Russian attacks on Ukraine's Kharkiv kills four, wounds at least 60, officials say
One of Ukraine's largest cities, Kharkiv is located just a few dozen kilometres from the Russian border and has been under constant Russian shelling during more than three years of war.
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Time of India
an hour ago
- Time of India
Ukraine denies postponing POW swaps as Russian strike kills three
Volodymyr Zelenskyy (AP) Ukraine denied Russian allegations on Saturday that it had indefinitely postponed prisoner swaps, accusing Moscow of "playing dirty games" after overnight Russian missile and bomb strikes on Kharkiv left three people dead and 22 injured. Separately, Russian officials said a Ukrainian drone attack in the Moscow region wounded two people. At a second round of peace talks in Istanbul on Monday, the two sides agreed to swap more prisoners and return the bodies of 12,000 dead soldiers. However, Kremlin aide Vladimir Medinsky said on Saturday Kyiv had unexpectedly postponed the exchanges indefinitely. This was denied by Andriy Kovalenko, an official with Ukraine's National Security and Defence Council, who said Moscow should stop "playing dirty games" and return to constructive work. Overnight, Russian forces used high-precision long-range weapons and drones to attack military targets in Ukraine, hitting all of them, according to Russia's defence ministry. The northeastern city of Kharkiv, one of Ukraine's largest, is just a few dozen kilometres from the Russian border and has been under frequent Russian shelling during more than three years of war triggered by Russia's full-scale invasion. "Kharkiv is currently experiencing the most powerful attack since the start of the full-scale war," mayor Ihor Terekhov said in a post on Telegram earlier on Saturday. Residential buildings, educational and infrastructure facilities were attacked, he said, and photos showed buildings burnt and reduced partially to rubble, as rescuers carried the wounded away for treatment. A Ukrainian drone attack deep inside Russian territory last weekend likely damaged around 10% of Russia's strategic bomber fleet and hit some of the aircraft. afp
Economic Times
an hour ago
- Economic Times
Gianni Infantino and Donald Trump: Handshakes, warmth and a mutual interest
Live Events (You can now subscribe to our (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel The heads of state who have felt the lash of US President Donald Trump's tongue in the Oval Office could do worse than seek advice from FIFA chief Gianni Infantino, who seems to have got their relationship down to a fine has shown a deft touch when it has come to dealing with hard-nosed leaders, from Russian President Vladimir Putin, when Russia hosted the 2018 World Cup, and now Trump with the United States set to co-host football's global showpiece next has been quite the opposite, showing no mercy to those who have dared challenge him -- he has laid into Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his South African counterpart Cyril Ramaphosa in extraordinary scenes at the White with Infantino it is all smiles, compliments and Trump's traditional use of the words "great" and "greatest" when he likes something or was one of just a handful of prominent sports figures present at Trump's inauguration."Infantino handles Trump really well," Martin Sorrell, the founder of advertising giants WPP who is putting together a documentary for next year's World Cup, told pointed to when Infantino was filmed with Trump in March, showing off the trophy for the upcoming Club World Cup."Trump, who had the FIFA trophy behind him in the Oval Office on the video, said... 'as one president to another'," he appears to have placed his relationship with Trump front and centre -- perhaps unsurprising as the women's 2031 World Cup is also expected to be hosted in the US as well as the inaugural women's Club World Cup in there are signs that the relationship can grate with others as it did with UEFA representatives when Infantino arrived late at a FIFA Congress in Paraguay in May having been with Trump on the US president's visit to Qatar and then Saudi Arabia.- 'My great friend' -Nevertheless, whether some like it or not Infantino has restored relations with the US which reached its nadir under his predecessor Sepp the US lost out to Qatar for the right to host the 2022 World Cup, a FBI investigation resulted in 'Fifagate', leading to several of the governing body's senior figures going to jail and Blatter 2018, two years after Infantino was elected, the US were named co-hosts of the 2026 World Cup, earning him an invitation to the White years later the 'bromance' was strengthened when Trump asked Infantino to deliver the address at a dinner he hosted at the Economic Forum in Davos."America is on the verge of becoming a great soccer power," purred Infantino."The 'American dream' is something we all need to have. All those who love soccer."Trump responded by praising FIFA as a "steadfast movement" and Infantino as "my great friend."Infantino's loyalty -- a characteristic Trump values in others above all else -- has remained rock press conference-shy football boss has in his social media posts steered clear of commenting on the slights made by Trump regarding his World Cup co-hosts Mexico and keen is he to maintain smooth relations, he did not even step in to correct Trump, sitting behind him, when the US president said inviting Russia to the 2026 World Cup could facilitate them making peace with are barred from the qualifiers due to the 2022 invasion of both have so much invested in the World Cup being a success that nothing must blight the landscape."Gianni's obviously got a very close relationship with Trump and he's leveraging that because both sides have a mutual interest for 2026 to work," John Zerafa, an experienced sports communications strategist based in the UK, told AFP."Trump is a guy that's driven by headlines and being in the spotlight, and he's going to love being in the spotlight in the run-up to and during the World Cup, and he knows that it's got to go smoothly."So they've got a mutual interest for 2026 to work."
