Latest news with #bombardment
CBC
4 days ago
- Politics
- CBC
3 killed in Kyiv as Ukraine once again bombarded by Russian missiles and drones
Social Sharing Russia bombarded six regions of Ukraine on Friday, Ukrainian officials said, with a nighttime assault lasting for hours and leaving three emergency responders in the capital Kyiv dead. The barrage included 407 drones and 44 ballistic and cruise missiles, Ukrainian air force spokesperson Yurii Ihnat said. Ukrainian forces said they shot down about 30 of the cruise missiles and up to 200 of the drones. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, as well as the Ukrainian Interior Ministry and the general prosecutor's office, said three emergency workers were killed. "They were working under fire to help people," the Interior Ministry said in a statement. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko had earlier put the death toll at four. Ukrainian cities have come under regular bombardment since Russia invaded its neighbour in February 2022. The attacks have killed more than 12,000 civilians, according to the United Nations. 'Life flashed before my eyes': Kyiv teen In Kyiv, multiple explosions were heard for hours in the capital, where falling debris sparked fires across several districts as air defence systems attempted to intercept incoming targets, said Kyiv City Administration head Tymur Tkachenko. "Our air defence crews are doing everything possible. But we must protect one another — stay safe," Tkachenko wrote on Telegram, urging people to seek shelter. WATCH | Tackling a lasting impact of the war: Rebuilding the faces of Ukraine's war 1 day ago Duration 3:53 Fourteen-year-old Kyiv resident Vitalina Vasylchenko sheltered in a parking garage with her six-year-old sister and their mother after an explosion blew one of their windows off its hinges. "I heard a buzzing sound, then my dad ran to me and covered me with his hand, then there was a very loud explosion," she said. "My whole life flashed before my eyes, I already thought that was it. I started having a panic attack.… I'm shocked that I'm alive." Ukraine's human rights chief Dmytro Lubinets called for a strong international response to Russia's latest overnight attack, saying the assault violated basic human rights. "Russia is acting like a terrorist, systematically targeting civilian infrastructure," Lubinets wrote on Telegram. "The world must respond clearly and take concrete steps, including condemning the aggressor's actions." Expect Russia retaliation, Trump says Russia's Defence Ministry claimed it had aimed at Ukrainian military targets with "long-range precision weapons" and successfully struck arms depots, drone factories and repair facilities, among other targets. Elsewhere, 10 people were injured by an aerial attack on the western Ukraine city of Ternopil, regional governor Viacheslav Nehoda said. The strike damaged industrial and infrastructure facilities, left parts of the city without electricity, and disrupted water supplies. The war has continued unabated even as a U.S.-led diplomatic push for a settlement has brought two rounds of direct peace talks between delegations from Russia and Ukraine. The negotiations delivered no significant breakthroughs, however, and the sides remain far apart on their terms for an end to the fighting. Ukraine has offered an unconditional 30-day ceasefire and a meeting between President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russian leader Vladimir Putin to break the deadlock. But the Kremlin has effectively rejected a truce and hasn't budged from its demands. WATCH | How Operation 'Spiderweb' worked: Inside Ukraine's secret deep strike against Russian bombers | About That 4 days ago Duration 9:49 According to U.S. President Donald Trump, Putin said in a phone call that Russia would respond to last week's daring long-range attack launched by Ukraine on Russian airbases. The nighttime attack came hours after Trump said it might be better to let Ukraine and Russia "fight for a while" before pulling them apart and pursuing peace, in comments that were a remarkable detour from Trump's often-stated appeals to stop the war. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, asked about the comment on Friday, said: "Here, of course, the U.S. president may have his own point of view on what is happening, but for us this is an existential question, this is a question of our national interests." In Russia, air defences shot down 10 Ukrainian drones heading toward the capital early Friday, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said. Flights at Moscow airports were temporarily suspended during the night as a precaution. Ukrainian drones also targeted three other regions of Russia, authorities said, damaging apartment buildings and industrial plants. Three people were injured, officials said. Russia's Defence Ministry said that air defences downed 174 Ukrainian drones over 13 regions early Friday. It added that three Ukrainian Neptune missiles were also shot down over the Black Sea. Also, a locomotive derailed early Friday in the Belgorod region after the track was blown up, Belgorod Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said. Russia has recently accused Ukraine of sabotaging the rail network.
