Latest news with #RussianDrones
Al Jazeera
4 days ago
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,241
How things stand on Saturday, July 19: Fighting Russian drones and glide bombs killed several people in Ukraine on Friday, officials said, including a 52-year-old train driver in the Dnipropetrovsk region, a 66-year-old woman killed in her home in Kostiantynivka, and a 64-year-old man killed in a glide bomb attack on a building site in the Zaporizhia region. Russian forces have staged a mass drone attack on the Ukrainian Black Sea port of Odesa, setting fire to at least one multistorey apartment building, the city's mayor, Gennadiy Trukhanov, said early on Saturday. At least 20 drones converged on the city in the early hours of this morning. Russian air defences intercepted or destroyed 10 Ukrainian drones headed for Moscow overnight on Friday, the city's mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, said. Ukraine's top military commander, Oleksandr Syrskii, said his forces are standing firm in defending the city of Pokrovsk, a logistics hub in the eastern Donetsk region that has weathered months of Russian attacks, and the Novopavlivka settlement in the Zaporizhia region. Praising the troops defending Pokrovsk, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russian forces 'trying to advance and enter Ukrainian cities and villages' will not have 'a chance of survival'. Authorities in Russian-controlled Crimea have introduced an information blackout designed to counter Ukrainian drone, missile and sabotage attacks. Sergei Aksyonov, the Russian-installed head of Crimea, said he signed a decree banning media outlets and social media users from publishing photos, video or other content that revealed the location of Russian forces or details of Ukrainian attacks on the Black Sea peninsula. Military aid Australia's government said it delivered M1A1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine as part of a 245 million Australian dollar ($160m) package to help the country defend itself against Russia in their ongoing war. The United States has moved Germany ahead of Switzerland to receive the next Patriot air defence systems to come off production lines in the US. The expedited delivery to Germany will allow Berlin to send two Patriot batteries it already has to Ukraine, according to a US media report. Leaders in Ukraine and Washington are in detailed talks on a deal involving US investment in Kyiv's domestic drone production, Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said. She added the deal would also lead to the US purchasing 'a large batch of Ukrainian drones'. President Zelenskyy said he discussed missile supplies and funding for interceptor drones to counteract Russian attacks in a call with French President Emmanuel Macron. 'I would especially like to highlight our agreement on pilot training for Mirage jets – France is ready to train additional pilots using additional aircraft,' Zelenskyy said on X. Sanctions The European Union approved its 18th package of sanctions against Russia over its war in Ukraine, aimed at dealing further blows to Russia's oil and energy industry. Eighteen officers working for Russian military intelligence, known as the GRU, along with three units, have been hit with sanctions by the United Kingdom over their role in a 2022 bomb attack on a theatre in southern Ukraine that killed hundreds of civilians. The officers were also accused of targeting the family of a former Russian spy who was later poisoned in the UK with a nerve agent. President Zelenskyy thanked the European Union for the latest sanctions targeting Russia and called for further punitive measures against Moscow. 'This decision is essential and timely, especially now, as a response to the fact that Russia has intensified the brutality of the strikes on our cities and villages,' he said. Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said the Russian economy would withstand the EU sanctions package and said Moscow would intensify its strikes against Ukraine. India has said it does not support 'unilateral sanctions' by the EU, after Brussels imposed penalties on Russia that included a Rosneft oil refinery in the western Indian state of Gujarat. Greek tanker operators involved in shipping approved Russian oil exports are expected to continue doing so despite the new wave of tougher sanctions by the EU that will further tighten restrictions, shipping sources told the Reuters news agency. WhatsApp should prepare to leave the Russian market, a lawmaker in Moscow who regulates the IT sector said on Friday, warning that the messaging app owned by Meta Platforms is very likely to be put on a list of restricted software in Russia. Politics and diplomacy The Kremlin said that it did not believe the tougher stance that Donald Trump has adopted towards Russia over its war in Ukraine means the end of US-Russia talks aimed at reviving their battered ties. The Kremlin also said that it agreed with a statement by Zelenskyy that there needed to be more momentum around peace talks between the warring sides. Zelenskyy appointed former Defence Minister Rustem Umerov as the secretary of the country's National Security and Defence Council, according to a decree published on Friday on the president's website. Umerov's appointment follows a reshuffle of the Ukrainian government and the appointment of a new prime minister. Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed Ukraine during a phone call with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday, the Kremlin press service said. Putin said Russia was 'committed to a political and diplomatic settlement of the conflict in Ukraine' and thanked Erdogan for facilitating Russia-Ukraine bilateral talks. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has cast doubt on the possibility of Ukraine joining the EU by 2034, saying accession was unlikely to come at a point affecting the bloc's medium-term finance plans, which run to 2034. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen had said Kyiv could join the EU before 2030 if the country continues its reforms. Russian courts sentenced 135 people to lengthy prison sentences in connection with a mass anti-Israel protest in October 2023 at an airport in the predominantly Muslim Dagestan region, the country's Investigative Committee said on Friday. Hundreds of anti-Israel protesters stormed an airport in the city of Makhachkala, where a plane from Tel Aviv had just arrived, over Israel's war on Gaza. Regional security Russia views recent comments by a top US general about NATO's ability to swiftly capture the Russian Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad as hostile, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. General Christopher Donahue, the US Army Europe and Africa commander, said NATO could seize Kaliningrad 'from the ground in a timeframe that is unheard of and faster than we've ever been able to do', according to a report. Almost a third of Italians believe the country will be directly involved in a war within five years, but only 16 percent of those of fighting age would be willing to take up arms, a new survey shows. The survey by the Centre for Social Investment Studies showed 39 percent of Italians aged between 18 and 45 would declare themselves as pacifist conscientious objectors, 19 percent would try to evade conscription another way, and 26 percent would prefer Italy to hire foreign mercenaries.
Globe and Mail
4 days ago
- Politics
- Globe and Mail
Canada must sanction the Chinese tech companies fuelling the horrors in Ukraine
Marcus Kolga is the founder of DisinfoWatch and a senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute. Almost every night since May, Russian missiles and drones – powered by Iranian designs and packed with Chinese components – have torn through Ukrainian schools, hospitals and homes, killing or maiming thousands in a ruthless campaign of terror. Those drones are now reaching further into Ukraine, striking apartment buildings in Lviv over the weekend. In June alone, 5,429 Russian drones and ballistic missiles struck Ukrainian targets. According to the UN, they have caused more than 3,000 civilian casualties since the start of the war, with 232 civilians killed in June. Analysts warn that Russia could soon develop the capacity to launch up to 1,000 drones in a single night against Ukrainian civilian targets. Analysis: Trump tariff threat piles pressure on Canada to expand trade with Asia Russia's weapon of choice in its war of terror is the Iranian-designed Shahed drone – now mass-produced in Russia and rebranded as the 'Geran.' Day after day, waves of these drones hover over Ukrainian cities, with their operators safe inside Russia, actively targeting civilian infrastructure and hunting civilians. Just last week, a one-year-old child was reportedly tracked and killed by a Russian drone operator. The purpose of these drones is clear: to terrorize and demoralize Ukrainian society, destroy critical infrastructure and deprive millions of electricity, water, heat and hope. What is less known, but deeply disturbing, is the extent to which China is supplying components and technology to enable Russia's growing ability to build these drones. The collaboration of Chinese companies and the Chinese regime in building these weapons makes them directly complicit in facilitating and enabling the war crimes being committed against the Ukrainian people. The evidence of Chinese involvement is clear. Ukrainian security services have identified Chinese-origin components in Russian drones recovered after attacks on Kyiv. A recent Bloomberg investigation revealed a direct partnership between Russian firm Aero-HIT and Chinese suppliers and engineers to help Russia mass-produce drones. A growing list of Chinese companies have been exposed for supplying critical components: engines, carbon fibre airframes, electronics, navigation systems and antennas – all essential parts integrated into drones now rolling off Russian assembly lines. Earlier this month, Ukraine's National Security and Defence Council formally sanctioned five Chinese companies for supplying components used in Russia's terror drones. The United