Russia launches biggest aerial attack since start of the war, Ukraine says
by Naharnet Newsdesk 30 June 2025, 12:05
Russia launched its biggest aerial attack against Ukraine overnight, a Ukrainian official said Sunday, part of an escalating bombing campaign that has further dashed hopes for a breakthrough in efforts to end the 3-year-old war.
Russia fired a total of 537 aerial weapons at Ukraine, including 477 drones and decoys and 60 missiles, Ukraine's air force said. Of these, 249 were shot down and 226 were lost, likely having been electronically jammed.
The onslaught was "the most massive airstrike" on the country since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022, taking into account both drones and various types of missiles, Yuriy Ihnat, head of communications for Ukraine's air force, told The Associated Press. The attack targeted several regions, including western Ukraine, far from the front line.
Poland and allied countries scrambled aircraft to ensure the safety of Polish airspace, the country's air force said.
Three people were killed in each of the drone strikes in the Kherson, Kharkiv and the Dnipropetrovsk regions, according to the three governors.
Another person was killed by an airstrike in Kostyantynivka, local officials said. In addition to aerial attacks, a man died when Russian troops shelled the city of Kherson, and the body of a 70-year-old woman was found under the rubble of a nine-story building hit by Russian shelling in the Zaporizhzhia region.
In the far-western Lviv region, a large fire broke out at an industrial facility in the city of Drohobych following a drone attack that also cut electricity to parts of the city.
Ukraine's air force said one of its F-16 warplanes supplied by its Western partners crashed after sustaining damage while shooting down air targets. The pilot died.
Russia has recently been improving its drone technology as well as its tactics, striking Ukraine with increasing success.
Russian troops reportedly advance in Donetsk
Russia's Defense Ministry said it had shot down three Ukrainian drones overnight.
Two people were wounded in another Ukrainian drone attack on the city of Bryansk in western Russia, regional Gov. Alexander Bogomaz said Sunday morning, adding that seven more Ukrainian drones had been shot down over the region.
Meanwhile, Russia claimed Sunday that it had taken control of the village of Novoukrainka in the partially Russian-occupied Donetsk region.
Russian forces have been slowly grinding forward at some points on the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line, though their incremental gains have been costly in terms of troop casualties and damaged armor.
In other developments, Russia's foreign intelligence chief, Sergei Naryshkin, said he had spoken on the phone with his U.S. counterpart, CIA Director John Ratcliffe.
"I had a phone call with my American counterpart and we reserved for each other the possibility to call at any time and discuss issues of interest to us," Naryshkin said in remarks to state TV reporter Pavel Zarubin, who posted them on his Telegram channel on Sunday.
Sunday's attacks follow Russian President Vladimir Putin's comments two days ago that Moscow is ready for a fresh round of direct peace talks in Istanbul. Two recent rounds of talks between Russian and Ukrainian delegations in Istanbul were brief and yielded no progress on reaching a settlement.
Zelenskyy withdraws Ukraine from an anti-land mine pact
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed a decree to withdraw Ukraine from the Ottawa Convention banning antipersonnel land mines, a Ukrainian lawmaker said Sunday. The move follows similar recent steps by the Baltic States and Poland.
The 1997 treaty prohibits the use, production, stockpiling and transfer of antipersonnel land mines in an effort to protect civilians from explosives that can maim or kill long after fighting ends.
"This is a step that the reality of war has long demanded," said Roman Kostenko, secretary of the Ukrainian parliamentary committee on national security, defense and intelligence. He noted that Russia is not a party to the convention "and is massively using mines against our military and civilians."
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
MTV Lebanon
3 hours ago
- MTV Lebanon
Russia jails 'Jesus of Siberia' sect leader for 12 years for harming followers
A Russian sect leader who claimed he was Jesus Christ reincarnated was sentenced to 12 years in a prison camp on Monday after being convicted of harming his followers' health and financial affairs. Sergei Torop, a former traffic policeman known to his followers as 'Vissarion', set up the Church of the Last Testament in a remote but picturesque part of Siberia's Krasnoyarsk region in 1991, the year the Soviet Union broke up. A bearded self-styled mystic with long hair, he claimed to have been "reborn" to convey the word of God and attracted thousands of followers, some of whom flocked to live in a settlement known as the "Abode of Dawn" or "Sun City", at a time when Russia was battling poverty and lawlessness. Torop, 64, told his followers, who regularly intoned prayers in his honour as they looked up to his large hilltop residence, not to eat meat, not to smoke, not to drink alcohol or swear, and to stop using money. But the Investigative Committee, Russia's equivalent of the U.S. FBI, accused Torop and two aides of using psychological pressure to extract money from his followers and of causing serious harm to their mental and physical health. In a statement on Monday, a court in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk said it had convicted the three men, sentencing Torop and Vladimir Vedernikov to 12 years and Vadim Redkin to 11 years in a maximum-security prison camp. They were also ordered to pay 40 million roubles ($511,500) to compensate their victims for "moral damage". All three denied wrongdoing. Torop and the two aides were arrested in a security forces raid by helicopter in 2020 that involved the FSB security service, the successor agency to the Soviet KGB. According to the RIA state news agency, investigators said the men had caused "moral harm" to 16 people, serious damage to the physical health of six people, and moderate damage to another person's health. Vedernikov, one of the aides, had also been accused of committing fraud, RIA said. In a 2017 BBC documentary, filmmaker Simon Reeve interviewed Torop, who denied any wrongdoing. The film showed how school girls whose parents were his followers were being educated to be what a local teacher called "future brides for worthy men."
