logo
Ukraine war briefing: Zelenskyy speaks of military presence in Russia's Belgorod region for first time

Ukraine war briefing: Zelenskyy speaks of military presence in Russia's Belgorod region for first time

The Guardian08-04-2025

Volodymyr Zelenskyy said for the first time Monday that Ukrainian forces were operating in Russia's Belgorod region, where Moscow reported attacks in March. Belgorod is regularly the target of Ukrainian air attacks and is close to Russia's Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces have been desperately trying to hang on to territory since launching a surprise incursion last year. Zelenskyy said in his daily address that General Oleksandr Syrsky had reported on 'our presence in Kursk region and our presence in Belgorod region'. He added: 'We continue to conduct active operations in the border areas on the enemy's territory, and this is absolutely right – the war must return to where it came from.' It is the first time since the full-scale invasion began that Zelenskyy has explicitly mentioned a Ukrainian presence in Belgorod, a border region with a population of about 1.5 million people. The Russian military acknowledged facing Ukrainian land attacks in the region in March. According to the DeepState military blog, which is considered close to Ukraine's army, Ukrainian troops have occupied a 13 sq km (five square mile) area in the Russian region, near the border village of Demidovka. Zelenskyy and other Ukrainian officials have said the incursion into Kursk and other Russian territory is to divert Russian forces attacking the Ukrainian regions of Sumy and Kharkiv.
Anger and outrage gripped Zelenskyy's home town on Monday as it held funerals for some of the 20 people, including nine children, killed by a Russian missile that struck apartment buildings and a playground. More than 70 were wounded in the attack on Kryvyi Rih last Friday evening. The children were playing on swings and in a sandbox in a tree-lined park at the time. Bodies were strewn across the grass. 'We are not asking for pity,' Oleksandr Vilkul, the head of the city administration, wrote on Telegram as Kryvyi Rih mourned. 'We demand the world's outrage.' The UN Human Rights Office in Ukraine said it was the deadliest single verified strike harming children since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022. It was also one of the deadliest attacks so far this year.
Teacher Iryna Kholod remembered Arina and Radyslav, both 7 years old and killed in Friday's strike, as being 'like little suns in the classroom'. Radyslav, she said, was proud to be part of a school campaign collecting pet food for stray animals. 'He held the bag like it was treasure. He wanted to help,' she told the Associated Press. After Friday evening, 'two desks in my classroom were empty forever,' Kholod said, adding that she still has unopened birthday gifts for them.
'How do I tell parents to return their textbooks? How do I teach without them?' she asked.
Donald Trump has accused Russia of 'bombing like crazy right now' even as the US president claimed the parties were 'sort of close' on a deal. On Monday he reiterated his opposition to Russia's bombing of Ukraine as his administration participates in talks seeking an end to the fighting. 'I'm not happy about what's going on', he told reporters in the White House. 'So we're meeting with Russia, we're meeting with Ukraine, and we're getting sort of close, but I'm not happy with all the bombing that's going in the last week or so,' he said. 'It's a horrible thing.'
Trump's Monday remarks came hours after the Kremlin said it supported the idea of a truce in Ukraine but had many 'questions' about how such a deal would work, pushing back at US and European suggestions that it was playing for time. Russia has kept up its strikes on Ukraine unabated despite the US president's promise to bring peace within '24 hours' of returning to the White House in January.

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Sick 'pimping websites' given four-word warning as MPs demand new laws
Sick 'pimping websites' given four-word warning as MPs demand new laws

