Latest news with #airattacks
Al Jazeera
13 hours ago
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
Inmates, pregnant woman among 22 killed in Russia's attacks on Ukraine
At least 22 people, including 16 inmates and a pregnant woman, have been killed in Russian air attacks on mostly southeastern Ukraine, according to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and regional officials. The attacks came overnight on Tuesday, a day after United States President Donald Trump set Russia a new deadline of '10 or 12 days' to reach a peace deal in its war on Ukraine or face tough new sanctions, shortening a 50-day deadline he had set earlier this month. Ivan Fedorov, head of the military administration in Zaporizhia, on Tuesday said Russia carried out eight overnight air attacks on his region alone, hitting a prison near the city of Zaporizhzhia. 'Russia bombed a penal colony near Zaporizhzhia overnight – 16 killed, 35 injured. Civilians continue to suffer. Another blatant war crime,' Fedorov said in English on X. Putting Tuesday's death toll at 22, Zelenskyy said a pregnant woman was among three people killed in a Russian missile attack on the city of Kamianske in the central region of Dnipropetrovsk, targeting a hospital. Yesterday, very important words were spoken by President Trump about how the Russian leadership is wasting the world's time by talking about peace while simultaneously killing people. We all want genuine peace – dignified and lasting: Ukraine, all of Europe, the United States,… — Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) July 29, 2025 Also in Dnipropetrovsk, a person was killed and several wounded in the Synelnykove district, according to Serhiy Lysak, head of the Dnipropetrovsk military administration. In a separate attack on the village of Velyka Mykhailivka in the Odesa region on Monday night, a '75-year-old woman was killed. A 68-year-old man was wounded. A private house was damaged,' Lysak said on Telegram. Reacting to the developments, Andriy Yermak, a senior aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, wrote on social media: 'Russian President [Vladimir] Putin's regime, which also issues threats against the United States through some of its mouthpieces, must face economic and military blows that strip it of the capacity to wage war.' Ukraine's Air Force said Russia had launched 37 drones and two missiles overnight, adding that its air defence systems had downed 32 of the drones. In Russia's southern Rostov region, multiple Ukrainian drone attacks killed one person, according to Russian authorities. Russia's Ministry of Defence, which reports only how many drones were destroyed, not how many Ukraine launched, said its defence units downed a total of 74 drones overnight, including 22 over the Rostov region. 'A car was damaged on Ostrovsky Street. Unfortunately, the driver who was in it died,' Yury Slyusar, acting governor of the Rostov region, said in a post on Telegram. He said the attack had targeted several places, including Salsk, Kamensk-Shakhtinsky, Volgodonsk, Bokovsky, Tarasovsky and Slyusar. Drone debris also fell on Salsk train station, damaging a freight train and passenger train, with passengers being evacuated, Slyusar added. Power was disrupted at the station, forcing the suspension of train traffic, Russia's Railways said on Telegram. No casualties were reported. There was no immediate comment from Ukraine, which has often said its attacks inside Russia are in response to Moscow's relentless strikes on Ukraine. Both sides deny targeting civilians in their attacks, but thousands of civilians have been killed in the conflict, the majority of them Ukrainian. Kyiv has been trying to repel Russia's summer offensive, which has made new advances into areas on the eastern front line largely spared since the start of the 2022 offensive. Over the weekend, the Russian army said its forces had captured the settlement of Maliyevka in Dnipropetrovsk, weeks after it seized the first village in the region – claims Kyiv has contested.