The National
28-05-2025
- General
- The National
Piers Morgan demands Israel 'let the journalists into Gaza'
British broadcaster says country has crossed a line with ferocious bombardment and aid blockade of Palestinian enclave
New York Times
26-05-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Trump Condemns Putin's Killings in Ukraine, But Doesn't Make Him Pay a Price
'I don't know what the hell happened to Putin,'' President Trump told reporters on Sunday afternoon, just before boarding Air Force One for a short trip from his golf club in New Jersey to Washington. Hours later, he posted about the Russian leader, saying, 'He has gone absolutely CRAZY.' Mr. Trump's rare criticism of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia came after a weekend of the largest bombardment of Ukrainian cities over the past three years, mostly aimed at civilian targets, from residential areas in Kyiv to university dormitories. The Russian attacks also happened only days after Mr. Trump had what he described publicly as an 'excellent' two-hour phone call with Mr. Putin that Mr. Trump promised would immediately lead to direct peace negotiations. Mr. Trump has long said he enjoys a 'good relationship' with Mr. Putin, and it was not the first time he expressed shock that the Russian president was unleashing attacks on Ukrainian civilians. A month ago Mr. Trump wrote 'Vladimir, STOP' as a barrage of missiles and drones hit Ukraine, including crowded playgrounds. But Mr. Trump has never linked the attacks with his own decision, reaffirmed last week, to refuse to join the Europeans in new financial sanctions on Russia, or to offer new arms and help to the Ukrainians. The result is a strategic void in which Mr. Trump complains about Russian's continued killing but so far has been unwilling to make Mr. Putin pay even a modest price. The pattern is a familiar one, several outside experts and former government officials said. Mr. Trump signals he is pulling back from a conflict he often describes as Europe's war, then expresses shock that Mr. Putin responds with a familiar list of demands that amount to a Ukrainian surrender, followed by accelerating attacks. Mr. Trump episodically insists he is 'absolutely' considering sanctions, including on Sunday. Yet each time when he is forced to make a decision about joining Europe in new economic penalties, he has pulled back. 'Russia said no cease-fire and Trump is increasingly washing his hands of it,'' Ian Bremmer, the president of Eurasia Group, a geopolitical consulting firm, wrote on Monday. The result is that 'support for Ukraine continues to recede in importance for the Americans,'' he added. Mr. Bremmer predicted that 'what comes next is more fighting — expanded Russian attacks across Ukraine, fewer restraints on Ukraine targeting inside Russia.' The latest cycle of this odd interaction between the American and Russian leaders happened just last week. Mr. Trump, who has made no secret of his desire for a summit meeting soon with Mr. Putin, declared that only he and the Russian leader had the power and influence to end the war. Yet by the time they were done talking in their call last week, Mr. Trump had changed his position, saying it was now up to Ukraine and Russia to end the war in direct negotiations. In a subsequent conversation with the leaders of Germany, France, Italy and Finland, along with the European Commission, Mr. Trump had yet another view: Mr. Putin thought he was winning the war and would press his advantage. According to several officials briefed on the conversation, Mr. Trump made it clear he had no intention on putting pressure, much less harsh economic sanctions, on Russia. 'He said, essentially, 'I'm out,''' said one of the officials, who declined to be named because he was not authorized to describe the conversation. Mr. Trump, the official said, clearly meant that he was disengaging from the conflict in an echo of Vice President JD Vance's public statement that 'we're more than open to walking away.' Mr. Trump also made clear that he was pulling back from a commitment he made just a few weeks earlier to the leaders of France, Germany and Britain to join an economic crackdown on Russia if it refused a cease-fire. Mr. Trump is usually eager to threaten economic penalties, whether they are tariffs or sanctions, to influence the