Ukraine destroys dozens of Russian warplanes with drone attack deep inside Russia
Ukrainian forces destroyed dozens of Russian warplanes with a drone attack on air bases deep within Russian territory on Sunday.
Ukrainian forces destroyed 40 aircraft in the attack, which an official says took more than a year to orchestrate. Russia's defense ministry confirmed the attack on Sunday, saying it struck five airfields.
The operation saw drones transported in containers carried by trucks deep into Russian territory, he said. The drones reportedly hit 41 planes stationed at several airfields on Sunday afternoon, including A-50, Tu-95 and Tu-22M aircraft, the official said.
Moscow has previously used Tupolev Tu-95 and Tu-22 long-range bombers to launch missiles at Ukraine, while A-50s are used to coordinate targets and detect air defenses and guided missiles.
Gen. Kellogg Reveals What Concerns Him About Russia
The White House told Fox News that President Donald Trump and his administration were not warned of the attack ahead of time.
Read On The Fox News App
Ukraine says President Volodymyr Zelenskyy personally oversaw the drone attack.
"We are doing everything to protect our independence, our state and our people," Zelenskyy said in a statement.
The strike comes just a day before Ukrainian and Russian officials are set to meet for a second round of ceasefire talks in Istanbul, Turkey.
Putin Masses 50,000 Troops On Ukraine's North Front As Trump Again Agrees To Meet Russian, Ukrainian Leaders
A series of explosions also struck bridges in Russia near Ukraine's border on Saturday, though Ukraine has not taken responsibility for the attacks.
A highway bridge over a railway in the Bryansk region was blown up at 10:50 pm (1950 GMT) on Saturday night just as a passenger train carrying 388 passengers to Moscow was passing underneath, Russian investigators said.
Just four hours later, a railway bridge over a highway was blown up in the neighboring Kursk region, showering the road with parts of a freight train, the investigators said.
Fox News' Sarah Tobianski, Reuters and the Associated Press contributed to this report.Original article source: Ukraine destroys dozens of Russian warplanes with drone attack deep inside Russia
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
32 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Trump official who shut down Russia propaganda unit has links to Kremlin
A senior official who dismantled the US government's Russian disinformation unit is married to a Russian woman with links to the Kremlin, The Telegraph can reveal. Darren Beattie has provoked alarm within the State Department since being appointed in February for his ardent pro-Russian views and focus on destroying the agency tasked with tackling Kremlin propaganda. Mr Beattie, the acting under-secretary for public diplomacy and public affairs, is married to a woman whose uncle has taken several roles in Russian politics and once received a personal 'thank you' message from Vladimir Putin. In the years before joining the government, Mr Beattie wrote social media posts suggesting Western institutions should be 'infiltrated' by Putin, while he also attacked what he described as the 'globalist American empire'. Donald Trump is under pressure from many in his party, particularly senators, to take a tougher stance on the Russian leader while he continues to refuse to sign a ceasefire deal as the war in Ukraine drags on. Many of Mr Beattie's social media posts also concern China, repeatedly calling on the US to surrender Taiwan to Beijing, and labelling Britain a 'poor and pathetic kingdom' that would be 'far better off under Chinese dominion'. State Department sources expressed scepticism over whether he had undergone security vetting, a process which has been relaxed under Mr Trump. Mr Beattie was a member of the first Trump administration, but after being sacked in 2018 for allegedly attending a white nationalist conference, he reinvented himself as an 'alt-Right' media figure. In May 2021, public records show, he married a Russian woman called Yulia Kirillova in a ceremony in Broward County, Florida. Ms Kirillova, who according to her Facebook page was educated in Moscow before studying abroad in Canada and Washington DC, is the niece of Sergei Chernikov, a Russian drinks magnate who part-owns a flat with her mother, Natalia. Mr Chernikov, whose net worth was estimated to be $150 million in 2005, reportedly received a letter of thanks from Putin for his help in the election campaign which first brought the Russian leader to power. The same year, Mr Chernikov took his first step into politics, taking a role in the ministry of natural resources, before becoming deputy governor of the Nenets region in Siberia. From 2008 to 2010, he was a member of Russia's civic chamber, which was founded following a proposal by Putin and is notionally meant to scrutinise the activities of the Russian government. When the chamber was set up, critics claimed that it would be staffed by Kremlin allies and used to diminish a rival power base in the Russian State Duma. Both before and after his marriage to Mr Chernikov's niece, Mr Beattie has repeatedly attacked what he called the 'globalist American empire' while praising both Russia and China as counterweights to its 'woke' ideology. 