States has sanctioned more than 200 Chinese and Hong Kong entities for enabling Russia's war machine, while the European Union has listed over 50. In comparison, Canada has fallen behind. While Canada was among the first to sanction Iranian drone manufacturers in 2022, Ottawa added just 20 Chinese entities to our sanctions list last February, far fewer than our allies and nowhere near sufficient given the growing scale of China's support for Russia's drone program. Even here in Canada, there is disturbing evidence of complicity. In June, the RCMP charged Anton Trofimov – a Russian national living in Canada – for allegedly exporting restricted technologies to Russia via Hong Kong for the purpose of manufacturing weapons, underscoring how Canada itself has been exploited as a platform for Russian sanctions evasion. Opinion: Ukraine showed that drones are the new bullets. Why doesn't Canada get this? Recent reports indicate that Russia's drone production has tripled in 2025, underscoring the urgent need to disrupt the Kremlin's supply chains and expand and rigorously enforce sanctions against the Chinese entities fuelling it. Canada's sanctions are meant to deny aggressor states like Russia the means to wage war and to hold their enablers, such as Iran and China, to account. Canada has clear legal authority to sanction those who enable war crimes. All of the Chinese firms sanctioned by Ukraine this month – and earlier by our allies – meet that standard and should be added to Canada's sanctions list, along with any others contributing to Russia's arsenal. Beyond this, Canada should amend its sanctions legislation to allow for the rapid imposition of secondary sanctions on any entity doing business with sanctioned Chinese firms. This would make it significantly harder for any company to collaborate with Chinese suppliers. Finally, Canada should designate Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism under the State Immunity Act – an action that would allow victims to pursue civil cases in Canadian courts, including against Chinese entities that enable Russia's war. The need to act is dire and undeniable: thousands of lives are at stake. As innocent Ukrainian civilians endure relentless nightly bombardments from Russian drones powered by Chinese-made components, we cannot afford to hesitate. Disrupting the supply lines that fuel Russia's campaign of terror and holding the Chinese private and government entities enabling this deadly collaboration to account will help save innocent Ukrainian lives.
RNZ News
10-07-2025
- Politics
- RNZ News
Russian drones swarm Kyiv from all sides in apparent shift of tactics
By Lex Harvey, Victoria Butenko, Kostya Gak and Ivana Kottasová , CNN A fire burns at a residential building in Kyiv. Photo: Efrem Lukatsky / AP via CNN Newsource Hundreds of Russian drones flying from all directions have attacked Kyiv overnight into Friday (NZT) in an apparent new Russian tactic, marking a second consecutive night of ferocious attacks on Ukraine. At least two people were killed, including a 22-year-old police officer who was named by authorities as Maria Dziumaha, and more than a dozen were wounded in the attacks, according to authorities. CNN staff on the ground in Kyiv witnessed massive, fiery explosions that illuminated the night sky. Smoke filled the air, creating a burning smell and obscuring the visibility in the city centre. Russia has been intensifying its aerial attacks against Ukraine in recent weeks, but the assault on Thursday appeared to mark a change in approach from Moscow. Russia launched 400 drones and 18 missiles, including eight ballistic and six cruise missiles, according to a Telegram post from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. They were flying at different altitudes, and attacking from all directions - with some of the drones initially bypassing the capital before abruptly changing direction and speeding back towards the city. While Kyiv has previously experienced attacks from multiple directions, as Russian drones attempted to bypass the city's air defences, the assault on Thursday saw the drones launching towards the city simultaneously, effectively encircling Kyiv before attacking. This made guarding the capital's skies even more challenging for the strained Ukrainian air defences. Yet the Ukrainian Air Force said it shot down or disabled 382 of the 415 aerial weapons Russia launched at the country overnight, including all of the ballistic and cruise missiles. That is a stunning success given the scale of the attack, especially given Ukraine's limited access to air defence systems. Many Kyiv residents spent another sleepless night in shelters, listening to the terrifying sounds of explosions and drones flying overhead. Nadiya Voitsehivkya, 63, told CNN her brother-in-law has been taken to hospital with injuries he sustained when his apartment was struck. "Everything in it was completely destroyed, and (my sister) escaped in her underwear. She managed to escape, but her husband didn't make it; he was crushed by a slab. The ambulance took him away," she said, tears rolling