Russia kills baby, mother and grandmother in drone strike

Yahoo

a day ago

Russia killed a one-year-old boy, his mother and grandmother in an overnight drone strike in the northern Ukrainian city of Pryluky, authorities said.
The baby's grandfather, a rescue worker, was called out to respond to the attack on his own home, Volodymyr Zelensky said on X as he condemned the strike for hitting residential buildings.
'This is already the 632nd child lost since the full-scale war began…Russia constantly tries to buy time to continue its killings,' the Ukrainian president said.
The infant's mother, Daryna Shyhyda, was a police officer. 'Today our hearts are scorched by pain,' Ukraine's National Police said on Telegram. 'This is not just a loss — it is three generations of life uprooted.'
Overnight, Russia attacked Ukraine with 103 drones and one ballistic missile, targeting the Donetsk, Kharkiv, Odesa, Sumy, Chernihiv, Dnipro and Kherson regions.
The attacks came just hours after Donald Trump spoke by phone with Vladimir Putin and warned that the Russian leader would retaliate for Ukraine's weekend drone assaults on Russian military airfields.
Thanks for following our live coverage of the war in Ukraine. It has now ended for the day.
Here's a reminder of what happened today:
At least five people, including a one-year-old child, were killed in a Russian drone strike on the northern Ukrainian city of Pryluky overnight
Russia bombed a regional administration building in the centre of the southern city of Kherson early this morning
North Korea's Kim Jong-un vowed to 'unconditionally support' Russia in its war in Ukraine and said he expected Moscow to emerge victorious
Russia's security service accused British intelligence of using the British Council as cover to undermine Russia
New analysis showed that Moscow was advancing at the fastest rate of the year so far
We'll be back soon with more updates and analysis.
Donald Trump thought Ukraine's audacious drone attack on Russia's strategic nuclear bombers was 'badass', according to reports.
Kyiv smuggled drones onto the back of freight trucks before firing them at Russian airbases on Sunday, destroying several nuclear bombers in a surprise attack.
'Pretty strong,' the US president told one official, according to Axios.
'He thought it was badass,' another Trump confidant told the US news site.
But Mr Trump was also concerned that the attack could lead to the war continuing despite his administration's efforts to foster peace.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer will host Nato head Mark Rutte in London next Monday for talks focussing on defence spending, the government said today.
The meeting comes as Mr Rutte pushes for members of the western military alliance to allocate more money for defence in response to Russia's aggression in Ukraine.
'You can expect the prime minister to raise how we can ensure all allies meet their stated pledges in support of our collective defence, to keep people safe,' Sir Keir's spokesman told reporters.
Donald Trump has demanded that Nato members boost defence budgets to five percent of their GDP at an alliance summit to be held in the Netherlands on June 24-25.
Mr Rutte has put forward a compromise agreement for 3.5 percent of GDP on core military spending by 2032, and 1.5 percent on broader security-related areas such as infrastructure.
Kyiv's forces said they destroyed a Russian Iskander missile system used to strike Ukrainian cities.
According to Ukrainian reports, the missile system was loaded and ready to launch when it was blown up in Bryansk, a Russian region bordering Ukraine.
Two other of the lethal missile systems were said to be damaged in the operation led by Ukraine's security services, the SBU.
'These are likely the units that had been striking Kyiv and other cities over the past year,' Ukraine's strategic communications said on X.
Credit: X/@bayraktar_1love
European countries have blamed the EU's environmental regulations for hindering their preparations for defending against a possible Russian invasion.
In a leaked letter obtained by The Telegraph, the nations' defence ministers argued the rules had stopped the expansion of military bases and prevented fighter jet pilots from training.
'EU legislation may not prevent member states' armed forces from carrying out necessary activities to become operationally ready. But right now, it does,' they wrote in a letter to Andrius Kubilius, the defence commissioner.
'Mainly (but not exclusively) in the areas of procurement legislation, nature conservation and environmental protection, and more generally the administrative burden on defence organisations deriving from various EU legal acts.'
Brazil, India and China should put pressure on Russia to end the war in Ukraine, Emmanuel Macron has said.
The French president made the comments on Thursday during a joint press conference with Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the Brazilian president, who is on a state visit in France.
The countries mentioned by Mr Macron are core members of Brics, an intergovernmental organisation comprising ten countries: Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates.
