility has made it a highly effective tool in halting Russian attacks,' Luke Pollard, the minister for the armed forces, said. 'The UK's support for Ukraine remains ironclad. That is why we are stepping up on a 50-day drive to arm Ukraine and force Putin to the negotiating table.' Initially the UK planned to send only 30 howitzers, which were transferred in January 2023. Yet the Ukrainian crews have proved so capable they were gifted all of them. The artillery systems, designed in the 1990s, were retired by the British Army because of their age and their lumbering lack of mobility for the modern battlefield. But they are still proving their worth in Ukraine and have become a high priority target for Russian drones designed in 2025. 'There was one incident when we got hit by a winged drone. It hit near our ­firing position. But since we always use camouflage nets and branches, the cumulative charge only scratched the armour a little,' Skrypa recalled. 'Another time the net caught fire — it started spreading toward the gun, but we managed to put it out in time. First two FPVs hit our firing point, then we extinguished the flames and went back to our position. The third drone hit our transport vehicle — the regular one we drove in on. It burnt down completely.' The men cracked jokes in the bunker to relieve the tension while waiting to find out if the Russian drone had found either the gun emplacement or their bunker. Bear tracked its signal on a screen that shows any aircraft emitting a radio signal. The last line of defence against drones is a simple shotgun, but the Ukrainians have now developed cartridges that can be loaded into the magazine of an assault rifle. They can be fired in bursts, creating a spread of shrapnel that increases the chance of hitting an incoming explosive drone. After an anxious few minutes, the Russian drone started moving away. 'The air is clear,' says Bear, looking up from the screen. There are newer drones, controlled by long strands of fibre optic cable, that give off no radio signal and that his system cannot detect, he warned. Then the crew returned to resume their firing.

Ukraine's Zelenskiy sets target for interceptor drone production
Ukraine's Zelenskiy sets target for interceptor drone production

Reuters

time42 minutes ago

  • Reuters

Ukraine's Zelenskiy sets target for interceptor drone production

July 25 (Reuters) - President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Friday toured a factory producing interceptor drones, increasingly seen as a solution to protecting Ukrainian cities from Russian air attacks, and said a goal had been set to make up to 1,000 of the weapons each day. Zelenskiy, speaking in his nightly video address, said newly-appointed Defence Minister Denys Shmyhal had reported on foreign assistance that would enable Ukraine to "ensure a reliable flow of weapons for Ukrainian soldiers." "I called for preparations for a Technology Staff meeting, specifically focused on drones," he said. "A plan has been approved to reach production of 500-1,000 interceptor drones per day. The deadline has been set and achieving this is the personal responsibility of every official involved." Zelenskiy noted earlier this month that interceptor drones had proved efficient at downing waves of Russian attack drones directed at Ukrainian cities. The president has long focused on manufacturing and developing drones, an industry that was virtually non-existent when Russia launched its full-scale invasion of its smaller neighbour in February 2022. He has turned his attention in recent weeks to interceptor drones as an effective way to parry Russian attacks and last month pointed to increased production figures. Air Force spokesperson Yuri Ihnat said last month that developing interceptor drones would help Ukraine use its resources more rationally in fending off Russian attacks, rather than relying on missiles and aircraft.

Ukrainian model was 'scalped' with her hair shorn by Dubai party 'abusers' before she was found horrifically injured, her mother claims
Ukrainian model was 'scalped' with her hair shorn by Dubai party 'abusers' before she was found horrifically injured, her mother claims

Daily Mail​

time2 hours ago

  • Daily Mail​

Ukrainian model was 'scalped' with her hair shorn by Dubai party 'abusers' before she was found horrifically injured, her mother claims

A seriously injured Ukrainian 'Porta Potty party model' had 'her hair shorn with a knife and was scalped' in the 'abuse' she suffered in Dubai. OnlyFans model Maria Kovalchuk, now 21, suffered a broken spine and limbs as well as head wounds and a scarred face. She was discovered in a coma on a roadside in March after going missing. She was 'tortured' by Russians in Dubai, not 'sheikhs' at a so-called 'Porta Potty' party, as had been reported, she has claimed. But exactly how she was left close to death remains a mystery. Now new details have emerged of the horrific 'abuse' suffered by Maria who is now learning to walk on crutches at a hideaway in Norway being cared for by her mother Anna, 40. Medical images revealed today show the appalling giant knife scar extending from her forehead to the top of her skull. In an interview on Ukrainian TV show Hovoryt vsia kraina, her mother said she saw how her daughter had been scalped when she found her in a Dubai hospital after her appalling ordeal. 'It was a shock,' said Anna. 'If you saw the stitches on the head, how the scalp [had to be] sewn back on….' The anguished mother demonstrated to TV host Oleksii Sukhanov how she believes a knife was used to savagely wound Maria, who has no memory of the alleged attack which almost killed her. 'My impression is that it was just done like this, with a knife, and right across the face,' she said. Sukhanov urged her not to highlight how a knife cut her daughter's face and scalp, saying she 'has already suffered enough'. The mother said: 'It looked as if it was done with a knife from the centre of the head all the way down to the eye, and the hair was cut off.' She believes the hair was removed with a knife as part of the abuse she suffered in Dubai after attending a party over several days at a five star hotel. 'Why the hair was cut is unclear, because it wasn't done at the hospital, the nurses told me that and confirmed it,' said Anna. 'The hair had been lifted upwards and cut off. 'They wouldn't have been able to lift it like that in hospital, because there was a massive wound on the head.' Anna said that after her ordeal Maria had 'three operations on one leg, three on the other, two on her spine, and one on her shoulder blade' after the alleged brutal beatings. 'One leg has an open fracture with ten centimetres [4 inches] of bone missing. 'She currently has an implant from the hip down. 'That leg is now paralysed, with no sensation.' Two wealthy Russians accused of involvement in the alleged abuse have gone public to deny any part in her horrific injuries. They said they were at a three day party with Maria but had nothing to do with harming her. Dubai police also examined a theory that Maria had left the party and five hours later sought to commit suicide by humping eight floors from a nearby construction site. But a neurosurgeon who examined the model concluded her wounds were not consistent with such a fall. Rather, the wounds suggested Maria being beaten, and hit by a car, or thrown from one. 'She had tearing under both armpits and a broken collarbone—like she'd been dragged,' said Anna. 'Then I believe they beat her and threw her from the car.' The prosecutor in Dubai closed the suicide case, she said. But this means no-one has been brought to justice for Maria's appalling wounds. 'My theory is that [her so far unidentified captors] operate a trafficking scheme,' said Anna. At the party, they 'took her [passport], phone, and said she belonged to them and would do what they say. 'They wanted to break her psychologically.' It is still unclear where she was for five hours after leaving the party and being found out cold on a construction site. One intriguing aspect is that Maria's full medical bills for numerous operations were fully covered by Dubai police. Anna alleged they were seeking to cover up something. 'I believe so,' she said. They agreed to pay as Maria's mutilation was first reported in the media. 'By that time, information was already spreading fast online and in the media about Maria. I think they wanted to contain it—to make their investigation easier, perhaps.' Anna has also claimed that she has been threatened online for speaking out about the case. After the daughter and mother spoke out, Anna said: 'I got a disappearing message on my phone.

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