down her cheeks. "We don't know where to turn: I don't know who can help us. Everything there is burned down; there is nothing left of that apartment." As terrifying as the night was for Kyiv's residents, these massive aerial attacks have become the new normal for Ukrainian civilians. Just on Wednesday, Russia conducted its largest drone assault since the start of its full-scale invasion, launching 728 drones and 13 missiles in strikes that killed at least one person, according to Ukrainian officials. "This is an obvious build-up of terror by Russia," Zelensky said on Thursday, adding that he would be talking to allies about more funding for interceptor drones and air defences. The damage from the latest offensive attacks appeared to be substantial. Residents stand outside of their damaged house in Kyiv, following a Russian strike. Photo: Evgeniy Maloletka / AP via CNN Newsource The Russian Defence Ministry said Thursday that it was targeting "Ukrainian military-industrial complex enterprises in Kyiv and military airfield infrastructure." But houses and residential buildings, cars, warehouse facilities, offices and other buildings across the city were damaged and caught fire, according to city authorities. A health care clinic was almost completely destroyed in the strikes, Kyiv's mayor Vitali Klitschko said. Tetyana, a 68-year old Kyiv resident who asked for her last name not to be published because of fears for her security, said the windows in her apartment were smashed by the pressure wave from a nearby explosion. "We survived the night, it was very scary. There were a lot of people in the basement … there was a humming, whistling, banging. Fire broke out. The windows were shattered, everything was broken, the walls. My hands are still shaking," she told CNN. As Russia ramped up its aerial attacks against Ukrainian cities, efforts to reach a ceasefire have largely stalled. US President Donald Trump has become increasingly frustrated with the Russian leader Vladimir Putin. "We get a lot of bullsh*t thrown at us by Putin, if you want to know the truth," Trump said in a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday. "He's very nice all of the time, but it turns out to be meaningless." Russia's sustained assault in recent days has injected new urgency into questions surrounding Washington's commitment to defending Ukraine, as the Trump administration pledged to send additional defensive weaponry to Kyiv in an apparent policy reversion. People sleep on the platform of a metro station in Kyiv, as they take cover during a Russian attack. Photo: Evgeniy Maloletka / AP via CNN Newsource Moscow downplayed Trump's harsh words in a press briefing Wednesday. A Kremlin spokesperson said it is reacting "calmly" to Trump's criticism of Putin. "Trump in general tends to use a fairly tough style and expressions," Dmitry Peskov said, adding Moscow hopes to continue dialogue with Washington. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio met Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Malaysia on Thursday, where he said he relayed Trump's "disappointment and frustration" during a "frank conversation." Trump's Ukraine envoy Keith Kellogg weighed in, as well, calling Russia's latest attacks "simply horrific" in a speech at the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Rome. Zelensky said at a new conference at the same summit on Thursday that all signals point toward the US resuming its aid to Ukraine. "It is important that, following very constructive and very positive conversations with President Trump, we have all the necessary political signals regarding the resumption of aid supplies," Zelensky said. "We are now working at the team level to ensure that everything arrives in Ukraine on time. We have agreed on all of this." Zelensky added that at the recovery conference, he discussed purchasing expensive Patriot missile systems with representatives from the US and European countries. Following Wednesday's record drone attack, Zelensky said there had been "so many attempts to achieve peace and cease fire, but Russia rejects everything." -CNN
Al Jazeera
10-07-2025
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,232
Here is how things stand on Thursday, July 10: Ukrainian air defence units were defending Kyiv against Russian drones early on Thursday for the second night running, with officials reporting a fire in a city-centre apartment building and drone fragments landing in different districts. At least two people were injured in the latest attacks, according to the AFP news agency. A Russian air strike killed three people and injured one in the front-line town of Kostiantynivka in Ukraine's east, national emergency service officials said. A post on Telegram said the strike also destroyed a one-storey administrative building. Firefighters also extinguished blazes in four buildings, according to officials. Vadym Filashkin, the governor of Ukraine's Donetsk region, which encompasses Kostiantynivka, said on Telegram that it was time to 'take a responsible decision. Evacuate to less dangerous regions of Ukraine!', amid