As Russia-US summit nears, Moscow accuses Kyiv of escalating attacks
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Time of India
40 minutes ago
- Time of India
World record: Ukrainian's 'ghost' snipers kill Russian soldiers from 4 km; AI and drone-assisted rifle used
Representative Image (AI-generated) A Ukrainian sniper unit reportedly set a new world record on Thursday for the longest confirmed sniper kill, striking Russian forces from over 13,000 feet (4,000 meters). The shot, fired using a Ukrainian-made rifle and assisted by artificial intelligence and drone guidance, killed two Russian soldiers near Pokrovsk, Ukraine, Fox news reported quoting the Kyiv Post. Military journalist Yuri Butusov said the record-breaking shot occurred on August 14 using a 14.5 mm alligator rifle under the guidance of an unmanned aerial vehicle system. The attack happened amid intensified Russian assaults in the Pokrovsk area, a city that once had more than 60,000 residents. The previous record was held by a 58-year-old Ukrainian sniper who eliminated a target from around 12,400 feet (3,800 meters). The record-breaking shot occurred a day before President Donald Trump 's closely watched summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin . During a joint press conference, Putin described the talks as conducted in a 'constructive atmosphere of mutual respect.' Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is scheduled to meet Trump in Washington DC on Monday. In a post on X, Zelenskyy said that the two leaders will 'discuss all of the details regarding ending the killing and the war.'
Hindustan Times
an hour ago
- Hindustan Times
‘Historic decision': Zelensky hails US offer of security guarantees to Ukraine
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday hailed the United States' offer of security guarantees as a 'historic decision', a day before his meeting with US President Donald Trump. Zelensky called the 'coalition of the willing' meeting on Sunday 'very useful'.(AP) This comes after US envoy Steve Witkoff hinted that the US was prepared to commit to security guarantees. 'Security guarantees as a result of our joint work must be truly very practical and provide protection on land, in the air, and at sea, and must also be developed with Europe's participation,' Zelensky said. He further called the 'coalition of the willing' meeting on Sunday 'very useful'. The meeting, held via video conferencing, was attended by a group of Ukraine's allies, including Britain, France and Germany. Zelensky said that all parties agreed that state borders must not be changed by force. The Ukrainian president reiterated the resolution of the key issues in the Russia Ukraine conflict in a 'trilateral format', which includes Russia, Ukraine and US. Trump could offer a NATO-like protection to Ukraine, and Russia is open to the idea, one of his top foreign policy officials told Reuters on Sunday. This comes before the meeting between Trump and Zelensky, who will be joined by the European leaders. 'We were able to win the following concession, that the United States could offer Article 5-like protection,' Witkoff earlier told CNN's "State of the Union" program. He said that the US can offer an Article 5 protection, adding that it was the first time that Russia had agreed to something like this. Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty regards an attack on any one of its 32 member nations as an attack on all. Witkoff hinted that a security guarantee of this scale could be extended to Ukraine in lieu of NATO membership, which Putin has objected to. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who had also accompanied Trump to Alaska for the summit with Putin, said in an interview with the CNN that the talks had 'made some progress'. 'Ultimately, where this should lead is to a meeting between the three leaders, between Zelensky, Putin and President Trump, where we can finalize, but we got to get this thing closer before we get to that point,' Rubio said.
Indian Express
an hour ago
- Indian Express
Iraq starts excavation of large mass grave left by Islamic State
Iraqi officials have begun the excavation of what is believed to be a mass grave left behind by the Islamic State extremist group during its rampage across the country a decade ago. Local authorities are working with the judiciary, forensic investigations, Iraq's Martyrs' Foundation, and the directorate of mass graves to carry out the excavation of the site of a sink hole in al-Khafsa, south of the northern city of Mosul, the state-run Iraqi News Agency reported Sunday. Ahmad Qusay al-Asady, head of the Martyrs Foundation's mass graves excavation department, told The Associated Press that his team began work at Khasfa on Aug 9 at the request of Nineveh province's Gov Abdulqadir al-Dakhil. The operation is initially limited to gathering visible human remains and surface evidence while preparing for a full exhumation that officials say will require international support. After an initial 15 days of work, the foundation's Mosul teams will build a database and start collecting DNA samples from families of suspected victims. Al-Asady explained that laboratory processing and a DNA database must come first to ensure proper identification. Full exhumations can only proceed once specialised assistance is secured to navigate the site's hazards, including sulfur water and unexploded ordnance. Khasfa is 'a very complicated site,' he said. Based on unverified accounts from witnesses and families and other unofficial testimonies, authorities estimate that thousands of bodies could be buried there, he said. Scores of mass graves containing thousands of bodies of people believed to have been killed by the extremist group have been found in Iraq and Syria. At its peak, IS ruled an area half the size of the United Kingdom in Iraq and Syria and was notorious for its brutality. It beheaded civilians and enslaved and raped thousands of women from the Yazidi community, one of Iraq's oldest religious minorities. The group was defeated in Iraq in July 2017, when Iraqi forces captured the northern city of Mosul. Three months later, it suffered a major blow when Kurdish forces captured the Syrian northern city of Raqqa, which was the group's de-facto capital. The war against IS officially ended in March 2019, when US-backed and Kurdish-led fighters of the Syrian Democratic Forces captured the eastern Syrian town of Baghouz, which was the last sliver of land the extremists controlled. Rabah Nouri Attiyah, a lawyer who has worked on more than 70 cases of missing people in Nineveh, told the AP that information he obtained from the foundation and different Iraqi courts during his investigations points to Khasfa as 'the largest mass grave in modern Iraqi history.' Al-Asady, however, said investigators 'cannot confirm yet if it is the largest mass grave' to be found in Iraq, 'but according to the size of the space, we estimate it to be one of the largest.' Attiyah said roughly 70 per cent of the human remains at Khasfa are believed to belong to Iraqi army and police personnel, with other victims including Yazidis. He said he has interviewed numerous eyewitnesses from the area who saw IS fighters bring people there by bus and kill them. 'Many of them were decapitated,' he said. Attiyah's own uncle and cousin were police officers killed by IS, and he is among those hoping to identify and recover the remains of loved ones. Testimonies and witness statements, as well as findings from other mass graves in Nineveh, indicate that most of the military, police and other security forces personnel killed by IS are expected to be found at Khasfa, along with Yazidis from Sinjar and Shiite victims from Tal Afar, he said.
