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UPI
3 days ago
- Politics
- UPI
NATO fighter jets scrambled as Russia attacks Ukraine
A local woman walks past the site of a drone strike on a residential building in Kyiv, Ukraine, on July 21, 2025. Photo by Sergey Dolzhenko/EPA July 28 (UPI) -- NATO aircraft were scrambled Sunday night to respond to a Russian attack on Ukraine, the Polish military said Monday. "Polish and allied quick reaction aircraft were scrambled, and ground-based air defense and radar reconnaissance systems reached the highest state of readiness," Poland's Operational Command of the Armed Forces said in a statement. "These actions are preventive in nature and are aimed at securing airspace and protecting citizens, especially in areas adjacent to the threatened region." A few hours later, it issued a statement that the aircraft had concluded their deployment, adding that "no violations of Polish airspace were observed." Swedish fighter jets stationed in Poland were among the aircraft scrambled, it said. The Ukrainian Air Force said in a statement on Telegram on Monday that Russia launched 324 drones and seven missiles overnight, resulting in 311 of the attacks being either shot down or suppressed by electronic warfare. "There were confirmed impacts of two missiles of various types and 15 strike UAVs at three locations," it said. Andriy Yermak, head of Ukraine's Office of the President, said in a statement on X that some of the Russian aerial strikes hit civilian infrastructure, including in the capital Kyiv. "He wants nothing but war and Ukraine's defeat," he said, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin. "But defeat is not an option." "Russia and its satellites are also testing NATO's response," he added. "Drones entering the airspace of the Baltic states are signals that must not be ignored."
UPI
21-07-2025
- Politics
- UPI
At least 1 killed, 9 injured as Russia, Ukraine trade aerial attacks
A woman walks near a badly damaged residential building in Kyiv on Monday in the aftermath of an airborne assault on the Ukrainian capital overnight that killed at least one person and injured nine. Photo by Sergey Dolzhenko/EPA July 21 (UPI) -- At least one person was killed and nine were injured in Kyiv and flights were disrupted in Moscow after Ukraine and Russia traded drone and missile attacks overnight. Six districts of the Ukrainian capital were targeted, including Darnytskyi, where a kindergarten, a supermarket, warehouses and other non-residential buildings were set ablaze, and Shevchenkivskyi, where a multi-story residential building was damaged, said Kyiv City Military Administration head Timur Tkachenko. He said the blast wave and flying debris smashed windows and damaged apartments and the entrance to the Lukyanivska metro station. An administrative building was partially destroyed and warehouses were on fire in the Solomyanskyi district. The Holosiivskyi, Dniprovskyi and Svyatoshynskyi districts sustained minor damage from falling debris, Tkachenko said. The Ukrainian Air Force said 450 drones and missiles were sent into Ukraine by Russian forces, with Kharkiv and the western city of Ivano-Frankivsk and surrounding region also sustaining significant damage However, the air force claimed air defenses shot down all but 23. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the attack continued throughout the night with attack drones also intercepted over the Sumy, Khmelnytskyi, Kirovohrad, Mykolaiv, Poltava and Kherson regions. "Russian strikes are always an assault on humanity," he said in a post on X. Meanwhile, Ukraine launched its own attacks, striking deep into Russia with long-range drones for a fifth straight night, sparking "travel chaos" at Moscow's airports, two of which temporarily suspended flights. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said there had been no injuries or major damage but that air defenses had now shot down 49 drones between Friday evening and Monday morning, with the Russian Defense Ministry claiming many more downed over provinces bordering Ukraine, but also deeper inside Russia. The airborne offensive saw cancellations and flight delays at Moscow airports that forced thousands of travelers to wait in long lines or spend the night on terminal building floors. The latest round of attacks came as French Foreign Minister Jean Noel-Barrot arrived in Kyiv for a two-day visit for talks on further assistance for Ukraine with Zelensky, Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko and Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha. In a social media update Monday, Zelensky said he and Noel-Barrot discussed defense assistance, particularly the need for air defense systems, training and the outcomes of meetings with partners at Ramstein -- the 56-country Ukraine Contact Group set up in 2022 to provide military support. "We are ready to expand joint defense production. There are decisions by French companies to start manufacturing drones in Ukraine, which is highly valuable. We also talked about sanctions against Russia and negotiations regarding Ukraine's accession to the European Union," said Zelensky. British Defense Secretary John Healey and German counterpart Boris Pistorius were expected to urge a meeting of the contact group Monday -- which the pair are jointly chairing -- to back a "50-day push" to get as many weapons and ammunition as possible into Ukraine in order to force Russian President Vladimir Putin to negotiate. "Last week, President Trump announced a new plan for large-scale NATO weapons transfers and committed to getting these 'quickly distributed to the battlefield," Healey told the virtual meeting. "Alongside this, the US has started the clock on a 50-day deadline for Putin to agree to peace or face crippling economic sanctions. As members of the Ukraine Defence Contact Group, we need to step up in turn with a '50-day drive' to arm Ukraine on the battlefield and force Putin to the negotiating table," Healey said.
