A large Russian drone and missile barrage killed 19 people and injured dozens more in Ukraine overnight, officials said yesterday, as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy arrived in Turkey for talks on finding a settlement that might end Russia’s invasion of his country.
The nighttime attack hit two nine-story apartment blocks in Ternopil, in western Ukraine, Ukrainian Minister of the Interior Ihor Klymenko said.
Emergency crews were sifting through the rubble in daylight to find any survivors, he said.
Photo: Reuters
At least 66 people were reported injured, including 16 children.
Russia fired 476 strike and decoy drones, as well as 48 missiles of various types, at Ukrainian targets overnight, the Ukrainian Air Force said.
“Every brazen attack against ordinary life indicates that the pressure on Russia [to stop the war] is insufficient,” Zelenskiy wrote on Telegram.
The Ukrainian leader said he would meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan later yesterday as part of his efforts to diplomatically isolate Russian President Vladimir Putin and bring more international pressure to bear on him.
“Foremost, we will discuss maximum capabilities to ensure that Ukraine achieves a just peace,” Zelenskiy said of his talks with Erdogan.
“We see some positions and signals from the United States, well, let’s see tomorrow,” he added, without elaborating.
Ternopil, about 200km from the Polish border, sits in a part of relatively peaceful western Ukraine where many people from the east and south moved to as they fled danger along the front line.
Almost 50 people were injured in Russian strikes on three other Ukrainian regions.
Two Eurofighter Typhoon jets and two F-16s were scrambled in Romania when a drone entered the NATO member’s airspace during the Russian attacks, the Romanian Ministry of National Defense said.
The Polish military said that Polish and allied aircraft were deployed in the middle of the night as a preventive measure.
Poland’s Rzeszow and Lublin airports were closed temporarily to prioritize military aviation, the Polish Air Navigation Services Agency said.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday vowed that those behind bogus flood control projects would be arrested before Christmas, days after deadly back-to-back typhoons left swathes of the country underwater. Scores of construction firm owners, government officials and lawmakers — including Marcos’ cousin congressman — have been accused of pocketing funds for substandard or so-called “ghost” infrastructure projects. The Philippine Department of Finance has estimated the nation’s economy lost up to 118.5 billion pesos (US$2 billion) since 2023 due to corruption in flood control projects. Criminal cases against most of the people implicated are nearly complete, Marcos told reporters. “We don’t file cases for
A feud has broken out between the top leaders of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party on whether to maintain close ties with Russia. The AfD leader Alice Weidel this week slammed planned visits to Russia by some party lawmakers, while coleader Tino Chrupalla voiced a defense of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The unusual split comes at a time when mainstream politicians have accused the anti-immigration AfD of acting as stooges for the Kremlin and even spying for Russia. The row has also erupted in a year in which the AfD is flying high, often polling above the record 20 percent it
Ecuadorans are today to vote on whether to allow the return of foreign military bases and the drafting of a new constitution that could give the country’s president more power. Voters are to decide on the presence of foreign military bases, which have been banned on Ecuadoran soil since 2008. A “yes” vote would likely bring the return of the US military to the Manta air base on the Pacific coast — once a hub for US anti-drug operations. Other questions concern ending public funding for political parties, reducing the number of lawmakers and creating an elected body that would
‘ATTACK ON CIVILIZATION’: The culture ministry released drawings of six missing statues representing the Roman goddess of Venus, the tallest of which was 40cm Investigators believe that the theft of several ancient statues dating back to the Roman era from Syria’s national museum was likely the work of an individual, not an organized gang, officials said on Wednesday. The National Museum of Damascus was closed after the heist was discovered early on Monday. The museum had reopened in January as the country recovers from a 14-year civil war and the fall of the 54-year al-Assad dynasty last year. On Wednesday, a security vehicle was parked outside the main gate of the museum in central Damascus while security guards stood nearby. People were not allowed in because
RSS