Russia launches deadly glide bombs and artillery strike on Ukrainian city
Russian glide bombs and artillery have struck a city in southern Ukraine, killing one person and wounding five others as Moscow's forces continue daily attacks across the country.
The city of Kherson was struck with glide bombs on Wednesday morning – and when rescue teams arrived at the scene, Russian forces then launched an artillery barrage, said the region's head, Oleksandr Prokudin.
He added: 'This is a deliberate tactic by Russia to hinder the rescue of the injured and harm doctors, rescuers, and police.'
The attack damaged a sports facility, a supermarket, residential buildings and civilian vehicles, Mr Prokudin said.
The strike on Kherson followed other deadly attacks in recent days.
On Palm Sunday, two Russian ballistic missile hit the north-eastern city of Sumy near the Russian border, killing 35 people and injuring more than 100 others in the deadliest attack on Ukrainian civilians this year.
The Russian military said that the strike had targeted a gathering of senior military officers.
The attack on Sumy and other areas came even as Moscow and Kyiv both agreed last month to implement a 30-day halt on strikes on energy facilities.
Today, @SecGenNATO Mark Rutte is in Ukraine. We discussed the security of Ukraine, our entire Europe, and the Euro-Atlantic region, as well as relations with all our partners in Europe and America.
The main focus was on strengthening Ukraine's air defense. Absolutely everyone… pic.twitter.com/FWOBRCouci
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) April 15, 2025
Both parties have differed on the start time for stopping strikes and alleged daily breaches by the other side.
Asked on Wednesday if Russia is going to stop abiding by the limited ceasefire after 30 days, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov demurred, saying the decision will be made later.
Moscow has effectively refused to accept a comprehensive ceasefire that US President Donald Trump has sought and Ukraine has endorsed.
Russia has made the accord conditional on a halt in Ukraine's mobilisation efforts and Western arms supplies – demands rejected by Ukraine. Kyiv believes Moscow's forces are gearing up for a fresh offensive.
Russian forces hold the battlefield advantage in Ukraine, pressing attacks in several sectors of the 600-mile frontline, and Kyiv has warned Moscow is planning a new offensive to improve its negotiating position.
The Russian military said it downed 26 Ukrainian drones over several Russian regions early on Wednesday.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
9 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Ukrainian President Zelenskyy sidelined as NATO leaders meet to agree defense spending boost
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Spurred by Russia's aggressive military build up and Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, NATO leaders met Wednesday to agree a significant boost in defense spending. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy could only look on from the sidelines. Ukraine, which has been at war with Russia since Moscow's illegal invasion in 2022, has been front and center at recent NATO summits, but as the alliance's annual leaders' meeting opened in The Hague, Zelenskyy was not in the room. Instead, he scheduled a series of face-to-face meetings with leaders at the summit venue, including with U.S. President Donald Trump, who had a major bust up with Zelenskyy earlier this year in the Oval Office. 'Well, we'll discuss the obvious. We'll discuss his difficulty. He's got a little difficulty, Zelenskyy,' Trump told reporters before joining the summit. 'He's a nice guy. I mean, I'm going to meet him today. I don't know, I assume we're going to be discussing Ukraine.' Trump's administration has blocked Ukraine's bid to join NATO. The conflict has laid waste to Ukrainian towns and killed thousands of civilians. Just last week, Russia launched one of the biggest drone attacks of the invasion on Kyiv. Russian leaders and military top brass have been accused of war crimes including targeting civilian infrastructure. The International Criminal Court, based in The Hague, has issued an arrest warrant for President Vladimir Putin on charges of involvement in abducting Ukrainian children. Putin denies the charges. Zelenskyy spent Tuesday in The Hague shuttling from meeting to meeting. He got a pledge from summit host the Netherlands for military aid including new drones and radars to help knock out Russian drones. Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced that the U.K. will provide 350 air defense missiles to Ukraine, funded by 70 million pounds ($95 million) raised from the interest on seized Russian assets. Zelenskyy dined Tuesday night at Dutch King Willem-Alexander's Huis Ten Bosch palace with NATO leaders including Trump. The two leaders were seated at different tables — Zelenskyy sitting with Dutch Queen Maxima and Trump with the king. On Wednesday, as the NATO leaders met, Zelenskyy scheduled more meetings to keep his nation's battle at the forefront of their thoughts. Later in the day, Zelenskyy was traveling to France to sign off on plans to set up a new international court to prosecute those accused of orchestrating Russia's war against Ukraine. The special tribunal will target the senior Russian leaders who launched the full-scale invasion, the initial 'crime of aggression' that underlies the countless atrocities Ukraine accuses Russian forces of committing. ___ Associated Press writer Molly Quell in The Hague, Netherlands, and Jill Lawless in London contributed.