UPI
13-07-2025
- Politics
- UPI
Ukraine, Russia trade blows in escalating spy war
Vasyl Malyuk, head of the Security Service of Ukraine, led a mission to track and capture two Russian special services agents Kyiv. The suspects, a man and a woman, resisted arrest and died during a firefight. File Photo by Sergey Dolzhenko/EPA July 13 (UPI) -- Ukraine and Russia have escalated their shadow war of espionage, sabotage and assassinations, with both countries claiming a growing list of captured agents, intercepted plots and cross-border attacks involving civilians, drones and improvised explosives. On Sunday, Ukraine's Security Service, or SBU, announced that its officers had killed two Russian special services agents in Kyiv. The pair, a man and a woman, had allegedly assassinated an SBU colonel under orders from Russia's Federal Security Service, or FSB. The operation was personally led by SBU chief Lt. Gen. Vasyl Malyuk, who said the suspects were tracked and eliminated after resisting arrest. "As a result of covert search and active counterintelligence measures, the enemy's lair was discovered," Malyuk said. "During the arrest, they began to resist, there was a firefight, so the villains were eliminated." According to the agency, the Russian operatives had entered Ukraine in advance of the attack, studied the victim's daily routine, retrieved a silenced pistol from a drop site and fatally shot the officer in Kyiv's Holosiivskyi district. Operation Spiderweb The killing is the latest flashpoint in a rapidly intensifying spy war that began to escalate in early June after Ukraine launched "Operation Spiderweb," a drone- and sabotage-based campaign striking military targets deep inside Russia. In the days that followed, Russia's FSB announced a string of arrests, including an SBU agent in Crimea accused of planning to use an improvised explosive device to carry out sabotage and "terrorism." Ukraine responded with its own crackdown, detaining a National Guard member in Kharkiv accused of directing Russian airstrikes against his unit, and arresting an alleged FSB agent embedded in a construction firm tasked with building military infrastructure. Both agencies began publicizing near-daily arrests, many involving civilians allegedly recruited online through Telegram or WhatsApp. On June 6, Ukraine said it captured two people working for the FSB to locate anti-aircraft systems in Dnipropetrovsk, and two more planning IED attacks on military targets in Dnipropetrovsk and Lviv. One was identified as a Ukrainian deserter. A day later, Ukraine said it detained two Russian agents who had detonated an IED in Dnipro that injured a law enforcement officer and destroyed a vehicle. On June 10, the FSB claimed to have stopped a Russian citizen allegedly preparing to attack a civilian gathering in Krasnodar on behalf of the SBU. It said Ukraine had intensified efforts to recruit Russians online, particularly via messaging apps. The same day, Ukraine said it arrested a Kharkiv woman accused of both sharing troop positions and calling for "buffer zones" in Ukraine on social media during ongoing ceasefire talks. Bomb and murder plots Ukraine detained a 57-year-old man in Lviv accused of scouting air bases for Russia, and a woman who allegedly manufactured IEDs for the Russian military intelligence agency, the GRU. That woman's devices were allegedly used by a 21-year-old in a car bombing outside a Ukrainian military administrative building in the Odesa region. Also under investigation is a sitting member of Ukraine's parliament who has been in custody since November 2024 for alleged high treason. The SBU said the politician participated in spreading Russian disinformation. On June 14, Ukraine said it arrested a man in Odesa who had just planted an explosive device intended to kill a military officer. That same day, it detained a man in Zaporizhzhia who initially drew scrutiny for pro-Russian posts on Telegram and was later accused of marking Ukrainian military sites on Google Maps for Russian airstrikes. Russia, too, expanded its intelligence efforts in occupied Ukrainian territory. On June 16, the FSB claimed it thwarted a car bombing plot in Kherson against a Russian official and the next day detained a citizen in Crimea for filming air defense systems. Ukraine answered with more arrests, including alleged informants aiding Russian airstrikes in Donetsk and an "elite GRU unit" operating near Kyiv. On June 20, the SBU said it had detained a Ukrainian deserter-turned-FSB-agent