decisions of other nations. But he has repeatedly carved an exception for Russia. When he announced his 'Liberation Day' sanctions on trading partners around the world in early April, Russia was largely exempt. After Mr. Trump's phone call with Mr. Putin last week, White House officials said that sanctions on Russia had a poor track record and would not be in U.S. interests. Mr. Trump's withdrawal of pressure on Russia goes beyond economics: He has dismantled the Justice Department effort to collect evidence of Russian war crimes in Ukraine, for eventual prosecution in international courts. On the third anniversary of the war, the United States refused to vote for a United Nations declaration that identified Russia as the aggressor in the invasion, putting Washington against the position taken by its NATO allies but on the side of North Korea. President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, who has not wanted to repeat the Oval Office blowup with Mr. Trump in February, has been careful not to criticize Mr. Trump, as he has veered between pleas to Mr. Putin to stop and refusals to pressure Russia. But in his own social media post on Monday, Mr. Zelensky pressed for more economic sanctions, writing that 'only a feeling of total impunity can allow Russia to launch such strikes.' Mr. Trump himself has clearly hoped to get beyond the conflict, and just last week was musing about the possibilities for a normalization of relations with Moscow. 'Russia wants to do large scale TRADE with the United States when this catastrophic 'blood bath' is over, and I agree,' he wrote after talking with Mr. Putin. Missing from Mr. Trump's zigzags is any explanation of why he has been unable to use his relationship with Mr. Putin to persuade him to halt the violence, even for a 30-day cease-fire. When he was running for president, Mr. Trump often argued that Mr. Putin ignored Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Barack Obama during their presidencies because he didn't 'respect' them. Things would be different when he got into office, Mr. Trump said, arguing that he would end the war in '24 hours.' (He has since said the comment was sarcastic.) On Sunday Mr. Trump's tone was different. 'I'm not happy with what Putin is doing. He's killing a lot of people,'' he said. 'I don't know what the hell happened to Putin. I've known him a long time. Always gotten along with him, but he's sending rockets into cities and killing people, and I don't like it at all.' Later he wrote that Mr. Putin's ambitions were to retake all of Ukraine, contradicting what his chief negotiator, Steve Witkoff, said two months ago in an interview with Tucker Carlson. 'Why would they want to absorb Ukraine?' Mr. Witkoff asked Mr. Carlson in late March. 'For what purpose, exactly? They don't need to absorb Ukraine.' But on Sunday Mr. Trump wrote of Mr. Putin: 'If he does, it will lead to the downfall of Russia!' Dmitry Peskov, Mr. Putin's spokesman, dismissed Mr. Trump's statements about the Russian leader. He termed them an 'emotional reaction.'
The Independent
26-05-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Ukraine-Russia war latest: Trump calls Putin ‘absolutely crazy' after Moscow's largest air attack kills 12
US president Donald Trump issued some of his sharpest criticism of Russian president Vladimir Putin after Russia launched its largest aerial bombardment on Ukraine since the war began in 2022. "I've always had a very good relationship with Vladimir Putin of Russia, but something has happened to him. He has gone absolutely CRAZY!" Mr Trump wrote in a social media post on Sunday night. Mr Trump said Mr Putin is "needlessly killing a lot of people", pointing out that "missiles and drones are being shot into Cities in Ukraine, for no reason whatsoever". The US president warned that if Mr Putin wants to conquer all of Ukraine, it will "lead to the downfall of Russia!" At least 12 people, including three children, have died so far in what Ukraine has called Russia's largest aerial assault since its full-scale invasion in February 2022. Russia fired 367 drones and missiles at Ukrainian cities overnight, including the capital Kyiv. Despite that bombardment, Russia and Ukraine concluded the third and final part of their largest prisoner swap yet, in which they exchanged a total of 1,000 people each. Airports