Asharq Al-Awsat
6 days ago
- Politics
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Ukraine, Russia Attack Each Other's Black Sea Coasts After Latest Round of Peace Talks
Ukraine and Russia launched air attacks along each other's Black Sea coasts early on Thursday, hours after brief direct talks between them failed to make any progress on steps to end nearly three-and-a-half years of war. Russian forces staged the latest in a series of mass drone attacks on Ukraine's Black Sea port of Odesa, injuring at least four people and causing several fires as well as damage in the historic center, a UNESCO world heritage site. The famous Pryvoz market in Odesa was among the places hit, Regional Governor Oleh Kiper said. "It is not just a place of trade, it is the living heart of Odesa," he added. On Thursday morning, some residents were cleaning up shattered glass in the streets nearby. "So what if the (drones) are flying? We will shoot them down; they will not break us," Yevhen, a 20-year-old student among those helping with the cleanup, told Reuters. Emergency officials in Russia's Krasnodar region on the Black Sea said debris from a falling drone struck and killed a woman in the Adler district near the resort city of Sochi. A second woman was being treated in hospital for serious injuries, they said on the Telegram messaging app. The administrative head of the Sirius federal district south of Sochi said a drone hit an oil base, giving no further details. Russia's aviation authority said operations were suspended at Sochi airport for about four hours. Russia also attacked the central region of Cherkasy overnight, injuring seven people, including a nine-year-old, and damaging more than a dozen residential apartment buildings. Negotiators had earlier discussed further prisoner swaps at a brief session of peace talks in the Turkish city of Istanbul, but they remained far apart on ceasefire terms and a possible meeting of their leaders. "Yesterday, at a meeting in Istanbul, the Russian side was again presented with a proposal to immediately and completely cease fire. In response, Russian drones are striking residential buildings," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy wrote on Telegram. He said Russia had launched 103 drones and four missiles during its overnight attack, which deputy prime minister Oleskiy Kuleba said struck civilian infrastructure, including seaports, transport hubs, and residential areas. Russian forces have in recent weeks intensified drone attacks on towns and cities far from the 1,000 km (620-mile) frontline across eastern and southern Ukraine. Ukraine's military has been targeting energy and military sites in Russia in response to concerted Russian attacks which have destroyed towns and cities and devastated its energy infrastructure.
Irish Times
21-07-2025
- Politics
- Irish Times
‘I have Star Wars going on outside my window': How Kyiv is coping with upsurge in Russia's attacks
Kyiv residents who managed to sleep on another night of intense Russian air attacks woke to an increasingly familiar scene on Monday morning, as smoke wreathed several districts of the city, hospitals treated the wounded, and damage to civilian buildings and transport infrastructure made journeys to work slower and more stressful. At least one person was killed and eight injured during a night of drone and missile attacks on the city of 3.5 million. Apartment blocks, office buildings and a kindergarten were set on fire and the entrance to a metro station was hit, sending smoke pouring down on to platforms where people were taking shelter. Russian drone attacks on Ukraine – and particularly Kyiv – have intensified sharply in recent weeks, and the two heaviest strikes of the war took place this month, peaking overnight from July 8th-9th with the launch of 728 drones and 13 missiles. Graphic: Paul Scott/ IRISH TIMES GRAPHICS Ukrainian officials said on Monday morning that Russia fired 426 drones and 24 missiles overnight, most of which were shot down or electronically jammed. But the toll on the country and its people from direct strikes, falling debris and stress and tiredness accumulated over more than three years of full-scale war continues to mount. READ MORE A young girl takes a selfie as locals hide in a shelter during an air-raid alarm, near a site of a drone strike on a residential building in Kyiv. Photograph: Sergey Dolzhenko/European Pressphoto Agency 'When people asked me whether I was worried about living in Kyiv, I would say that yes, it's being shelled and bombed, but it's well protected. That's how it felt until a few weeks ago. There were drone attacks every other night but they would hardly reach the actual city – they were usually shot down in the regions,' says Nazar, a Kyiv resident. 'But in the past month there have been lots of occasions when suddenly lots of drones have come into the city. I've started hearing explosions closer and closer, to the point where I couldn't ignore it like before. That's when it started feeling less safe.' In Kyiv and other towns and cities where air-raid alerts can last for most of the day and night, Ukrainians must decide whether to take a risk by doing what they had planned – from staying in bed and trying to sleep to following a normal work routine – or to seek shelter in a basement, underground car park or metro station. 