Russia kills 5 in Ukraine attack as Putin vows revenge for airbase strikes
Russian attacks killed five in Ukraine.
Russia President Vladimir Putin vowed revenge for Ukraine's attack on military airbases.
Ukraine and the US have discussed how to make a minerals fund operational.
Russian drone strikes killed five people and wounded six others in the northern Ukrainian city of Pryluky, a Ukrainian official said on Thursday.
'Five people have been reported dead, including two women and a one-year-old child, who were found under the rubble,' Vyacheslav Chaus, a Chernigiv regional official, wrote on Telegram, adding six people were wounded and hospitalised.
'The explosions damaged houses in a residential area,' he said.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, tens of thousands of people have been killed, swaths of eastern and southern Ukraine destroyed, and millions forced to flee their homes.
Ukraine has retaliated on Russian soil, conducting a dramatic drone attack on Russian military airbases over the weekend, destroying billions of dollars' worth of nuclear-capable bombers.
READ | Hope for Ukraine peace fades as Russia rejects 'immediate solutions and breakthroughs'
Russian leader Vladimir Putin has said he will seek revenge for Kyiv's attack, and has appeared to rule out a ceasefire or direct talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Shelling in the partially Russian-occupied Kherson region of southern Ukraine late on Wednesday caused a substation to lose power, leaving thousands without electricity.
'The Novotroitskoye 150kV substation lost power as a result of shelling... Over 120 000 people were left without light and water', Vladimir Saldo, governor of the Russian-occupied part of Kherson, wrote on Telegram.
Reuters reported that Russian aircraft were damaged but not destroyed in the 1 June attack by Ukraine, and they would be restored, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said in an interview with the state news agency TASS.
The equipment in question, as was also stated by representatives of the Ministry of Defence, was not destroyed but damaged. It will be restored.
Sergei Ryabkov
The US assesses that Ukraine's drone attack over the weekend hit as many as 20 Russian warplanes, destroying around 10 of them, two US officials told Reuters, a figure that is about half the number estimated by Zelensky.
The Ukrainian military said it struck Russian missile systems in Bryansk region which were preparing to attack the country on Thursday.
'One Russian missile launcher detonated, and two others were most likely damaged,' Ukraine's general staff said via the Telegram messaging app.
The general staff said that Ukraine's capital Kyiv was likely the target of the attack getting prepared by the unit in Bryansk region.
Ukraine and the US have discussed how to make a minerals fund operational by the end of the year and the fund's first meeting is expected in July, Ukraine's First Deputy Prime Minister, Yulia Svyrydenko, said in Washington on Wednesday.
The agreement on developing Ukraine's mineral resources, heavily promoted by US President Donald Trump, was signed by Svyrydenko in Washington in April after weeks of tough negotiations made the terms more favourable to Kyiv.
Jose Colon/Anadolu via Getty Images
Ukraine's parliament then ratified the deal.
On Wednesday, Svyrydenko held meetings with US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and the Development Finance Corporation, which would be a partner of the minerals fund, 'and we discussed very concrete steps how to make this fund operational during this year', she told reporters.
'So we plan to have the first board meeting of this fund in July and we will discuss what will be the seed capital to start operating this fund. And actually, too, we should adopt the investment strategy for this fund for the next few years.'
The negotiations leading to the clinching of the minerals fund deal followed a heated exchange at the White House between Trump and Zelensky over how to work toward ending Ukraine's three-year-old war with Russia.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CBS News
an hour ago
- CBS News
Russia-backed Wagner Group says it is leaving Mali, but Africa Corps will remain
The Russia-backed Wagner Group said Friday it is leaving Mali after more than three and a half years of fighting Islamic extremists and insurgents in the country. Despite Wagner's announcement, Russia will continue to have a mercenary presence in the West African country. The Africa Corps, Russia's state-controlled paramilitary force, said on its Telegram channel Friday that Wagner's departure would not introduce any changes and the Russian contingent will remain in Mali. Wagner is a group of entities that operate as a private military company, or PMC. These PMCs can be hired by governments for security or combat services. "Mission accomplished. Private Military Company Wagner returns home," the group announced via its channel on the messaging app Telegram. It said it had brought all regional capitals under control of the Malian army, pushed out armed militants and killed their commanders. Mali, along with neighbors Burkina Faso and Niger, has for more than a decade battled an insurgency fought by armed groups, including some allied with al-Qaida and the Islamic State group. As Western influence in the region has waned, Russia has sought to step into the vacuum, sweeping in with offers of assistance. Moscow initially expanded its military cooperation with African nations by using the Wagner Group of mercenaries. But since the group's leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, was killed in a plane crash in 2023, after mounting a brief armed rebellion in Russia that challenged the rule of President Vladimir Putin, Moscow has been developing the Africa Corps as a rival force to Wagner. Africa Corps is under direct command of the Russian defense ministry. According to U.S. officials, there are around 2,000 mercenaries in Mali. It is unclear how many are with Wagner and how many are part of the Africa Corps. Beverly Ochieng, a security analyst specializing in the Sahel for Control Risks consultancy, said the Russian defense ministry had been negotiating with Mali to take on more Africa Corps fighters and for Wagner mercenaries to join Russia's state-controlled paramilitary force. "Since the death of Prigozhin, Russia has had this whole plan to then make the Wagner Group fall under the command of the Ministry of Defense. One of the steps they made was to revamp or introduce the Africa Corps, which is the way in which the Russian paramilitaries would retain a presence in areas where the Wagner group has been operating," Ochieng said. Wagner has been present in Mali since late 2021 following a military coup, replacing French troops and international peacekeepers to help fight the militants. But the Malian army and Russian mercenaries struggled to curb violence in the country and have both been accused of targeting civilians. Last month, United Nations experts urged Malian authorities to investigate reports of alleged summary executions and forced disappearances by Wagner mercenaries and the army. In December, Human Rights Watch accused Malian armed forces and the Wagner Group of deliberately killing at least 32 civilians over an 8-month span. The announcement of Wagner's withdrawal comes as the Malian army and the Russian mercenaries suffered heavy losses during attacks by the al-Qaida linked group JNIM in recent weeks. Last week, JNIM fighters killed dozens of soldiers in an attack on a military base in central Mali. Rida Lyammouri, a Sahel expert at the Morocco-based Policy Center for the New South, said the major losses might have caused the possible end of Wagner's mission. "The lack of an official and mutual announcement from both the Malian authorities and Wagner indicate possible internal dispute which led to this sudden decision. Simultaneously, this could point to a new framework for Russian presence in the country," he said. Replacing Wagner with Africa Corps troops would likely shift Russia's focus in Mali from fighting alongside the Malian army to training, said Ulf Laessing, head of the Sahel program at the Konrad Adenauer Foundation. "Africa Corps has a lighter footprint and focuses more on training, providing equipment and doing protection services. They fight less than the 'Rambo-type' Wagner mercenaries," Laessing said.