in Moscow forced to halt flights after Ukrainian drone barrage At least two airports in Moscow halted flight operations, Russia's aviation watchdog said, as air defence systems in the capital thwarted drone attacks. Moscow's Domodedovo and Zhukovsky airports temporarily halted flights, Russia's aviation watchdog Rosaviatsia said. Russia's defence ministry said on Monday that air defence systems had downed 96 Ukrainian drones, including six over Moscow region. Shweta Sharma26 May 2025 06:58 Trump's envoy to Ukraine calls Russia's attacks 'shameful' US special envoy to Ukraine Keith Kellogg said on Sunday that Russia's aerial assault was "a clear violation" of the 1977 Geneva Peace Protocols and called for an immediate ceasefire. Mr Kellogg shared a picture of Russia's attack on Ukraine, condemning 'indiscriminate killing of women and children at night in their homes'. 'These attacks are shameful. Stop the killing. Ceasefire now,' he said. Shweta Sharma26 May 2025 06:39 Putin's helicopter used to repel Ukrainian attack in Kursk, military officials claim Military officials have claimed Russian president Vladimir Putin's helicopter was used to repel a large-scale attack by Ukrainian drones during his visit to the Kursk region on 20 May. Air defence division commander Yuri Dashkin told Russian state television: '[Putin's helicopter] was virtually at the epicentre of repelling a large-scale attack by the enemy's drones. 'The intensity of the attack during the flight of the aircraft with the commander-in-chief over the territory of the Kursk region increased significantly. 'Therefore, we simultaneously conducted an air defence battle and ensured the safety of the presidential helicopter's flight in the air. 'He added that 'the attack by the enemy's drones was repelled, all airspace targets were destroyed.' Shweta Sharma26 May 2025 06:20 Trump says he is 'absolutely' considering new sanctions against Russia Donald Trump has said he is 'absolutely' considering a new tranche of sanctions against Russia after the largest attack on Ukraine since the full-scale war began in 2022. Mr Trump's comments, made to reporters in New Jersey on Sunday before he boarded Air Force One, came as he showed his visible frustration with Vladimir Putin and continued to push for a ceasefire. Mr Trump called Mr Putin 'crazy' for killing civilians in Ukraine after the attack claimed 12 lives. 'I'm not happy with what Putin is doing,' Mr Trump said. 'He's killing a lot of people, and I don't know what the hell happened to Putin. I've known him a long time – always gotten along with him – but he's sending rockets into cities and killing people, and I don't like it at all.' Mr Trump also criticised Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, posting that the Ukrainian leader "is doing his Country no favours by talking the way he does. Everything out of his mouth causes problems, I don't like it, and it better stop." Shweta Sharma26 May 2025 06:00 German foreign minister calls for more sanctions on Russia Germany's foreign minister Johann Wadephul called for more sanctions on Russia following the latest wave of attacks on Ukraine. "(Russian President Vladimir) Putin is not interested in peace, he wants to continue this war, and we must not allow this, which is why the European Union will agree additional sanctions," he said in a live interview on ARD's Bericht aus Berlin. Russian forces launched a barrage of 367 drones and missiles at Ukrainian cities overnight, including at the capital Kyiv, in the largest aerial attack of the war so far, killing at least 12 people and injuring dozens more, officials said. Wadephul added that the United States was also able to launch new sanctions packages, and he hoped that the weight of the measures would get Putin to the negotiating table, to avoid what he called potentially severe consequences for Russia's economy and energy sectors. Shweta Sharma26 May 2025 05:48 Ukraine says 298 drones and 69 missiles fired in largest attack of war Ukraine's air force said on Sunday that Russia had attacked the country with 298 drones and 69 missiles, the largest overnight aerial assault since the full-scale war began in 2022 – a total of 367 projectiles. It said it downed 45 missiles and 266 of the drones. The bombardment represented the third consecutive night of major Russian aerial