Nahar Net
8 hours ago
- Nahar Net
Iran decries 'destructive' conduct by IAEA chief
by Naharnet Newsdesk 30 June 2025, 16:59 Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian told his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron that Tehran halted cooperation with the U.N. nuclear watchdog due to what he called the agency chief's "destructive" behavior towards the Islamic republic, his office said Monday. "The action taken by parliament members... is a natural response to the unjustified, unconstructive, and destructive conduct of the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency," Pezeshkian told Macron in a phone call late Sunday, according to a presidency statement. On Wednesday, Iranian lawmakers voted in favor of a bill to suspend cooperation with the IAEA, citing Israel's June 13 attack on the Islamic republic and later strikes by the United States on nuclear facilities. A ceasefire between Iran and Israel took hold on June 24. Since the start of the war with Israel, Iranian officials have sharply criticized the agency for failing to condemn the strikes. Iran has also criticized the watchdog for passing a resolution on June 12 accusing it of non-compliance with its nuclear obligations. In a Sunday post on X, Macron said he called for "respect for the ceasefire" and a return to negotiations to address "ballistic and nuclear issues." He further called for "the swift resumption of the IAEA's work in Iran to ensure full transparency." On Monday, France, Germany, and Britain condemned what they called "threats" against the IAEA chief Rafael Grossi after Iran rejected its request to visit nuclear facilities bombed during the war. None specified which threats they were referring to, but Iran's ultra-conservative Kayhan newspaper recently claimed documents showed Grossi was an Israeli spy and should be executed. Iran has said Grossi's request to visit bombed sites signaled "malign intent" but insisted that no threats were posed against Grossi or the agency's inspectors. On Monday, Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said the Iranian parliament's decision to halt cooperation with the IAEA reflected the "concern and anger of the Iranian public opinion." He further criticized the United States and European powers for maintaining what he described as a "political approach" toward Iran's nuclear program during his weekly press conference. Baqaei also questioned how the safety of IAEA inspectors could be ensured while the extent of the damage to Iran's nuclear facilities -- targeted by Israel and the United States during the 12-day war -- remains unknown. "One aspect of this issue is how to ensure the safety and security of the agency's inspectors, in a situation where there is still no accurate assessment of the severity of the damage," he said.
Nahar Net
8 hours ago
- Nahar Net
Wall Street stocks rally further on trade deal optimism
by Naharnet Newsdesk 30 June 2025, 17:07 Wall Street stocks pushed into record territory yet again on Monday amid optimism the United States would reach trade deals with its partners ahead of a self-imposed deadline next week and extend tax cuts. Canada said on Sunday it would restart trade negotiations with the United States after it rescinded a tax affecting US tech firms that had prompted U.S. President Donald Trump to call off talks. That boosted optimism for other governments to make deals with Trump to avoid his steep levies, as the July 9 cut-off for tariff reprieve looms. "Investors seem confident trade deals will be struck, geopolitical tensions ease and a major economic slump is avoided," said Dan Coatsworth, investment analyst at AJ Bell. "The big unknown is whether investors are correct or are simply being too complacent," he added. Officials from Japan and India have extended their stays in Washington to continue talks, raising hopes for agreements with two of the world's biggest economies. Both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite pushed further into record territory when the opening bell rang in New York. Trade optimism also helped boost most Asian stocks but Europe's main indices dipped in afternoon trading. analyst Patrick O'Hare said Wall Street's "positive disposition follows the weekend update that the Senate passed a procedural vote that will set up its version of the 'One Big, Beautiful Bill' for a full Senate vote tonight". Trump's signature tax-cutting bill extends tax cuts from his first term at a cost of $4.5 trillion and beefs up border security. The Republican president has ramped up pressure to get the package to his desk by July 4 and called out wavering lawmakers from his party. However, there are worries about the impact on the economy, with the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office estimating the measure would add nearly $3.3 trillion to US deficits over a decade. There was little major reaction on Monday to data showing the contraction in Chinese factory activity eased further in June after a China-U.S. trade truce. However, investors will be keeping an eye on data this week and a key U.S. jobs report on Thursday will be pored over for signs of the pace of interest-rate cuts. "This could be the make-or-break moment for July rate cut expectations," said City Index and analyst Fawad Razaqzada. Only one in five investors currently see the Federal Reserve cutting interest rates at its July meeting, according to the CME's FedWatch tool. But they expect it to cut two or three times later this year. Trump's indication he could choose a successor to Federal Reserve boss Jerome Powell within months is also leading investors to ramp up rate cut bets. - Key figures at around 1330 GMT - New York - Dow: UP 0.5 percent at 44,023.96 points New York - S&P 500: UP 0.3 percent at 6,192.81 New York - Nasdaq Composite: UP 0.4 percent at 20,362.49 London - FTSE 100: DOWN 0.3 percent at 8,772.71 Paris - CAC 40: DOWN 0.1 percent at 7,680.63 Frankfurt - DAX: DOWN 0.4 percent at 23,941.92 Tokyo - Nikkei 225: UP 0.8 percent at 40,487.39 (close) Hong Kong - Hang Seng Index: DOWN 0.9 percent at 24,072.28 (close) Shanghai - Composite: UP 0.6 percent at 3,444.43 (close) Euro/dollar: UP at $1.1720 from $1.1718 on Friday Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.3688 from $1.3715 Dollar/yen: DOWN at 144.39 yen from 144.68 yen Euro/pound: UP at 85.61 pence from 85.43 pence West Texas Intermediate: DOWN 0.6 percent at $65.11 per barrel Brent North Sea Crude: DOWN 0.3 percent at $66.58 per barrel