Daily Mirror

time2 hours ago

  • Daily Mirror

Sick 'pimping websites' given four-word warning as MPs demand new laws

Safeguarding Minister Jess Phillips says tough new laws will give courts the power to suspend adult service sites behind sexual exploitation as MPs demand paying for sex is made illegal Vile "pimping websites" have been warned "we're coming for you" by a government minister. Jess Phillips said it was "sickening" that traffickers are making huge profits from selling exploited women for sex online. The Safeguarding Minister said new laws will give authorities the power to ban adult services sites that facilitate sex trafficking. ‌ But she stopped short of pledging to make it illegal to pay for sex despite growing calls from MPs. The Government is under pressure to change the law to target buyers and those who profit from exploiting others - while ripping up existing prostitution offences. ‌ Ms Phillips told MPs it is "utterly dispicable" that men post online reviews of women who are coerced into having sex. She said: "These men disgust me with their attitude towards women generally and also the suggestion that they should be able to pay for somebody's horror and then give a bad review." Brits should learn to speak Russian if defence spending isn't ramped up, NATO chief warns And Ms Phillips continued: "These sites - we know what they are - we're coming for you." She said legslation going through Parliament will allow courts to suspend websites behind sexual exploitation. And she said the Government will be publishing its strategy for tackling violence against women and girls later this year. The remarks came after Labour backbencher Tracy Gilbert read out a number of sickening reviews posted about women online. Under current law it is legal to pay for sex and adult services websites - branded " supermarkets of the vulnerable" by ctitics - are not breaking the law. Ms Gilbert told MPs that those who pay for sex must face prosecution. She said: "Sex buyers rely on being unseen while they ruin lives leaving us as a society and the individual women left to pick up the pieces of the carnage they cause. ‌ "The demand from men who pay for sex fuel a brutal prostitution and sex trafficking trade. It's funding predatory websites which make millions of pounds using women for sexual exploitation every day." And the Labour MP added: "The law must accept that prostitution is is violence against women." It comes after Labour MP Tonia Antoniazzi tabled amendments to the landmark Crime and Policing Bill calling for those who pay for sex - predominently men - to face prosecution. Her proposals, backed by more than 50 MPs, would also tear up prostitution offences, which campaigners say trap exploited women from escaping their abusers.

Deadly Russian drone and missile attack ‘one of the biggest' in Ukraine war
Deadly Russian drone and missile attack ‘one of the biggest' in Ukraine war

Rhyl Journal

time3 hours ago

  • Rhyl Journal

Deadly Russian drone and missile attack ‘one of the biggest' in Ukraine war

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called the attack on Kyiv 'one of the biggest' in the war that has raged for over three years. He said that Moscow's forces had fired more than 315 drones, mostly Shaheds, and seven missiles at Ukraine overnight. 'Russian missile and Shahed strikes are louder than the efforts of the United States and others around the world to force Russia into peace,' Mr Zelensky wrote, as he urged 'concrete action' from the US and Europe in response to the attack. Russian missile and Shahed strikes drown out the efforts of the United States and others around the world to force Russia into peace. For yet another night, instead of a ceasefire, there were massive strikes with Shahed drones, cruise and ballistic missiles. Today was one of the… — Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) June 10, 2025 A maternity hospital and residential buildings in the centre of the southern port city of Odesa were also damaged in the attack, regional head Oleh Kiper said. Two people were killed and nine injured in the city, according to a statement from the regional prosecutor's office. Four people were injured in the attack on the capital, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said. Associated Press journalists heard explosions and the buzzing of drones around the city for hours. The fresh attacks came a day after Moscow launched almost 500 drones at Ukraine in the biggest overnight drone bombardment in the three-year war. Ukrainian and Western officials have been anticipating a Russian response to Ukraine's audacious June 1 drone attack on distant Russian air bases. Russia has been launching a record-breaking number of drones and missiles targeting Ukraine while the two countries continue to swap prisoners of war, the only tangible outcome of recent direct peace talks held in Istanbul on June 2. Both sides traded memoranda during the meeting setting out conditions for a potential ceasefire in the more than three-year-old war – but the inclusion of clauses that both sides see as non-starters make any quick deal unlikely. A ceasefire, long sought by Kyiv, remains elusive. In Kyiv, fires broke out in at least four districts after debris from shot down drones fell on the roofs of residential buildings and warehouses, according to the Kyiv City Military Administration. The Russian attack sparked 19 fires across Ukraine, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko wrote on Telegram. 'Russia must answer for every crime it commits. Until there is justice, there will be no security. For Ukraine. And for the world,' he said. The death tolls from previous Russian strikes also continued to rise on Tuesday. In Kharkiv, rescuers found the body of a person trapped under the rubble of a building that was hit in a drone-and-missile attack Saturday, city mayor Ihor Terekhov wrote on Telegram. The discovery brings the number of casualties to five, with five more people potentially still trapped under the debris, Terekhov said. Meanwhile, in the northern city of Sumy, a 17-year-old boy died in the hospital on Tuesday morning after being injured in a Russian strike on June 3, acting mayor Artem Kobzar wrote on Telegram. It brings the number killed in the attack to six. Elsewhere, the Russian defence ministry reported downing 102 Ukrainian drones over Russian regions and Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula Moscow illegally annexed from Ukraine in 2014. The drones were downed both over regions on the border with Ukraine and deeper inside Russia, including central Moscow and Leningrad regions, according to the statement. Because of the drone attack, flights were temporarily restricted in and out of multiple airports across Russia, including all four airports in Moscow and the Pulkovo airport in St Petersburg, the country's second largest city.