attacks. Russian air defences intercepted 110 Ukrainian drones overnight, including 13 over the Moscow and Tver regions, the Russian defence ministry said on Sunday. The ministry did not report any casualties. Shweta Sharma26 May 2025 05:41 In pictures: bittersweet moments from the prison swap Russia and Ukraine swapped hundreds more prisoners Sunday in the third and last part of a major exchange that was a rare moment of cooperation in otherwise failed efforts to reach a ceasefire in the more than three years of war. Russia's Defence Ministry said each side exchanged 303 soldiers, following the release of 307 combatants and civilians each on Saturday, and 390 on Friday, the biggest total swap of the war. Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed Sunday's exchange, saying on X that "303 Ukrainian defenders are home." While some relatives embraced their loved ones, others were left disappointed as their family members did not arrive as part of the prisoner exchange. 26 May 2025 05:29 Sister of Ukrainian soldier speaks of special moment she reunited with her brother Nataliya Borovyk, the sister of released Ukrainian soldier Ihor Ulesov, was overwhelmed when she learned of her brother's return. "My uncle had to calm me down and put me in a taxi so I could get here," she told The Associated Press. "A moment like that stays with you forever." Ms Borovyk said the family had been waiting anxiously for news, and that she had hoped her brother might be released in the first part of the exchange on Friday. "We were worried about all the guys. He wasn't there on Friday, but I was here – I at least greeted them, I stood there until the very end and waited, (hoping) maybe he would appear after all." Her brother's release was part of the largest prisoner swap so far between Russia and Ukraine. In talks held in Istanbul earlier this month – the first time the two sides met face to face for peace talks – Kyiv and Moscow agreed to swap 1,000 prisoners of war and civilian detainees each. The exchange has been the only tangible outcome from the talks. Shweta Sharma26 May 2025 05:11 Trump lashes out at Putin on Truth Social: 'He has gone absolutely CRAZY!' US president Donald Trump fired off a screed against Vladimir Putin on Truth Social on Sunday night, saying the Russian president has 'gone absolutely CRAZY.' His statement on the social media platform followed brief remarks to reporters before boarding Air Force One, saying he's 'not happy' with Putin and that 'he's killing a lot of people.' 'And I don't know what the hell happened to Putin,' he told reporters. 'I've known him a long time, always gotten along with him, but he's sending rockets into cities and killing people.' On Truth Social, he wrote: 'He is needlessly killing a lot of people, and I'm not just talking about soldiers. Missiles and drones are being shot into Cities in Ukraine, for no reason whatsoever. I've always said that he wants ALL of Ukraine, not just a piece of it, and maybe that's proving to be right, but if he does, it will lead to the downfall of Russia!' Mr Trump also said that Volodymyr Zelensky is 'doing his Country no favors by talking the way he does.' 'Everything out of his mouth causes problems, I don't like it, and it better stop,' Mr Trump wrote. 'This is a War that would never have started if I were President. This is Zelenskyy's, Putin's, and Biden's War, not 'Trump's,' I am only helping to put out the big and ugly fires, that have been started through Gross Incompetence and Hatred.' Shweta Sharma26 May 2025 04:31 Russia launches war's largest air attack on Ukraine Russian forces mounted the largest aerial attack on Ukraine since the start of the war in 2022, killing at least 12 people, including three children. Russian forces launched a barrage of 367 drones and missiles at Ukrainian cities overnight, including the capital Kyiv, the highest number of strikes in a single night since the invasion. The dead included three children in the northern region of Zhytomyr, local officials there said. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy called on the United States, which has taken a softer public line on Russia and its leader, Vladimir Putin, since President Donald Trump took office, to speak out. "The silence of America, the silence of others in the world only encourages Putin," he wrote on Telegram.
