Russian strikes wounded more than 30 people in Ukraine overnight, officials said yesterday, a day after Kyiv and Washington signed a landmark minerals deal.
Ukraine said it hopes the deal would pave the way for Washington to provide security pledges to the embattled country, which has been fighting a Russian invasion for more than three years.
“Twenty-nine people were wounded as a result of a nocturnal attack by the enemy,” on the industrial city of Zaporizhzhia, regional governor Ivan Fedorov wrote on Telegram, adding that a 13-year-old boy was among the victims of the drone strike.
Photo: REUTERS, Stringer
“The Russians have struck the city’s civilian infrastructure. Residential buildings, a university, and an infrastructure facility have been damaged,” Fedorov wrote.
Two men were also wounded in a Russian drone attack in the eastern Dnipropetrovsk region, with fires breaking out at two locations, Governor Sergiy Lysak wrote on Telegram.
Ukraine’s national railway company said its locomotive repair plant in Zaporizhzhia was “subjected to a massive attack” overnight, which sparked a fire that raged for hours. No injuries were reported.
The Russian Ministry of Defence said its air defenses destroyed 121 Ukrainian drones overnight, the majority over Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula which Russia annexed in 2014.
The latest barrage came after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the minerals deal with the US offered “equal” benefits for both sides, even though the accord offered no concrete security guarantees for Kyiv.
The Ukrainian leader called on his country’s allies to ramp up “pressure on Russia to force it to be quiet and to negotiate.”
Taiwanese Olympic badminton men’s doubles gold medalist Wang Chi-lin (王齊麟) and his new partner, Chiu Hsiang-chieh (邱相榤), clinched the men’s doubles title at the Yonex Taipei Open yesterday, becoming the second Taiwanese team to win a title in the tournament. Ranked 19th in the world, the Taiwanese duo defeated Kang Min-hyuk and Ki Dong-ju of South Korea 21-18, 21-15 in a pulsating 43-minute final to clinch their first doubles title after teaming up last year. Wang, the men’s doubles gold medalist at the 2020 and 2024 Olympics, partnered with Chiu in August last year after the retirement of his teammate Lee Yang
FALSE DOCUMENTS? Actor William Liao said he was ‘voluntarily cooperating’ with police after a suspect was accused of helping to produce false medical certificates Police yesterday questioned at least six entertainers amid allegations of evasion of compulsory military service, with Lee Chuan (李銓), a member of boy band Choc7 (超克7), and actor Daniel Chen (陳大天) among those summoned. The New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office in January launched an investigation into a group that was allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified medical documents. Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) has been accused of being one of the group’s clients. As the investigation expanded, investigators at New Taipei City’s Yonghe Precinct said that other entertainers commissioned the group to obtain false documents. The main suspect, a man surnamed
US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer began talks with high-ranking Chinese officials in Switzerland yesterday aiming to de-escalate a dispute that threatens to cut off trade between the world’s two biggest economies and damage the global economy. The US delegation has begun meetings in Geneva with a Chinese delegation led by Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng (何立峰), Xinhua News Agency said. Diplomats from both sides also confirmed that the talks have begun, but spoke anonymously and the exact location of the talks was not made public. Prospects for a major breakthrough appear dim, but there is
The number of births in Taiwan fell to an all-time monthly low last month, while the population declined for the 16th consecutive month, Ministry of the Interior data released on Friday showed. The number of newborns totaled 8,684, which is 704 births fewer than in March and the lowest monthly figure on record, the ministry said. That is equivalent to roughly one baby born every five minutes and an annual crude birthrate of 4.52 per 1,000 people, the ministry added. Meanwhile, 17,205 deaths were recorded, resulting in a natural population decrease of 8,521, the data showed. More people are also leaving Taiwan, with net
RSS