CNN
an hour ago
- CNN
Planned Russia-Ukraine prisoner swap descends into blame game and uncertainty
A planned exchange of Russian and Ukrainian prisoners of war failed to take place on Saturday, with Moscow accusing Kyiv of postponing the swap at the last minute, something Ukrainian officials dismissed as 'dirty games' from the Kremlin. Russia said Ukraine unexpectedly postponed a transfer involving prisoners of war and the bodies of dead soldiers, leaving more than 1,200 frozen Ukrainian bodies waiting in refrigerated trucks at an exchange point with no one to collect them. Ukraine rejected Russia's account of the events, saying that the two sides had agreed to exchange seriously wounded and young troops on Saturday but a date had not yet been set for the repatriation of soldiers' bodies. During a second round of direct peace talks in Istanbul on Monday, Russia and Ukraine agreed to exchange more prisoners this weekend. Vladimir Medinsky, the head of Russia's delegation for peace talks with Ukraine, said this week that the exchange would be the largest since of the three-year war. 'In strict accordance with the Istanbul agreements, the Russian side began a humanitarian operation to transfer more than 6,000 bodies of killed Ukrainian servicemen,' as well as badly wounded soldiers under the age of 25, Medinsky said Saturday afternoon on Telegram. He claimed that 1,212 bodies of killed Ukrainian soldiers were at the exchange point, with the rest 'on their way.' He also said that Russia gave Ukraine the first list of 640 prisoners of war for exchange, listed as 'wounded, seriously ill and young people,' in order to start the swap. In a video posted by Russia's Defense Ministry on Telegram, two men wearing hazmat suits are seen opening the doors to the back of a truck parked on the side of a road. Inside the truck were dozens of sealed white bags, which the ministry said contained the bodies of Ukrainian soldiers. Medinsky said Russia's Defense Ministry contact group was waiting at the border with Ukraine, but alleged that Kyiv had 'unexpectedly postponed the transfer of bodies and the exchange of prisoners of war for an indefinite period' and had given 'pretty weird reasons' for doing so. Ukraine swiftly rejected the accusations, saying Medinsky's claims 'do not correspond to reality.' It said the exchange of prisoners of war and soldiers' bodies were separate processes. 'Unfortunately, instead of constructive dialogue, we are again faced with manipulations and attempts to use sensitive humanitarian issues for informational purposes,' Ukraine's Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War wrote on Telegram. 'We call on the Russian side to stop playing dirty games,' it added. Ukraine's Defense Ministry said Russia was creating 'artificial obstacles' and making 'false statements' to obstruct the exchange of living prisoners, reneging on what had been agreed in Istanbul. 'The Ukrainian side has faced yet another attempt to renege on the agreements after the fact,' the ministry said. Although prisoner of war swaps had been a rare point of agreement between the warring countries, the unraveling of Saturday's scheduled exchange underscores the lack of trust that has so far marred the peace talks. The spat came soon after Russia launched another aerial assault on Ukraine, killing three people in the city of Kharkiv.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Ukraine's Foreign Ministry responds to murder of Ukrainian mother and daughter in Belgium
Foreign Minister AndriI Sybiha has instructed the Ukrainian Embassy in Belgium to closely monitor the investigation into the deaths of two Ukrainian citizens – a mother, 46, and her 6-year-old daughter – in the Belgian town of Haasrode. Source: press service of the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, writes Interfax-Ukraine Details: Consular officers are already in contact with the victims' relatives, as well as local police and prosecutors. The bodies of the two victims were discovered during a fire at a residential building. Quote: "The circumstances of the deaths and the causes of the incident are being established. The Leuven prosecutor's office has opened criminal proceedings, and investigative actions are ongoing. Ukrainian diplomats will continue to provide necessary consular assistance and keep the public informed about the progress of the investigation." As reported, two Ukrainians – a 46-year-old woman and her six-year-old daughter – have been found dead in a residential building in the Belgian town of Haasrode. Both victims had stab wounds and the crime scene had been deliberately set on fire. Background In April 2024, two Ukrainian servicemen aged 38 and 24, were killed in Murnau, Germany, while recovering from injuries in Bavaria. A 58-year-old Russian man who murdered two Ukrainian soldiers in Germany was sentenced to life imprisonment by a court in Munich. Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon!