Yomiuri Shimbun
an hour ago
- Yomiuri Shimbun
Russian Attacks on Eastern Ukrainian City of Kharkiv Kill 4, Wound More Than Two Dozen
The Associated Press A view after a Russian attack that hit a residential building in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Saturday, June 7, 2025. KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian attacks targeting the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv killed at least four people and wounded more than two dozen others on Saturday, officials said, as hopes for peace dimmed further. The first wave on Ukraine's second-largest city was a large Russian drone-and-missile attack in the early hours. It killed at least three people and wounded 21 others, according to local officials. In the afternoon, Russia dropped aerial bombs on the city center, killing at least one person and wounding five more, Kharkiv's mayor said. The warring sides also accused each other of trying to sabotage a planned prisoner exchange, nearly a week after Kyiv embarrassed the Kremlin with a surprising drone attack on military airfields deep inside Russia. Saturday's barrage — the latest in near daily widescale attacks on Ukraine — included aerial glide bombs that have become part of a fierce Russian onslaught in the all-out war, which began on Feb. 24, 2022. Kharkiv residents describe fiery trap As firefighters and emergency workers bustled around attack sites in Kharkiv, residents described the strikes that damaged their homes and nearly took their lives on Saturday morning. Alina Belous said that she had tried to extinguish flames with buckets of water to rescue a young girl trapped inside a burning building who had called out for help. 'We were trying to put it out ourselves with our buckets, together with our neighbors. Then the rescuers arrived and started helping us put out the fire, but there was smoke and they worried that we couldn't stay there. When the ceiling started falling off, they took us out,' she said. Local resident Vadym Ihnachenko said that he thought at first that it was a neighboring building going up in flames. 'But when we saw sparks coming from the top, we realized it was our building,' he said. 'More pressure on Moscow is required' Ukraine's air force said that Russia struck with 215 missiles and drones overnight, and Ukrainian air defenses shot down 87 drones and seven missiles. Several other areas in Ukraine were also hit, including the regions of Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk, Odesa, and the city of Ternopil, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said in an X post. 'To put an end to Russia's killing and destruction, more pressure on Moscow is required, as are more steps to strengthen Ukraine,' he said. The Russian Defense Ministry on Saturday said that its forces carried out a nighttime strike on Ukrainian military targets, including ammunition depots, drone assembly workshops, and weaponry repair stations. There was no comment from Moscow on the reports of casualties in Kharkiv. Kharkiv's mayor, Ihor Terekhov, said that the strikes also damaged 18 apartment buildings and 13 private homes. Terekhov said that it was 'the most powerful attack' on the city since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion. Children among the wounded Kharkiv's regional governor, Oleh Syniehubov, said the morning's attacks saw two districts in the city struck with three missiles, five aerial glide bombs and 48 drones. Among the wounded were two children, a baby boy and a 14-year-old girl, he added. Six people are believed to be trapped under the rubble of an industrial facility in Kharkiv's Kyiv district, The Kharkiv prosecutor's office said in a statement on Telegram. Contact with those trapped was lost and rescue attempts have been ongoing since early afternoon, it said, without naming the facility. On Saturday afternoon, Russian aerial bombs struck Kharkiv again, killing at least one person and wounding five others, the mayor said. The morning strikes also wounded two people in the Dnipropetrovsk province further south, according to local Gov. Serhii Lysak. Meanwhile, Russia's defense ministry said that its forces shot down 36 Ukrainian drones overnight, over the country's south and west, including near the capital. Drone debris wounded two civilians in the suburbs of Moscow, local Gov. Andrei Vorobyov reported. No breakthrough on a peace deal On Friday, Russia struck six Ukrainian territories, killing at least six people and wounding about 80. Among the dead were three emergency responders in Kyiv, one person in Lutsk and two people in Chernihiv. A U.S.-led diplomatic push for a settlement has brought two rounds of direct peace talks between delegations from Russia and Ukraine, though the negotiations delivered no significant breakthroughs. But both sides remain far apart on their terms for an end to the fighting. Prisoner swap called into question Later on Saturday, Russia and Ukraine each accused the other of endangering plans to swap 6,000 bodies of soldiers killed in action, agreed upon during direct talks in Istanbul on Monday that otherwise made no progress towards ending the war. Vladimir Medinsky, a Putin aide who led the Russian delegation, said that Kyiv called a last-minute halt to an imminent swap. In a Telegram post, Medinsky said that refrigerated trucks carrying more than 1,200 bodies of Ukrainian troops from Russia had already reached the agreed exchange site at the border when the news came. In response, Ukraine said Russia was playing 'dirty games' and manipulating facts. According to the main Ukrainian authority dealing with such swaps, no date had been set for repatriating the bodies. In a statement Saturday, the agency also accused Russia of submitting lists of prisoners of war for repatriation that didn't correspond to agreements reached on Monday. It wasn't immediately possible to reconcile the conflicting claims. New video of airfield drone attack Ukraine's Security Service on Saturday released a video said to show its audacious attack on Russian air fields Sunday in which Kyiv said that 41 Russian military aircraft was destroyed. The video shows the flight path of one explosive-laden first person view, or FPV, drone — from takeoff from the roof of a modular building to the Belaya air field — where it appears to strike a Russian strategic bomber. Other aircraft are seen engulfed in flames, apparently from previous hits in Ukraine's 'Operation Spiderweb.' A previous round of negotiations in Istanbul, the first time Russian and Ukrainian negotiators sat at the same table since the early weeks of the full-scale invasion, led to 1,000 prisoners on both sides being exchanged.