'Seeing drones over my residential area, over my actual apartment building, is a scary thing. They make a particular annoying, threatening noise, which speeds up as they're about to hit a target. It sounds like something from a second World War movie,' says Nazar, who lives in a 16-floor flat in Kyiv's western Nyvky district. A local man carries his dog at a damaged stairwell after a drone strike on a residential building in Kyiv on Monday. Photograph: Sergey Dolzhenko/EPA 'Now a few buildings have been destroyed not far from me and you hear about hundreds of these drones coming. You don't feel safe. So now I go to the underground shelter at 3 or 4am.' The Shahed drones fired at Kyiv and other cities are not the small, light models – similar to hobby drones but carrying explosives – that both sides use on the front line. The Iranian-made Shaheds are 3.5m long, have a wingspan of 2.5m and weigh 200kg, and can fly for some 2,000km before plunging into a target and detonating a 40kg warhead. Russia now mass produces its own version of the Shahed, called the Geran. A Ukrainian explosives expert examines parts of a Shahed military drone that fell following an air attack last month. Photograph: Sergey Bobok/AFP 'It's a guessing game. A matter of luck,' Olesya, who lives on the eighth floor of an apartment building in northwestern Kyiv, says of the danger of being killed or hurt. 'While before I would have stayed in my flat during an alert, now, if there are too many drones flying overhead, I go into the corridor of the building (for greater protection) or to a lower floor,' she adds. 'People who have stayed in Kyiv tend to find some kind of rational decision in terms of everyday functioning. So if you stay in your apartment there is a chance that you'll be killed there, but there is also a chance that you'll get a good night's sleep and not be hit ... But sometimes it's very hard to sleep and function normally afterwards.' Russia's escalating attacks have coincided with fresh concerns over Ukraine's air defences, as the United States halted supplies of some crucial weaponry and then announced that some would be delivered after all. That was followed by a White House decision this month to send more air defence systems and other arms to Kyiv via a new deal with Nato. Germany and other European states are expected to provide Ukraine with advanced US-made Patriot air defence units from their stocks and then 'backfill' with equipment bought from the US. As ever during nearly 3½ years of all-out war – and 11 years of conflict since Russia occupied Crimea and created heavily armed militias in eastern Ukraine – the timing and scale of western help for Ukraine is still unclear. People with their belongings leave a damaged metro station after a Russian attack in Kyiv last week. Photograph: Oleksii Filippov/AFP 'I live on the 14th floor and I have Star Wars going on outside my window. Not just tracers but I can see Shaheds flying past,' says Viktoriya, whose flat on the eastern bank of the Dnipro river is on an approach route for many drones and missiles targeting Kyiv. 'Before, the majority was repelled. But now I don't think we have enough air-defence assets or manpower to track everything, so they do get through,' she adds, calling Russia's tactics 'terror for the sake of terror'. 'Now I see more people going at night to metro stations and other shelters with sleeping bags, mats, dogs, backpacks and other necessities. They're becoming more systematic and going fully prepared. But there are also those who don't go, and feel the chance of being hit while going to the shelter is higher than when being at home.' On July 8th – the night of the heaviest Russian air attack so far – 32,000 people took refuge in Kyiv's metro stations, including almost 2,200 children, according to city officials. Figures for night-time visits to the metro system in July are expected to surpass those for June, when 165,000 visits were recorded, up from 65,000 in May. A man carries a dog in a damaged metro station following a Russian attack in Kyiv last week. Photograph: Oleksi Filippov/AFP Russia has also launched intense drone and missile strikes on western Ukraine this month, shaking the residents of cities that are 1,000km from the frontline: the mayor of Ivano-Frankivsk said it had suffered its heaviest attack of the war in the early hours of Monday, and that four people had been injured in nearby villages. There is fear in Kyiv and other cities, just as there is anger at the West's failure to back up rhetoric with action, but such feelings are by now familiar to Ukrainians – as are Russia's demands for a settlement that would amount to capitulation. 'I wouldn't say there's a catastrophic shift in how it feels ... But it does feel very targeted, very instrumentalised, this terror against civilians,' Olesya says. 'It feels very thought-out, to make people scared and panic and potentially put pressure on the authorities and demand talks – any talks just to stop this. I don't feel this is working for now, at least on a mass scale.' 'I don't think we are depressed or saying this is the end of Ukraine,' says Nazar. 'Surprisingly, I have more resilience than I thought, and I think people are on same page in that way.'