San Francisco Chronicle
10 minutes ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Trump arrives at a NATO summit facing an alliance shaped to his liking
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — President Donald Trump on Wednesday is meeting with members of a NATO alliance that he has worked to bend to his will over the years and whose members are rattled by his latest comments casting doubt on the U.S. commitment to its mutual defense guarantees. Trump's comments en route to the Netherlands that his fidelity to Article 5 'depends on your definition" are drawing attention at the NATO summit, as will the new and fragile Iran-Israel ceasefire that Trump helped broker after the U.S. unloaded airstrikes on Iran's nuclear facilities. At the same time, the alliance is poised to enact one of Trump's chief priorities for NATO: a pledge by its member countries to increase, sometimes significantly, how much they spend on their defense. 'I've been asking them to go up to 5% for a number of years,' Trump said Wednesday morning as he met with Mark Rutte, the alliance's secretary-general. 'I think that's going to be very big news.' The boost in spending follows years of Trump complaints that other countries weren't paying their fair share for membership in an alliance created as a bulwark against threats from the former Soviet Union. Most NATO countries, with the key exception of Spain, are preparing to endorse the 5% pledge, motivated to bolster their own defenses not just by Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine but also, perhaps, to placate Trump. As a candidate in 2016, Trump suggested that he as president would not necessarily heed the alliance's mutual defense guarantees outlined in Article 5 of the NATO treaty. In March of this year, he expressed uncertainty that NATO would come to the United States' defense if needed, though the alliance did just that after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. On Tuesday, he told reporters aboard Air Force One on his way to The Hague for the summit that whether he is committed to Article 5 'depends on your definition.' 'There's numerous definitions of Article 5. You know that, right?' Trump said. 'But I'm committed to being their friends.' He signaled that he would give a more precise definition of what Article 5 means to him once he is at the summit. New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee who traveled to The Hague and met with several foreign leaders at the summit, said other countries raised 'understandable questions' about the U.S.'s commitment to the alliance, 'certainly given President Trump's past statements.' 'We were very strong and reassuring everyone that we are committed to NATO, we are committed to Article 5, we are committed to maintaining troops on the eastern flank,' said Shaheen, who represented the U.S. Senate with Democratic Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware. Trump also vented to reporters before leaving Washington about the actions by Israel and Iran after his announced ceasefire — although on Monday, he said the ceasefire was 'very good.' After Trump arrived in the Netherlands, news outlets, including The Associated Press, published stories revealing that a U.S. intelligence report suggested in an early assessment that Iran's nuclear program had been set back only a few months by weekend strikes and was not 'completely and fully obliterated,' as Trump had said. But on Wednesday morning, Trump and other senior Cabinet officials vigorously pushed back on the assessment and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the administration was launching an investigation into who disclosed those findings to reporters. 'That hit ended the war," Trump said. Drawing comparisons to the atomic bombings from the U.S. during World War II, he added: "I don't want to use an example of Hiroshima. I don't want to use an example of Nagasaki. But that was essentially the same thing. That ended that war.' The White House has not said what other world leaders Trump would meet with one-on-one while in The Hague, but Trump said in his morning meeting with Rutte that he will meet with Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskyy later Wednesday.

11 minutes ago
Zelenskyy will sign off on special tribunal to prosecute Russian leaders over Ukraine
THE HAGUE, Netherlands -- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is expected to formally approve plans Wednesday to set up a new international court to prosecute senior Russian officials for the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The special tribunal will be created through an agreement between Ukraine and the Council of Europe, the continent's top human rights body. Zelenskyy is visiting the Strasbourg-based organization for the first time as part of the announcement. The special tribunal aims to target senior Russian leaders for the 'crime of aggression,' which underpins the countless war crimes Ukraine accuses Russian forces of committing since the start of the war in 2022. Existing international courts, including the International Criminal Court in The Hague, lack jurisdiction to prosecute Russian nationals for that specific offense. Since early in the conflict, Kyiv has been pushing for the creation of a special tribunal that goes beyond prosecuting war crimes that Ukraine alleged Russian forces committed — including bombing civilian infrastructure, killing civilians, rape, taking hostages and torture. Russia denies those claims. There are logistical details still to be resolved, including where the court will be based. The Hague has been suggested due to its existing legal infrastructure, but no final decision has been made. Russia does not extradite its own citizens, and whether or not Russian President Vladimir Putin will ever end up in the dock remains to be seen. Under international law, sitting heads of state and certain other top officials — often referred to as the 'troika,' including a country's head of state, head of government, and foreign minister — enjoy immunity from prosecution. That means any potential indictment of Putin could only move forward if he leaves office. There is no statute of limitation on the crime of aggression. The institution will be funded by supporting countries known as the Core Group, including the Netherlands, Japan and Canada. The United States backed the project under former President Joe Biden, but President Donald Trump's administration did not support the initiative.