Russia's latest offensive westward. A five-year-old boy died of burns sustained in a Ukrainian drone strike on a beach in the Russian city of Kursk, regional Governor Alexander Khinshtein said on Telegram, raising the death toll in the attack to four, including a member of Russia's National Guard. Russian forces advanced at key points along the front in eastern Ukraine, defeating Ukrainian units in at least six regions, including Donetsk and Kharkiv, and using missiles and drones to strike ammunition depots and airfields, the Ministry of Defence in Moscow said. It also claimed Russia captured a village in Donetsk. The United States is delivering artillery shells and mobile rocket artillery missiles to Ukraine, two US officials told the Reuters news agency, days after President Donald Trump's administration halted shipments of some critical weapons to Kyiv. Trump also said that he would consider sending Patriot missiles to Ukraine, which he has previously said Kyiv would need for its defence. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he held a 'substantive' conversation with Trump's Ukraine envoy, Keith Kellogg, in Rome shortly after Trump pledged to send more defensive weapons to Kyiv. Zelenskyy met Pope Leo at the papal summer residence of Castel Gandolfo, where the pontiff told him that the Vatican was willing to host Russia-Ukraine peace talks. It was the Ukrainian leader's second meeting with the pope in his two-month-old papacy. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni will open the Rome conference on Ukraine on Thursday, with Zelenskyy and European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen in attendance. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, Dutch leader Dick Schoof and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis are also expected to attend. Merz has announced that he will make an offer of air defence systems to Ukraine during the Rome conference. Ukraine said it detained a Chinese father and son, both suspected of spying on its prized Neptune antiship missile programme, a key part of Kyiv's growing domestic arms industry critical to its defence against Russian invaders. Kyiv has accused Beijing of helping the Kremlin's war effort. Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Maria Zakharova said the Kremlin had evidence that Ukraine has repeatedly used antipersonnel mines that have injured civilians. Ukraine in June announced its withdrawal from the Ottawa Convention banning the production and use of antipersonnel mines. Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov will visit North Korea this weekend, the latest in a series of high-profile visits by top Moscow officials as the two countries deepen military ties, according to Zakharova. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will meet Lavrov on Thursday on the sidelines of the ASEAN meeting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, a senior US State Department official said. Russian authorities have confiscated company assets worth some $50bn over the past three years, citing justifications ranging from illegal actions by Western countries to the need for strategic resources, underscoring the shift toward to a 'fortress Russia' economic model amid the war in Ukraine, the Reuters news agency reported, citing research from the Russian law firm Nektorov, Saveliev & Partners. Italy is set to unveil a support scheme worth 300 million euros ($351m) for small and medium enterprises involved in the reconstruction of Ukraine, Minister of Foreign Affairs Antonio Tajani said. An Italian government source told the Reuters news agency that about 500bn euros ($585bn) would be needed for the reconstruction, recovery and modernisation of Ukraine, citing World Bank estimates.
New York Times
07-07-2025
- New York Times
Ukrainian Troops Struggle to Hold the Line on the Eastern Front
It was the dead of night, and the Ukrainian infantryman was writhing in a tree line from serious injuries to his legs, shoulder and lung. His unit had told him by radio that they could not send anyone to evacuate him. The road to their base in the nearby city of Kostiantynivka had become a kill zone. 'There were too many drones flying around,' recalled the infantryman, Oleh Chausov, as he described the experience. Instead, he was told, the brigade would try to get him out with a small, robot-like tracked vehicle remotely operated from miles away and less visible to Russian drones than an armored carrier. When the vehicle arrived, Mr. Chausov dragged himself aboard, his wounded legs dangling. But within 20 minutes, the vehicle hit a mine and blew up, he said. Miraculously, Mr. Chausov survived, crawled out and took shelter in a nearby trench. He was back to square one, still trapped on the battlefield. 25 miles UKRAINE Detail area Ukraine Kramatorsk Druzhkivka Bakhmut AREA UNDER RUSSIAN CONTROL Kostiantynivka Avdiivka Donetsk Russia Note: As of July 1 Source: Institute for the Study of War with American Enterprise Institute's Critical Threats Project By The New York Times Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