accused of plotting an assassination in Kyiv for money and arrested six people it described as "pro-Russian internet agitators." The pace continued through late June. Russia said it arrested two residents in occupied Zaporizhzhia, accused of leaking military positions to Ukraine, while Ukraine said it captured suspects hired for $400,000 to assassinate Ukrainian journalist Dmytro Gordon. It also said it had foiled two recent attempts to kill President Volodymyr Zelensky. Increasing surveillance The following day, the FSB detained two Russians for planning to bomb a gas facility in Berdyansk, while Ukraine arrested a teenager for reporting troop movements. That same day, Ukraine said it had gathered evidence to charge three Russian military officials with war crimes committed during the 2022 occupation of Bucha. On June 25, the FSB claimed to have foiled an SBU plot in Moscow. In the days that followed, it detained four Russian citizens for alleged treason and warned the public against interacting with strangers on encrypted messaging apps. That day, Ukraine said it had captured a 19-year-old Kharkiv woman who allegedly lured Ukrainian soldiers to a rigged scooter giveaway and attempted to flee after the IED exploded. Ukraine also claimed to have thwarted a similar Russian plot involving a fake date arranged through a dating app. As July began, the SBU announced it had disrupted several new Russian efforts, including reconnaissance of energy infrastructure in Dnipro and Zaporizhzhia, plotting attacks in Cherkasy, and an explosives plot targeting government buildings in Kharkiv. Russia responded on July 7 with the arrest of four citizens accused of filming energy facilities in several Russian regions. On July 8, Ukraine said it thwarted a planned bombing at a hotel in Rivne by a woman who left an IED in a guest room and attempted to detonate it remotely. Two days later, the FSB said it detained Ukrainian intelligence officers in Melitopol accused of passing along Russian troop positions. The most recent development from Russia came Friday, when it said it arrested two residents in Bryansk accused of conducting surveillance on law enforcement and military personnel for Ukrainian drone and bombing strikes. Ukraine's counterintelligence campaign has not been limited to Russia. On July 9, the SBU announced it had detained alleged Chinese spies accused of trying to collect classified information about Ukraine's Neptune missile program.
UPI
09-07-2025
- Politics
- UPI
European Court of Human Rights rules Russia violated international law in Ukraine
A local girl with a dog reacted in Dec. 2024 at the site of a missile strike in downtown Kyiv, Ukraine. On Wednesday, the France-based International Court on Human Rights handed down two rulings against Russia, saying since 2014 it violated international law in Ukraine as source of "widespread" and "flagrant" cases of human-rights abuses stemming from Russia's full-scale Ukrainian invasion in February 2022. File Photo By Sergey Dolzhenko/EPA July 9 (UPI) -- The European Court of Human Rights delivered Wednesday two of four rulings against Russia in an international inquiry brought by Ukraine and the Netherlands. Judges at the France-based court handed down two rulings against the Russian state, saying since 2014 it violated international law in Ukraine as source of "widespread" and "flagrant" cases of human-rights abuses stemming from Russia's full-scale Ukrainian invasion in February 2022. "In none of the conflicts previously before (the Court had) here been such near universal condemnation of the 'flagrant' disregard by the respondent State for the foundations of the international legal order established after the Second World War," the court wrote in its judgment. In addition, the Strasbourg court said Russia was the culprit in the 2014 crash of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 in a tragedy that claimed nearly 300 lives, many of whom were Dutch citizens. Notably, it was the first time that an international court ruled on Moscow's role for downing the Boeing 777 on top of human rights violations in Ukraine since Russia's 2022 invasion. The legal actions were filed prior to the European Court of Human Rights expelling Russia in 2022 following the invasion of Russian troops into Ukraine. A Dutch court in January 2023 said its native Netherlands could bring its case over the doomed aircraft in front of the ECHR. The two remaining cases filed by Ukraine still getting weighed address the kidnapping of Ukrainian kids to Russia, and other war-related violations in the Russian-occupied Donbas region of Ukraine. In May, the UN's Aviation Council officially said Russia was the principal for the MH17 crash that was on its way to Kuala Lumpur via Amsterdam. Meanwhile, nearly 10,000 other cases against Russia are pending in front of the international tribunal in France filed by separate entities. