Latest news with #missileStrike
Globe and Mail
3 days ago
- General
- Globe and Mail
Zelensky says Ukraine will send a delegation to Istanbul for peace talks with Russia on Monday
Ukraine will send a delegation to Istanbul for a new round of direct peace talks with Russia on Monday, President Volodymyr Zelensky said, even as Russia pounded Ukraine with a missile strike that killed 12 soldiers and the biggest drone assault of the three-year war. In a statement on Telegram, Zelensky said Sunday that Defense Minister Rustem Umerov will lead the Ukrainian delegation. 'We are doing everything to protect our independence, our state and our people,' Zelensky said. Ukrainian officials had previously called on the Kremlin to provide a promised memorandum setting out its position on ending the war before the meeting takes place. Moscow had said it would share its memorandum during the talks. Russia launched the biggest number of drones on Ukraine since the full-scale invasion three years ago, Ukraine's air force said Sunday. The air force said 472 drones were launched over Ukraine. Russian forces also launched seven missiles alongside the barrage of drones, said Yuriy Ignat, head of communications for the Ukrainian air force. Earlier Sunday, Ukraine's army said at least 12 Ukrainian service members were killed and more than 60 were injured in a Russian missile strike on an army training unit. The strike occurred at 12:50 p.m. (0950 GMT), the statement said, emphasizing that no formations or mass gatherings of personnel were being held at the time. An investigative commission was created to uncover the circumstances around the attack that led to such a loss in personnel, the statement said. The training unit is located to the rear of the 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) active front line, where Russian reconnaissance and strike drones are able to strike. Ukraine's forces suffer from manpower shortages and take extra precautions to avoid mass gatherings as the skies across the front line are saturated with Russian drones looking for targets. 'If it is established that the actions or inaction of officials led to the death or injury of servicemen, those responsible will be held strictly accountable,' the Ukrainian Ground Forces' statement said. Meanwhile, Ukrainian drone strikes were reported deep in Russian territory Sunday, including in the Siberian region of Irkutsk, more than 4,500 kilometres (2,800 miles) east of Moscow. It is the first time that a Ukrainian drone has been seen in the region, local Gov. Igor Kobzeva said, stressing that it did not present a threat to civilians. Other drone strikes were also reported in Russia's Ryazan region and the Arctic Murmansk region. No casualties were reported. Russia's Ministry of Defense said Sunday that it had taken control of the village of Oleksiivka in Ukraine's northern Sumy region. Ukrainian authorities in Sumy ordered mandatory evacuations in 11 more settlements Saturday as Russian forces make steady gains in the area. Speaking Saturday, Ukraine's top army chief, Oleksandr Syrskyi, said that Russian forces were focusing their main offensive efforts on Pokrovsk, Toretsk and Lyman in the Donetsk region, as well as the Sumy border area.
Sky News
24-05-2025
- Health
- Sky News
Nine of Gaza doctor's children killed in Israeli strike
Nine of a doctor's 10 children have been killed in an Israeli missile strike on their home in Gaza, which also left her surviving son badly injured and her husband in a critical condition. Alaa Al Najjar, a paediatrician at Al Tahrir Clinic in the Nasser Medical Complex, was at work during the attack on her home, south of the city of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, on Friday. Graphic footage shared by the Hamas-run Palestinian Civil Defence shows the bodies of at least seven small children being pulled from the rubble. Rescuers can be seen battling fires and searching through a collapsed building, shouting out when they locate a body, before bringing the children out one by one and wrapping their remains in body bags. In the footage, Dr Al Najjar's husband, Hamdi Al Najjar, who is also a doctor, is put on to a stretcher and then carried to an ambulance. The oldest of their children was only 12 years old, according to Dr Muneer Alboursh, the director general of Gaza's health ministry, which is run by Hamas. "This is the reality our medical staff in Gaza endure. Words fall short in describing the pain," he wrote in a social media post. "In Gaza, it is not only healthcare workers who are targeted - Israel's aggression goes further, wiping out entire families." British doctors describe 'horrific' and 'unimaginable' attack Two British doctors working at Nasser Hospital described the attack as "horrific" and "unimaginable" for Dr Al Najjar. Speaking in a video diary on Friday night, Dr Graeme Groom said his last patient of the day was Dr Al Najjar's 11-year-old son, who was badly injured and "seemed much younger as we lifted him on to the operating table". The strike "may or may not have been aimed at his father", Dr Groom said, adding that the man had been left "very badly injured". Dr Victoria Rose said the family "lived opposite a petrol station, so I don't know whether the bomb set off some massive fire". 'No political or military connections' Dr Groom added: "It is unimaginable for that poor woman, both of them are doctors here. "The father was a physician at Nasser Hospital. He had no political and no military connections. He doesn't seem to be prominent on social media, and yet his poor wife is the only uninjured one, who has the prospect of losing her husband." 2:21 He said it was "a particularly sad day", while Dr Rose added: "That is life in Gaza. That is the way it goes in Gaza." Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza began when the militant group stormed across the border into Israel on 7 October 2023, killing some 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and abducting 251 others. Israel's military response has flattened large areas of Gaza and killed more than 53,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry, which does not differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count.