Deadly Russian drone and missile attack ‘one of the biggest' in Ukraine war
Deadly Russian drone and missile attack ‘one of the biggest' in Ukraine war

Belfast Telegraph

time3 hours ago

  • Belfast Telegraph

Deadly Russian drone and missile attack ‘one of the biggest' in Ukraine war

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called the attack on Kyiv 'one of the biggest' in the war that has raged for over three years. He said that Moscow's forces had fired more than 315 drones, mostly Shaheds, and seven missiles at Ukraine overnight. 'Russian missile and Shahed strikes are louder than the efforts of the United States and others around the world to force Russia into peace,' Mr Zelensky wrote, as he urged 'concrete action' from the US and Europe in response to the attack. We need your consent to load this Social Media content. We use a number of different Social Media outlets to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. A maternity hospital and residential buildings in the centre of the southern port city of Odesa were also damaged in the attack, regional head Oleh Kiper said. Two people were killed and nine injured in the city, according to a statement from the regional prosecutor's office. Four people were injured in the attack on the capital, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said. Associated Press journalists heard explosions and the buzzing of drones around the city for hours. The fresh attacks came a day after Moscow launched almost 500 drones at Ukraine in the biggest overnight drone bombardment in the three-year war. Ukrainian and Western officials have been anticipating a Russian response to Ukraine's audacious June 1 drone attack on distant Russian air bases. Russia has been launching a record-breaking number of drones and missiles targeting Ukraine while the two countries continue to swap prisoners of war, the only tangible outcome of recent direct peace talks held in Istanbul on June 2. Both sides traded memoranda during the meeting setting out conditions for a potential ceasefire in the more than three-year-old war – but the inclusion of clauses that both sides see as non-starters make any quick deal unlikely. A ceasefire, long sought by Kyiv, remains elusive. In Kyiv, fires broke out in at least four districts after debris from shot down drones fell on the roofs of residential buildings and warehouses, according to the Kyiv City Military Administration. The Russian attack sparked 19 fires across Ukraine, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko wrote on Telegram. 'Russia must answer for every crime it commits. Until there is justice, there will be no security. For Ukraine. And for the world,' he said. The death tolls from previous Russian strikes also continued to rise on Tuesday. In Kharkiv, rescuers found the body of a person trapped under the rubble of a building that was hit in a drone-and-missile attack Saturday, city mayor Ihor Terekhov wrote on Telegram. The discovery brings the number of casualties to five, with five more people potentially still trapped under the debris, Terekhov said. Meanwhile, in the northern city of Sumy, a 17-year-old boy died in the hospital on Tuesday morning after being injured in a Russian strike on June 3, acting mayor Artem Kobzar wrote on Telegram. It brings the number killed in the attack to six. Elsewhere, the Russian defence ministry reported downing 102 Ukrainian drones over Russian regions and Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula Moscow illegally annexed from Ukraine in 2014. The drones were downed both over regions on the border with Ukraine and deeper inside Russia, including central Moscow and Leningrad regions, according to the statement. Because of the drone attack, flights were temporarily restricted in and out of multiple airports across Russia, including all four airports in Moscow and the Pulkovo airport in St Petersburg, the country's second largest city.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store