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky formally approved plans last month to create a new international court in order to later prosecute senior Russian authorities for the now years-long Ukrainian invasion, with no end yet in sight. On Wednesday, Europe's human rights court pointed to "repeated" human rights violations by Russia over a more than eight-year window. It included "indiscriminate" attacks by Russian military units, executions, allegations of torture, intimidation, unlawful and arbitrary detentions and persecution of journalists and religious groups. It follows a similar 2021 ruling by the human rights court that said Russia likewise committed violations during its 2008 war in neighboring Georgia after a cease-fire in the "buffer zone." The court also pointed in its ruling on Wednesday to "rape as a weapon of war," acts of looting, private property destruction and "the organized removal of children to Russia and their adoption there."
UPI
23-06-2025
- Politics
- UPI
13 killed, 57 hurt in Russian aerial assault against Kyiv, provinces
Emergency personnel at work Monday morning at the scene of a Russian missile strike on a five-story residential building close to the center of Kyiv, where at least six people were killed. Photo by Sergey Dolzhenko/EPA-EFE June 23 (UPI) -- At least 13 people were killed and 57 injured in Ukraine, half of them in Kyiv, after Russian forces attacked the capital and other targets in the eastern half of the country with hundreds of drones and ballistic and cruise missiles, officials said Monday. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said in a social media update that six people were killed when a missile struck and badly damaged a building in the central Shevchenkivskyi district, but that the rescue operation was still underway and there might be more casualties buried under the rubble. "A terrible picture in the Shevchenko district. Extensive damage to a five-story building. Rescuers, medics, and municipal services are working at the scene. The blast wave also damaged the apartments of the 25-story residential building opposite. Ten people were rescued from it. Among them, a child and a pregnant woman," said Klitschko. Another 22 people were injured, 12 of them hospitalized, in attacks on residential and non-residential buildings in five other districts of the capital, he added. The governor of the region, Mykola Kalashnyk, said one person was killed in Bilotserkivka district, southwest of Kyiv, and four were injured, two of whom were admitted to the hospital. Residential targets were hit in Boryspil and Bila Tserkva, where a medical facility and a hotel were also destroyed. The town of Bucha, just northwest of Kyiv, one of the first Ukrainian settlements overrun by Russian forces and scene of the U.N.-documented execution of at least 73 civilians and other suspected war crimes after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, also came under attack, damaging several houses and vehicles. In neighboring Chernihiv province to the northeast, which borders both Russia and Belarus, at least three people were killed and 11 injured, including four teenagers, in missile and drone strikes on Chernihiv, the regional capital, and four other districts, according to Chernihiv Gov. Viacheslav Chaus. In Donetsk, one of four Ukrainian provinces partly or fully controlled by Russian forces, Gov. Vadym Filashkin reported on Telegram that two people had been killed in Siversk, 18 miles east of the city of Slovyansk, and in Myrne, east of Pokrovsk, with five more injured. In part-Russian-occupied Kherson, Gov. Oleksandr Prokudin reported via social media that one person had been killed and six injured in Russian drone, artillery and airstrikes on Kherson city and several other communities, damaging seven apartment buildings, 14 houses, a gas pipeline and other civilian targets. The Ukrainian Air Force said on its official account on Telegram that of 368 incoming attack drones, ballistic and cruise missiles, mostly targeting Kyiv, air defenses managed to down all but 14.