'The rise of non-woke (China) and anti-woke (Russia) geopolitical competitors to the Globalist American Empire is not a bad thing,' he wrote in October 2021. He also said he looked forward to its 'prestige and power' collapsing on the world stage and claimed that its 'position in the global order [is] rapidly deteriorating'. Mr Beattie, and Revolver, the news outlet he founded after leaving the first Trump administration, argues that the US has sought to engineer 'colour revolutions' around the world – a common trope in Russia and China to dismiss pro-democracy movements as Western-backed coup attempts. The businessman has claimed the US is running 'colour revolution ops' in Ukraine, Hong Kong, Xinjiang and Myanmar, and that an American 'colour revolution brigade' is pushing for a 'forever war in Ukraine'. Two months before Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, he said: 'Imagine the whining from the Globalist American Empire if Putin 'invades' Ukraine… I love it when our national security bureaucrats fail!' He has also praised Putin as 'brave and strong', and claimed the Russian leader had 'done more to advance conservative positions in the US than any Republican'. He also declared: 'Nato is a much greater threat to American liberty than Putin ever was.' 'The funny thing is just about every Western institution would improve in quality if it were directly infiltrated and controlled by Putin,' he wrote in September 2021. Many of his posts focus on Britain, claiming it treats white people 'far worse' than the Uyghur population that Chinese authorities have imprisoned in camps in Xinjiang. He has labelled Britain a 'sewage pit' and 'the most utterly repulsive dystopia on earth'. In a post more than two years after the outbreak of war in Ukraine, he criticised the UK's policy of 'antagonising Russia'. All of these social media posts were still online at the time of writing, although Mr Beattie has deleted disparaging tweets about Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, having previously claimed his now-boss attended 'gay foam parties'. According to Ms Kirillova's Facebook page, she moved to Washington on Jan 28, roughly a week before her husband began his role at the State Department. Despite his wide-ranging brief at the heart of the US government, Mr Beattie is said to have focused a disproportionate amount of time on seeking to dismantle the Counter Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference hub, known as R/Fimi, while building cultural ties with Russia. R/Fimi, which tracked and countered propaganda from sources including Russia, China and Iran, was a relatively small agency with a budget of just over $50 million at the time it was shut down. The US's adversaries are estimated to spend tens of billions of dollars a year on foreign disinformation. Mr Beattie's news outlet Revolver had spent years attacking R/Fimi, accusing it of being part of a 'censorship network' designed to silence conservative voices. Sources said Mr Beattie had doggedly pursued the agency after being appointed, taking it apart piece by piece. Contractors were sacked and officials were ordered to stop communicating with others in the State Department or external partners without explicit permission. Even before it was disbanded in mid-April, when Mr Beattie told staff in a brief speech that it was 'severely misaligned' with the administration's priorities, its work had essentially wrapped up. Mr Rubio confirmed in an interview distributed by the State Department the same day that Mr Beattie had played a major role in abolishing R/Fimi. At the same time as Mr Beattie was working on dismantling the agency, he is said to have pushed to rebuild relations with Russia, insisting on instituting cultural exchange programmes in fields such as ballet and hockey. He is also said to have taken a significant interest in classified material related to Russia, prompting widespread concern about turning over sensitive information to him. Sources were highly sceptical if it had undergone a security vetting process, which the State Department's website notes can take anywhere from a couple of months to over a year to complete. On his first day in office, Mr Trump unilaterally granted top-secret security clearances to personnel in the Executive Office of the President citing a backlog in processing. The office is not part of the State Department. MIT Technology Review reported this month that Mr Beattie had launched a sweeping effort to obtain records from R/Fimi staff shortly before it closed, apparently with the intention of characterising it as an organisation dedicated to smearing conservatives. He asked for communications with or about reporters who write about foreign disinformation, along with references to Mr Trump and his allies. One official said the move amounted to a 'witch hunt'. Mr Beattie would need confirmation by the Senate to take on the under-secretary role full-time: as an acting official, he is limited to 210 days. Allies in the media have suggested he is unlikely to survive his time in the spotlight, and have suggested permanent posts where he could be installed without requiring backing from senators. A senior State Department official said: 'No one in America cares about a British gossip column. This is all fake news and low even for tabloid standards. 