It was formed in part by Russia and has been used by Vladimir Putin to show that Moscow still has allies, despite being sanctioned and frozen out by the West.
Kyiv said that two people had died after a Russian strike on army training facilities in eastern Ukraine, days after a similar strike saw a high-ranking officer resign.
Moscow has repeatedly targeted military sites like bases far from the front, spurring online criticism in Ukraine that army officials are not doing enough to secure their safety.
The missile strike in the Poltava region on Wednesday came after an attack on military training grounds in the industrial Dnipropetrovsk region that killed 12 soldiers on Sunday.
'Doctors unfortunately failed to save the lives of two people who were wounded as a result of an enemy attack on the training ground,' a senior regional official wrote on social media of Wednesday's strike.
It's important that the United Kingdom spends 5 per cent of GDP on defence, the US defence secretary said on Thursday while Nato ministers met to discuss the expenditure goals.
Pete Hegseth told reporters: 'Our friends in the UK... we're going to get there. We think everyone is going to get there, we really do. It's important they do. It's important that the UK gets there.'
Defence ministers are currently discussing plans to increase the alliance's defence spending from 2 per cent of GDP to five per cent.
This will be split by 3.5 per cent on hard defence expenditure and 1.5 per cent on defence-related outlays, such as logistics infrastructure.
The target will pile pressure on Sir Keir Starmer who is yet to outline fixed plans for the UK's defence spending to increase beyond 2.5 per cent.
Mr Hegseth said that European allies needed to take responsibility for defending the continent.
'When you consider the threats that we face, the urgency in the world, it's critical,' he argued. 'We don't need more flags, we need more fighting formations. We don't need more conferences. We need more capabilities, hard power.'
On Wednesday, Nato's secretary-general Mark Rutte suggested the US would be less committed to the alliance's Article 5 mutual defence clause if European allies and Canada failed to hit the target.
Donald Trump has long demanded, despite the US not hitting the target, that Nato defence spending should sit at 5 per cent of GDP.
Credit: Reuters
Russia wants to deploy 10,000 troops to the breakaway Moldovan region of Transnistria on Ukraine's western border, the country's prime minister said.
Moscow has a small number of soldiers already in the separatist region. However, with the enclave locked between Ukraine and pro-EU government in Moldova, Russia would be unable to send troops there.
But Dorin Recean, Moldova's prime minister, told the Financial Times that Moscow was aiming to install a pro-Kremlin government government there to facilitate the troop movement.
'This is a huge effort to undermine Moldovan democracy,' said Mr Recean. 'They want to consolidate their military presence in the Transnistrian region.'
'You can imagine with 10,000 troops, what the leverage and pressure would be on the south-western part of Ukraine,' he added. 'But also close to Romania, which is a Nato member state.'
Russia will respond to Ukraine's latest attacks as and when its military sees fit, the Kremlin said on Thursday.
Ukraine used drones to strike Russian heavy bomber planes at air bases in Siberia and the far north at the weekend, and Russia also accused Kyiv of also blowing up rail bridges in its border regions, killing seven people.
'The president described the Kyiv regime as a terrorist regime, because it was the regime's leadership that consciously gave the order, the command, the order to blow up a passenger train. This is nothing other than terrorism at the state level. This is an important statement by the president,' said Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin's spokesman.
Russia has not yet provided evidence that Ukrainian leaders ordered the rail attacks, and Kyiv has not acknowledged responsibility.
Mr Peskov also confirmed that Vladimir Putin had told Donald Trump in a phone call yesterday that Moscow was obliged to retaliate.
Russia bombed a regional administration building in the centre of the southern city of Kherson early on Thursday morning.
Moscow's forces dropped four glide bombs on the historic building along with drones and artillery attacks, according to local authorities.
Footage showed a quick-fire succession of targeted strikes, followed by large explosions, which also damaged five apartment buildings and an educational facility, reportedly hurting three civilians.
The attack came hours after Donald Trump warned that Vladimir Putin intended to retaliate for Kyiv's unprecedented drone assaults on Russia's bomber fleet on Sunday.
Putin finally broke his silence on Wednesday, refusing to mention Ukraine's surprise strikes on his most prized aircraft, but once again ruled out a ceasefire in Ukraine.
Elsewhere, Russian drone attacks on Ukraine's north killed five people, including a baby, in the city of Pryluky and injured 17 in Kharkiv.