Al Jazeera
17-07-2025
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
Photos: Aftermath of deadly Israeli air attacks in Damascus
Published On 17 Jul 2025 17 Jul 2025 Israel launched a series of air attacks on central Damascus, hitting a Ministry of Defence compound and areas near the presidential palace. The attacks on Wednesday killed at least three people and wounded 34, according to Syria's Ministry of Health, as reported by state media. Israel also conducted attacks in southern Syria, where violent clashes between Druze groups, Bedouin tribes, and Syrian security forces have persisted for more than four days. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reports that more than 250 people have died in Suwayda province during these confrontations. Israel, which occupies the Syrian Golan Heights, claims its operations are intended to protect the Druze minority – whom it views as a potential ally – and to target pro-government forces allegedly attacking it. Syria's Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the Israeli attacks on Damascus and Suwayda as 'part of a systematic Israeli policy to ignite tension and chaos and undermine security in Syria', urging the international community to take 'urgent action' against Israeli aggression. The air attacks followed deadly clashes in Suwayda between Syrian government forces and local Druze fighters. The conflict began with reciprocal kidnappings and attacks between Druze fighters and local Bedouin tribes. Government troops intervened to restore order but ended up clashing with Druze groups and reportedly targeted civilians in some instances. The Druze, a minority with significant influence in both Syria and Israel, are regarded by Israel as loyal allies, with many serving in the Israeli military. A Tuesday ceasefire quickly collapsed, with fighting resuming the following day. On Wednesday, the Syrian government and Druze leader Sheikh Yousef Jarbou announced a new ceasefire in the city, and said the army had begun withdrawing from Suwayda. Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa said on Thursday that protecting the country's Druze citizens and their rights is a priority, as he announced that local leaders will take control of security in Suwayda in a bid to end the violence. Suwayda's Druze community appears divided. Leader Yasser Jarbou announced that a ceasefire had been negotiated with the Syrian government, while another leader, Hikmat al-Hijri, rejected any such agreement. Many Syrian Druze oppose Israeli intervention on their behalf. Israel has been working to expand its control in southern Syria since President Bashar al-Assad's fall in December. Rather than pursuing security agreements with Syria, Israel has conducted repeated bombing campaigns in the country this year. Many analysts suggest Israel prefers a weakened Syria over a potentially threatening stronger neighbour.
Al Jazeera
16-07-2025
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
LIVE: Israel attacks Syria's Damascus amid fighting in Suwayda
The Israeli army has launched air attacks on the Syrian Defence Ministry and near the presidential palace in the capital, Damascus, killing at least three and wounding strikes come after Israel threatened to increase attacks if Syrian government forces are not withdrawn from the south of the country where there has been fighting between Druze and security the Gaza Strip, meanwhile, the Health Ministry says at least 21 people have been killed at a food distribution site of the controversial US- and Israeli-backed UN agency for Palestinian refugees says one in 10 children screened in its clinics in Gaza are malnourished as Israel's siege on the triggers triggers a man-made starvation war on Gaza has killed at least 58,573 people and wounded 139,607, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. An estimated 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attacks, and more than 200 were taken captive. Update: Date: 6m ago (17:45 GMT) Title: WATCH: Severe malnutrition for 1 in 10 Gaza children Content: The UN's agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) says one in 10 children under the age of five screened at its clinics in Gaza suffer from severe malnutrition. The grim figure comes as hunger surges because of Israel's blockade on humanitarian aid. Update: Date: 21m ago (17:30 GMT) Title: Syria says Israeli attacks part of policy to 'ignite tension' Content: Syria's Foreign Ministry condemned Israeli attacks on Damascus and Suwayda in the 'strongest terms' as air strikes killed three people and wounded 34 others. 