'Darren is a tremendous colleague who is committed to advancing President Trump's America First agenda. 'In a few short months, he has been able to spearhead high-level projects that have been critical in advancing a foreign policy that puts our national interests first.' Mr Chernikov and Ms Kirillova have been approached for comment. Mr Beattie described the allegations as 'malicious defamatory trash that is beneath the standards of even the British tabloid press'. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
San Francisco Chronicle
32 minutes ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
UK government ready to take Abramovich to court over Chelsea sale proceeds for Ukraine
Three years after Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich was forced to sell Premier League club Chelsea, the British government said on Tuesday it was prepared to go to court to ensure the proceeds reached war victims in Ukraine. Abramovich was sanctioned in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and sold two-time Champions League winner Chelsea to a consortium fronted by Americans Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital for 2.5 billion pounds ($3.2 billion) in May of that year. Abramovich said before the sale that net proceeds would go to a charitable foundation 'for the benefit of all victims of the war in Ukraine.' But the money remained frozen in a bank and the British government said it was still to make its way to those in need. A joint statement by Treasury chief Rachel Reeves and Foreign Secretary David Lammy said the government was ready to mount legal action. 'The government is determined to see the proceeds from the sale of Chelsea Football Club reach humanitarian causes in Ukraine, following Russia's illegal full-scale invasion. We are deeply frustrated that it has not been possible to reach agreement on this with Mr Abramovich so far," they said. 'While the door for negotiations will remain open, we are fully prepared to pursue this through the courts if required, to ensure people suffering in Ukraine can benefit from these proceeds as soon as possible.' Abramovich was sanctioned when the British government targeted what then-Foreign Secretary Liz Truss described as 'oligarchs and kleptocrats' with close links to Russian President Vladimir Putin and 'complicit in his aggression.' The government insists they must be used for humanitarian purposes in Ukraine. ___ ___
Yahoo
32 minutes ago
- Yahoo
ICC appeals judges greenlight first in absentia hearing over Ugandan rebel leader Kony
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Appeals judges at the International Criminal Court gave a final greenlight Tuesday for the tribunal's first in absentia hearing by allowing the next step in proceedings against notorious fugitive Ugandan rebel leader Joseph Kony. The Hague-based court has scheduled a so-called confirmation of charges hearing at which prosecutors will present evidence in September to back up charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity against Kony, despite his whereabouts being unknown. Kony, the leader of the brutal Lord's Resistance Army, faces dozens of counts of crimes against humanity and war crimes, including murder, sexual enslavement and rape. The ICC's rules do not allow trials entirely in absentia but can in some circumstances move forward with a confirmation of charges even if the suspect is not in custody. Kony's court appointed lawyers had argued his fair trial rights would be violated if the proceedings continued without their client. Judge Erdenebalsuren Damdin said the court has 'adequately robust safeguards' for suspects to allow the confirmation of charges hearing to be held in absentia. The case had been seen as a trial balloon for the court moving forward with other cases where the suspect is not in custody, such as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or Russian President Vladimir Putin. However, the Kony decision was limited to situations where the wanted person has fled ICC custody or cannot be found, says Luigi Prosperi, an international criminal law expert at the University of Utrecht. Kony 'is a very peculiar situation,' he told The Associated Press. Kony was thrust into the global spotlight in 2012 when a video about his alleged crimes went viral. Despite the attention and international efforts to capture him, he is still at large. The LRA began its attacks in Uganda in the 1980s, when Kony sought to overthrow the government. After being pushed out of Uganda, the militia terrorized villages in Congo, Central African Republic and South Sudan. It was notorious for using child soldiers, mutilating civilians and enslaving women. In 2021, the court convicted Dominic Ongwen, a one-time child soldier who morphed into a brutal LRA commander of dozens of war crimes and crimes against humanity, ranging from multiple murders to forced marriages.