Moscow's forces have seized large swaths of Ukrainian territory in the quickest advance of this year, according to analysts.
The Blackbird Group, a Finnish team monitoring Russian military movements, showed that Russia had seized 207 square miles of Ukraine throughout May, compared with 71 square miles in April.
This is the fastest advance of the year and the second highest since 2022, the group said.
Down the road of death, littered with burning vehicles and covered with drone nets, Fermín Torrano travels into Pokrovsk, home to the most intense fighting of the war.
The flames of a burning car illuminate the roadside, and Andrii puts his foot down: Seventy. Eighty. Ninety-five miles per hour.
Two of his comrades lean out the windows, scanning the darkness. A fourth Ukrainian soldier rides in the truck bed, with an AKS-74U in hand.
A sharp beep cuts through the air as the anti-drone system flashes on the screen: it's the second warning we've had.
'If you see a drone, jump and run after me. Forget your stuff. Understood?' Femida, a drone pilot with the 68th Ukrainian Brigade, said before we climbed into the vehicle.
Moscow has said its warplanes were damaged but not destroyed in a coordinated June 1 drone attack by Ukraine, and said they will be restored.
According to US intelligence assessments, 20 warplanes were hit and around 10 were destroyed, a figure that is half the number estimated by Volodymyr Zelensky.
Sergei Ryabkov, Russia's deputy foreign minister, who oversees arms control diplomacy, said: 'The equipment in question, as was also stated by representatives of the Ministry of Defence, was not destroyed but damaged. It will be restored.'
Russia is unlikely to repair or replace the aircraft quickly - if at all - given the complexity of the technology, the age of some of the Soviet-era planes, and Western sanctions that restrict Russian imports of sensitive components.
Russia's security service has accused British intelligence of using the British Council as cover to undermine Russia.
The British Council, which calls itself 'the UK's international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities', said in 2018 that it had been told to cease operations in Russia.
The FSB claimed on Thursday the London-based charity was being used by British intelligence to undermine the sovereignty of countries, including Russia.
'During the investigation, representatives of the teaching staff of leading Russian universities who collaborated with the British side to the detriment of the security of the Russian Federation were identified,' the FSB said.
Credit: Social Media
At least five people, including a one-year-old child, were killed in a Russian drone strike on the northern Ukrainian city of Pryluky overnight.
Six more people were wounded in the attack and have been hospitalised, regional governor Viacheslav Chaus said.
According to him, six Shahed-type drones struck residential areas of Pryluky early Thursday morning, causing severe damage to residential buildings.
Hours later, 17 people were wounded in a Russian drone strike on Kharkiv, including children, a pregnant woman, and a 93-year-old woman.
'By launching attacks while people sleep in their homes, the enemy once again confirms its tactic of insidious terror,' regional governor Oleh Syniehubov wrote on Telegram.
Vladimir Putin is planning revenge for Ukraine's drone strikes on Russia's bomber fleet, Donald Trump has warned.
The US president said he had a 'good conversation' with his Russian counterpart, after an unexpected phone call, but that it was 'not a conversation that will lead to immediate peace'.
'President Putin did say, and very strongly, that he will have to respond to the recent attack on the airfields,' Mr Trump wrote on his Truth Social network.
His comments came after Putin finally broke his silence following Kyiv's co-ordinated drone assaults to once again rule out a ceasefire in Ukraine.
The Russian leader said that Kyiv would exploit the break in the fighting to rearm and remobilise and carry out further 'terrorist attacks'.
Kim Jong-un has vowed to 'unconditionally support' Russia in its war in Ukraine and said he expected Moscow to emerge victorious.
North Korea has become one of Moscow's main allies during its more than three-year Ukraine offensive, sending thousands of troops and large quantities of weapons to help the Kremlin oust Ukrainian forces from Russia's Kursk border region.
Meeting top Russian security official Sergei Shoigu on Wednesday, Kim said that Pyongyang would 'unconditionally support the stand of Russia and its foreign policies in all the crucial international political issues including the Ukrainian issue'.
Kim 'expressed expectation and conviction that Russia would, as ever, surely win victory in the sacred cause of justice'.
The two sides agreed to 'continue to dynamically expand' relations.
Russia and North Korea signed a sweeping military deal last year, including a mutual defence clause, during a rare visit by Vladimir Putin to the nuclear-armed North.
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