'The attack is part of a systematic Israeli policy to ignite tension and chaos and undermine security in Syria. The Israeli aggression represents a flagrant violation of the UN Charter and international humanitarian law,' a ministry statement said. Syria holds Israel responsible for the escalation and reserves its 'right to defend our land and people through international law'. It called on the international community and the UN Security Council to take 'urgent action' against repeated Israeli aggression. Update: Date: 31m ago (17:20 GMT) Title: Israeli air strikes, shelling continue across besieged Gaza Content: The Israeli military continues to attack Gaza from the north to the south of the besieged Palestinian enclave. As we reported earlier, at least 21 aid seekers were killed while searching for food. Here are some of the other attacks: Update: Date: 41m ago (17:10 GMT) Title: Attacks on Syria a pattern of Israeli aggression in the region Content: Israel's attack on Syria reflects the 'adventurous wars' it has launched in the Middle East over the past few years, an analyst says. 'It's a clear message to the Syrian government that the Israelis are not going to be silent. The Israelis are not going to allow the Syrian government to spread its authority all over the territory,' said Ammar Kahf, executive director of Omran Center for Strategic Studies, who is based in Damascus. With the fall of Bashar al-Assad's government and the infancy of a new one, Israel is trying to impose its will on the new leadership, he said. 'We are still in the early stages, but this requires all Syrians to come together. For a foreign government to come in and destroy public property and destroy safety and security is something that's unexplainable,' Kahf told Al Jazeera. Update: Date: 51m ago (17:00 GMT) Title: Turkiye 'avoiding' direct confrontation with Israel over Syria Content: Turkiye says it sees Israel's attacks as 'sabotage' against the new Syrian administration. This is a critical issue, not only because Ankara is collaborating with the new Syrian government, assisting it in many ways, but it's also the long border shared between the two countries. Some observers now speculate whether this will bring a potential direct confrontation between Turkiye and Israel. But Ankara has been avoiding direct conflict despite issuing harsh criticism of the Israeli government, which is why Turkiye would prefer to talk to the US administration for mediation and to cool down the tension. Update: Date: 1h ago (16:50 GMT) Title: Where do things stand on the Suwayda ceasefire? Content: Update: Date: 1h ago (16:40 GMT) Title: LISTEN: Why is Israel escalating its strikes against Syria? Content: Israel has attacked Syrian government forces in a wave of deadly air strikes, at the same time as violence has gripped the southern province of Suwayda. In the spotlight is Syria's Druze minority, also present in Israel. In its latest episode, our podcast series The Take examines what the fighting might be spelling for Syria's future. Listen below: In this episode: Update: Date: 1h ago (16:30 GMT) Title: At least 74 Palestinians killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza today Content: Medical sources in the Gaza Strip have told Al Jazeera the number of people killed so far today in Israeli attacks across the besieged and bombarded territory has risen to at least 74. As we reported earlier, the grim toll includes at least 21 aid seekers. Update: Date: 1h ago (16:20 GMT) Title: Photos: The aftermath of Israeli strikes on Syria's Defence Ministry Content: Update: Date: 1h ago (16:10 GMT) Title: Israeli air attacks reported in Syria's Deraa, Suwayda Content: We are getting reports of new Israeli air raids in the countryside of Deraa and Suwayda in Syria. We'll bring you more as soon as we have it. Update: Date: 1h ago (16:05 GMT) Title: US's Rubio expresses hope for 'real progress' to end Syria fighting soon Content: We have some comments from Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, at the White House where US President Donald Trump is hosting Bahrain's Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa. 'It's complicated, obviously,' Rubio told reporters asking about the situation in Syria. 'These are historic longtime rivalries between different groups in the southwest of Syria – Bedouins, the Druze community – and it led to an unfortunate situation and a misunderstanding, it looks like, between the Israeli side and the Syrian side,' he said. Rubio added that the US has been 'engaged' with both sides. 'We think that we are on our way towards a real de-escalation and hopefully get back on track in helping Syria build a country and arriving at a situation there in the Middle East that's far more stable,' he said, expressing hope that in the next few hours there would be 'some real progress' to end the fighting. Update: Date: 1h ago (16:00 GMT) Title: Israeli Ultra-Orthodox party quits as Netanyahu loses majority Content: A key partner in Benjamin Netanyahu's governing coalition says it is quitting, leaving the Israeli prime minister with a minority in parliament. The Ultra-Orthodox Shas party said it's leaving the government in response to a long-running dispute over mandatory military service. Another ultra-Orthodox party resigned from the government earlier this week. Leading a minority government would make governing a challenge for Netanyahu. But Shas said it wouldn't work to undermine the coalition once outside and could vote with it on some laws. Read the full story here. Update: Date: 1h ago (15:55 GMT) Title: Netanyahu needs war to appease coalition, disrupt corruption trial Content: Israel's Prime Minister Netanyahu is 'infatuated' with his wartime role and 'wants to maintain and perpetuate an atmosphere of war' for his political survival, an analyst says. 