New York Times
25-05-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Monday Briefing: Russia Bombards Ukraine
Russia launched one of its largest bombardments yet Russia unleashed one of its largest drone and missile barrages of the war on Ukraine over the weekend, killing at least 12 people and injuring dozens across the country. Ukrainian officials said the hourslong assault showed Moscow had no interest in a truce. The attacks were part of Russia's recent escalation, which has brought a spike in Ukrainian civilian casualties despite cease-fire negotiations. Ukraine's interior minister said that 13 regions had come under attack and that more than 60 people were injured. Russia appears to have been increasingly targeting cities more intensively. President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine cited the attacks as further proof that 'Russia is dragging out this war and continues to kill every day.' On social media, he called for increased pressure on President Vladimir Putin of Russia. It was the second large-scale attack in two nights and the third in just a week. Nearly 300 drones were used — a number unthinkable at the start of the war. Diplomacy: After the air assault on Sunday, Russia and Ukraine said they had wrapped up a major prisoner exchange that began on Friday. Each side said that 303 more people had been released, bringing the total number of prisoners exchanged from each side to 1,000. Related: After a stint with a 'V.I.P.' drone unit led by a member of Parliament, Russian officials return to work — and promotions. Venezuela voted for another country's land Venezuela held an election yesterday for governor and legislators to represent Essequibo — a sparsely populated, oil-rich territory. But the area is internationally recognized as part of neighboring Guyana, not Venezuela. Analysts say that Venezuela's autocratic president, Nicolás Maduro, is seeking to legitimize his rule abroad and also within his deeply dissatisfied nation, where the military's loyalty is reportedly fraying. Guyana's national security minister has said that border security was tightened and that the authorities would arrest any Guyanese person supporting the election. Context: Claims to the Essequibo region are deeply ingrained among many Venezuelans who believe the land was historically theirs under Spanish colonial rule. But most people who live in Essequibo speak English, identify culturally as Guyanese and say they want to remain part of Guyana. Voting: No independent monitors were planned to be present. Many Venezuelans have said they believe that the results will be manufactured, and officials did not provide information on how they would conduct elections in another country's territory. 'It doesn't make any sense,' one analyst told The Times. Why Vietnam ignored its laws to fast-track a Trump deal A $1.5 billion golf complex outside Hanoi, as well as plans for a Trump skyscraper in Ho Chi Minh City, are the Trump family's first projects in Vietnam — part of a global moneymaking enterprise that no family of a sitting American president has ever attempted on this scale. And as that blitz makes the Trumps richer, it is distorting how countries interact with the U.S. To fast-track the development, Vietnam has ignored its own laws, legal experts said, granting generous concessions. As the deal-making collides with U.S. threats to free trade, the line between Trump the president and Trump the tycoon is seen by diplomats, trade officials and corporations as so blurred that governments feel compelled to favor anything Trump-related. In a news analysis, Peter Baker looked at how Trump has normalized lucrative dealings that once would have provoked heavy blowback and official investigations. For more: Vietnam is eager to cut a trade deal with the U.S., but China stands in the way. When Muhammad Ali knocked down Sonny Liston on May 25, 1965, a photographer named Neil Leifer was ringside. Decades later, the image he captured — of Ali standing, scowling above Liston — is considered by many to be the greatest sports photo ever made. Leifer was just 22 when he took the picture. Now 82, he spoke with us about how the picture took on a life of its own. Read the interview. Lives lived: Nino Benvenuti, an Italian boxer who won the welterweight title at the 1960 Rome Olympics, died at 87. The artistic eras of Mexico City Mexico City is the largest metropolis in North America, and has been stratified with seven centuries of cultural history. Our critic Jason Farago points out five sites, some famous and some fairly obscure, that begin to map the city's inexhaustible cultural prosperity. Jason's list includes a black-and-white whale inside a stupefying library, the extravagant beauty in one of the city's underrated museums and a pseudo-Indigenous fortress. See his choices here. Cook: This one-skillet dish is inspired by two great Greek pies, spanakopita (spinach and feta) and prasopita (leek). Watch: 'Jane Austen Wrecked My Life' is a Times Critic's Pick. Read: Barbara Demick's entrancing, disturbing 'Daughters of the Bamboo Grove' traces the wildly divergent paths of twins born in China under the one-child rule. Travel: Check out these new and restored accommodations in Italy. Play: Spelling Bee, the Mini Crossword, Wordle and Sudoku. Find all our games here. That's it for today. See you tomorrow. — Emmett We welcome your feedback. Send us your suggestions at briefing@
