4 days ago
Russian attacks on Ukrainian cities damage buildings and property
A barrage of Russian strikes on Ukraine early Friday left a trail of destruction visible across several cities in the country, where many buildings and properties were destroyed.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Friday's strikes killed at least four people and injured dozens. The attacks targeted the capital, Kyiv, the Ternopil region in the northwest of the country, and the city of Lutsk.
One person was killed in Lutsk, and several were injured following a Russian missile and drone strike on the northwestern city in the Volyn region.
According to the Ukrainian authorities, 15 attack drones and six cruise missiles were directed at the city in the early hours of Friday, triggering explosions and structural collapses in several neighbourhoods.
Many residents reported three powerful blasts, likely due to direct hits or the work of air defence systems.
"It started around 4:30 a.m. I saw with my own eyes how things were flying there and exploding. I was standing right here, and the blast wave pushed us into the hallway. Most people ran to the shelter." Yevheniia Kamienieva, a resident of Lutsk, said.
"According to eyewitnesses who were outside, since unfortunately we don't have functional shelters here, it was a missile strike," Alisa Yerofieieva, head of the condominium association in the city, said.
Rescuers in the city said at least 16 people sustained various injuries from the attacks, which sparked numerous fires.
Ukraine's State Emergency Service (SES) reported that the latest Russian strikes had targeted regions across Ukraine, including Kyiv, where three of those killed were rescuers.
With the explosions lasting for several hours overnight, many people in the Ukrainian capital took shelter in metro stations. The SES said several administrative buildings, industrial facilities, and vehicles were also damaged.
Strikes were also reported in the city of Sloviansk, according to Donetsk region police. The police said Russian drones hit Sloviansk, damaging buildings, over a dozen vehicles and a service station. Fortunately, no casualties were reported, the police said.
The strikes, according to Russia's defense ministry, were in retaliation for "terrorist acts by the Kyiv regime." Russia claimed it targeted only military installations, something Kyiv disputes with evidence of mounting civilian casualties on Ukraine's side.
Moscow's attacks came just days after US President Donald Trump said Russian President Vladimir Putin had said "he will have to respond" following Ukraine's Operation Spider's Web, which targeted Russian warplanes at military airbases last weekend.
The covert operation was described as one for the 'history books' by Ukraine's president, who blamed Russia's refusal of a proposed ceasefire in May for the latest escalation in the three-and-a-half-year-old war.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia, whose mistaken deportation to El Salvador became a political flashpoint in the Trump administration's stepped-up immigration enforcement, was returned to the United States late Friday.
Upon return by federal authorities, Garcia was charged with orchestrating a massive human smuggling operation that brought immigrants into the US illegally.
Officials said that he will be prosecuted in the US and, if convicted, will be returned to his home country in El Salvador after the case.
'This is what American justice looks like,' Attorney General Pam Bondi said Friday, announcing Abrego Garcia's return and the criminal charges.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement on X, Garcia would "meet the full force of American justice." She called him an "illegal alien, terrorist, gang member, and human trafficker."
According to the US media, the charges stem from a 2022 vehicle stop in which the Tennessee Highway Patrol suspected him of human trafficking.
A report released by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in April states that none of the people in the vehicle had luggage, while they listed the same address as Abrego Garcia.
Abrego Garcia was never charged with a crime, while the officers allowed him to drive on with only a warning about an expired driver's license, the DHS report said.
The report added that he was travelling from Texas to Maryland, via Missouri, to bring in people to perform construction work.
Abrego Garcia's wife claimed in a statement following the report's release in April that he occasionally drove groups of workers between construction sites, "so it's entirely plausible he would have been pulled over while driving with others in the vehicle."
"He was not charged with any crime or cited for any wrongdoing', she stressed.
The Trump administration has been publicising Abrego Garcia's interactions with police over the years, despite a lack of corresponding criminal charges, while it faces a federal court order and calls from some in Congress to return him to the US.
Authorities in Tennessee released video of a 2022 traffic stop last month. The body-camera footage shows a calm and friendly exchange between officers with the Tennessee Highway Patrol.
Officers then discussed among themselves their suspicions of human trafficking because nine people were travelling without luggage. One of the officers said, 'He's hauling these people for money.' Another said he had $1,400 (€1,227) in an envelope.
An attorney for Abrego Garcia, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, said in a statement after the footage's release in May that he saw no evidence of a crime in the released footage.
'But the point is not the traffic stop — it's that Mr. Abrego Garcia deserves his day in court,' Sandoval-Moshenberg said.
Garcia's return comes days after the Trump administration complied with a court order to return a Guatemalan man deported to Mexico despite his fears of being harmed there.
The man, identified in court papers as O.C.G., was the first person known to have been returned to US custody after deportation since the start of President Donald Trump's second term.