'There's Gaza, there's no ceasefire, there's Iran… Now there is Syria in the background,' said columnist and former Israeli diplomat Alon Pinkas. Fighting a war on many fronts also helps appease far-right members of his coalition and adds another disruption to his ongoing corruption trial. 'Today he was testifying and asked the judges, which they agreed to, to suspend the trial because he had important national security issues to deal with,' Pinkas told Al Jazeera. Update: Date: 2h ago (15:49 GMT) Title: Death toll in Israeli attacks on Damascus rises Content: Syria's Health Ministry says the number of people killed in the Israeli attacks on the capital has now risen to at least three, up from one earlier. At least 34 other people were wounded, it added. Update: Date: 2h ago (15:45 GMT) Title: Israel doesn't want Syrian forces at 'deconfliction line' Content: Haid Haid, consulting fellow at Chatham House, says Israel's attack on Damascus is 'not a complete surprise,' but targeting the Defence Ministry and the presidential palace is an escalation not seen before. 'Israel has been quite clear since the fall of the [Bashar al-Assad] regime in December that they don't want the forces affiliated with the new state in Syria to be deployed to the deconfliction line in southern Syria. And they have been trying to use different tactics in order to advance that objective,' Haid told Al Jazeera. One way Israel is trying to advance that plan is to present itself as the 'protectors' of the Druze community, Haid said. Syria is currently not in a position to retaliate against the attacks, he added, noting that when the interim government came to power, it said it wouldn't 'cause trouble for any of the actors in the region', and would instead focus on domestic issues. Update: Date: 2h ago (15:40 GMT) Title: WATCH: Who are the Druze and why is Israel bombing Syria to 'protect' them? Content: You might have heard Israel has attacked Syria, saying that it wants to 'protect' the Druze minority community. So who are the Druze and what do they mean for Israel? Our colleague Osama Bin Javaid explains it all in the video below: Update: Date: 2h ago (15:30 GMT) Title: No ceasefire with Syrian government, says another Druze leader Content: We have a statement by Hikmat al-Hijri, a top Druze leader in southern Syria, rejecting the reported ceasefire. 'We affirm the continuation of the fight until the entire territory of As-Suwayda Governorate is liberated,' the statement said. 'There is no agreement, negotiation, or mandate with the Syrian government.' Update: Date: 2h ago (15:25 GMT) Title: Israel has not yet commented on reported Syria ceasefire Content: Al Jazeera is reporting from Jordan because it has been banned from Israel and the occupied West Bank. There is no word from the Israelis yet on the new ceasefire that was announced after the initial one on Tuesday collapsed. But what Israeli officials have been saying over the last several days, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Defence Minister Israel Katz, is that they are doing this essentially to protect the Druze community in Syria. But that's not all. They want this area in southern Syria, near their border, to be completely demilitarised. Back in 2024 and early 2025 after the fall of Bashar al Assad's regime, the Israelis conducted pretty intricate and intense air strikes on all sorts of military positions, military munitions – anything the Syrian armed forces could potentially use moving forward, because they said they wanted the areas on their border to have no sort of military presence whatsoever. But now, with these air strikes on Damascus, what Israeli officials are saying is they want to send a message to Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa that they're not going to tolerate any violence towards the Druze. Update: Date: 2h ago (15:20 GMT) Title: Number of wounded people in Israeli attacks on Damascus rises Content: The number of casualties continues to rise after the Israeli attacks earlier on Damascus. According to Syria's Health Ministry, one person was killed and 28 others were wounded in the attacks. Update: Date: 2h ago (15:17 GMT) Title: Syria's Interior Ministry releases details on Suwayda ceasefire deal Content: Syria's state media has published an Interior Ministry statement about the ceasefire deal, announcing:
