LONDON: Russia said one of its warships fired warning shots on Tuesday near a yacht making a &quot;dangerous approach&quot; in the English Channel, though Britain evaluated that the shots were &quot;not aimed at the vessel.&quot; The incident involved the Russian frigate Admiral Grigorovich and a UK-registered yacht around 20 nautical miles south of the Isle of Wight, just outside British waters, a UK defense source told AFP. The latest at-sea tension between London and Moscow came after UK commandos intercepted and boarded a suspected Russian shadow fleet vessel on Sunday in the same part of the Channel. The shooting incident coincided with G7 leaders gathering in eastern France and agreeing Tuesday to intensify pressure on Russia to end more than four years of war against Ukraine. &quot;Following attempts to contact a British vessel in the channel, the Grigorovich fired warning shots. These were not aimed at the vessel and were an attempt to prevent a possible collision,&quot; the UK defense ministry said in an update on the incident. The ministry insisted that it was an &quot;isolated&quot; incident not linked to the UK&#39;s weekend interception of the other vessel. According to the UK defense source, the Russian frigate appeared to have been &quot;drifting rather than being maneuvered under power, which may have made her feel more vulnerable.&quot; The Russian defense ministry said &quot;signal flares were fired and audible signals were sounded&quot; to get the attention of the yacht on Tuesday. &quot;Despite these measures, the vessel continued its dangerous approach,&quot; Moscow said in a statement. Following this, &quot;the frigate&#39;s commander decided to fire warning shots in the vessel&#39;s direction using the ship&#39;s small arms,&quot; it added. &#39;Surreal&#39;A British retired couple who were aboard the yacht, Jane and Alan Kelvey, described the experience as &quot;surreal&quot; in an interview with the BBC. Jane Kelvey said the warship blasted its horn five times, before the couple &quot;immediately turned two degrees to port so they could see we had made a deliberate change of course, which meant we had seen them.&quot; &quot;Then a minute or so later they gave another five blasts on their horn, immediately followed by four to five small arms fire,&quot; she said. &quot;That wasn&#39;t aimed at us &mdash; it was warning fire that went up in the air, we believe.&quot; She said their vessel was not on a collision course, disputing the Russian allegation that the yacht was on a &quot;dangerous&quot; approach. Alan Kelvey said the gunfire was &quot;unnecessary.&quot; Russia &#39;baring teeth&#39;&nbsp;Steve Prest, an associate fellow at the RUSI think tank and retired British navy commodore, said the warning shots could have been the warship &quot;getting a bit nervous.&quot; &quot;However, in the context of what&#39;s been going on with the (Russian) Dark Fleet, the Royal Marines seizing that ship, I think this is the Russians baring their teeth,&quot; he said in written comments shared with AFP. Labor MP Tan Dhesi, head of the parliamentary defense committee, warned that delays in defense investment, and the resignation on Thursday of UK defense minister John Healey over a spending row, &quot;have slowed us down at a time when we need to invest in defense.&quot; The UK-registered yacht alleged that the Russian vessel had fired the warning shots at a distance of approximately 500 yards (450 meters, 1,500 feet). No injuries or damage was reported by the yacht, which was continuing its journey after a welfare visit by a seaboat dispatched from British naval vessel HMS Tyne. It is understood another British naval vessel, HMS Mersey, was monitoring the Russian ship at the time. The UK&#39;s Royal Navy said it had deployed multiple patrol ships in April to monitor the Grigorovich, which reportedly escorted tankers part of Russia&#39;s &quot;shadow fleet&quot; of sanctions-busting ships through the Channel. It added that the frigate had escorted Russian-flagged ships &quot;heading to and from the Atlantic, Mediterranean and Baltic.&quot; Shadow vessel captain&nbsp;Sunday&#39;s interdiction saw British commandos board the sanctioned oil tanker Smyrtos &mdash; suspected of being part of Russia&#39;s shadow fleet &mdash; in a dramatic operation hailed by Kyiv and London as a blow to Moscow&#39;s war machine. British prosecutors on Monday charged Ajay Pant, the Indian captain of the Smyrtos, with contravening UK sanctions imposed on Russia following its 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The 38-year-old appeared Tuesday at Southampton Magistrates&#39; Court by video link from Bournemouth police station for a preliminary hearing. He spoke only to confirm his name and date of birth, and to give his address as being in India. He also gave no indication of his plea and his solicitor requested the case be sent to the crown court. Pant was remanded in custody, ahead of a plea and trial preparation hearing at Bournemouth Crown Court on July 16.

Europe

the 
The latest at-sea tension between London and Moscow comes after UK commandos intercept, board a suspected Russian shadow fleet vessel in the same part of the Channel.


Russian warship fires 'warning shots' near UK yacht in Channel

LONDON: British forces on Sunday intercepted a sanctioned oil tanker belonging to Russia&#39;s shadow fleet in the English Channel, the defence ministry said. The six-hour operation in the early hours was supported by aircraft, including Chinook helicopters, and navy vessels such as the frigate HMS Sutherland. &quot;In the first UK-led operation of its kind, the vessel SMYRTOS was boarded by Royal Marine Commandos and specially trained law enforcement officers from the National Crime Agency, despite Russia&#39;s best efforts to evade sanctions and continue fuelling its barbaric war with Ukraine,&quot; the ministry statement said. The vessel will now be moved to an anchorage off the south coast of England and monitored, it added. &quot;Russia relies on its shadow fleet to fund their conflict in Ukraine and our interdiction delivers a blow to Putin&#39;s illegal war,&rdquo; said defence minister Dan Jarvis. He said the operation was carried out in &quot;close coordination with the French&quot;. Disrupting the shadow fleet was &quot;directly bearing down on the resources sustaining Russia&#39;s aggression in Ukraine and reducing its capacity to threaten security across Europe and beyond&quot;, he added. The UK has sanctioned hundreds of vessels suspected of being part of the shadow fleet used by Russia to bypass Western embargoes since the invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The ships -- usually ageing tankers with dubious ownership -- are banned from accessing UK ports and services. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the operation delivered &quot;yet another blow to Russia and reminds those fuelling Putin&#39;s war in Ukraine that they cannot hide&quot;. In March, the government announced that British forces would be able to board and seize shadow fleet vessels passing through its waters. The announcement followed the easing of restrictions by Washington on Russian oil to soften prices sent soaring by the US-Israel war against Iran. France, Belgium, Finland and other European countries have also recently seized sanction-busting vessels believed to belong to the so-called shadow fleet.

The UK Defence Ministry says the vessel will now be moved to an anchorage off the south coast of England and monitored.

UK intercepts Russian shadow fleet vessel in Channel: Ministry

KYIV: Russia fired waves of drones and other munitions at Ukraine on Sunday, killing at least four people and damaging a nuclear storage facility in the Chernobyl exclusion zone, Ukrainian officials said. Radiation levels at the facility remained within normal limits following the attack, although the building&#39;s reception was &quot;partially destroyed,&quot; according to Ukraine&#39;s Energoatom nuclear energy operator. Moscow and Kyiv have intensified drone strikes on each other in recent months as US-led diplomatic efforts to end the war, now in its fifth year, remain stalled and sidetracked by the conflict in the Middle East. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is set to meet his allies in London later Sunday for talks on how to pressure Russia to end the fighting, after Russian President Vladimir Putin rejected direct peace talks with the Ukrainian leader. &quot;A &#39;shahed&#39; hit one of the buildings of the Centralized Spent Fuel Storage Facility,&quot; Zelensky said in a post on X, referring to the Iranian-designed &quot;Shahed&quot; drones that Russia fires at Ukraine on a nightly basis. &quot;As of now, there are no readings exceeding normal background radiation levels. But there is certainly an increase in Russia&#39;s brazenness, which long ago went off the charts,&quot; he added. The International Atomic Energy Agency said it was dispatching a team to inspect the damage, calling the incident &quot;deeply concerning.&quot; The facility is located in a remote area of forest around a dozen kilometers (seven miles) from the site of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, and is designed to house spent nuclear fuel from Ukraine&#39;s three active nuclear plants. Strikes on Ukraine Russian strikes killed and wounded multiple civilians on Sunday, Ukrainian officials said. A Russian bombardment of a public transport stop in Ukraine&#39;s southern Zaporizhzhia region left at least two people dead, while a nearby drone strike killed a 56-year-old minibus driver, authorities said. A separate attack on the central Dnipropetrovsk region killed a 59-year-old man, governor Oleksandr Ganzha posted on Telegram. Hundreds of thousands have been killed and millions forced to flee their home since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Russia &mdash;which denies targeting civilians &mdash; now occupies around a fifth of its neighbor: the Crimean peninsula, which it annexed in 2014, most of the eastern regions of Donetsk and Lugansk &mdash; collectively referred to as the Donbas &mdash; and large parts of the southern Zaporizhzhia and Khe

Radiation levels at the facility remained within normal limits following the attack, although the building's reception was "partially destroyed," according to Ukraine's Energoatom nuclear energy operator.

Russian strikes kill four, damage nuclear storage facility: Kyiv

KYIV: Ukraine&#39;s Volodymyr Zelensky proposed a face-to-face meeting with Vladimir Putin in a rare open letter to the Russian leader Thursday, shortly after the Kremlin chief had conceded Moscow needed to strengthen its air defences following a spate of Ukrainian attacks. US President Donald Trump, who has pushed both sides to end the conflict and boasted he could end the war within a day of taking office, said a face-to-face Putin-Zelensky meeting would be &quot;great&quot; -- but pushed both sides to compromise. The Kremlin said Putin had not yet been shown the letter, but that Zelensky could meet Putin in Moscow &quot;any time&quot; -- a proposal that the Ukrainian leader preemptively ruled out in his letter. &quot;Ukraine proposes ending this war through direct engagement between us -- and you. I am proposing a meeting,&quot; Zelensky said in the letter. &quot;I propose to set a clear date for such a meeting,&quot; he said. &quot;Ukraine is ready for a full ceasefire for the duration of the negotiations,&quot; he added. Zelensky published the letter a day after Ukrainian drones hit Saint Petersburg, as Putin&#39;s home city hosted a major international economic forum this week. The Ukrainian leader has repeatedly called for a meeting with the ex-KGB spy, saying only face-to-face talks will yield an agreement on territory. Direct addresses from Zelensky to the Russian leader are rare. &#39;I suggested those compromises&#39;Trump, who has faced criticism for berating Zelensky in the White House last year on the one hand while inviting Putin to a summit in Alaska with the other, said he was &quot;glad that they&#39;re maybe talking about meeting&quot;. &quot;I think we had a lot to do with it,&quot; he told reporters in the Oval Office -- the scene of his clash with the Ukrainian leader. &quot;I think it would be great if they met. They should -- get it done.&quot; Months of US-led negotiations have failed to bring the sides close to an agreement, with Trump&#39;s attention largely absorbed by the Iran war that the United States and Israel launched more than three months ago. &quot;They&#39;re going to both make compromises, I suggested those compromises, and you know, we&#39;ve had a lot to do with it,&quot; Trump said of Ukraine and Russia, without specifying. Russia, which invaded in 2022, has demanded Ukraine pull out of its eastern Donbas region -- large parts of which Kyiv&#39;s army still controls -- as a precondition to peace talks. Speaking to foreign journalists, including from AFP, in Saint Petersburg just before Zelensky&#39;s appeal was published, Putin had repeated his frequent questioning of the Ukrainian leader&#39;s legitimacy. He said the question of whether Zelensky was Ukraine&#39;s legitimate leader needed &quot;analysis&quot;, after his initial five-year term expired in 2024. Martial law prohibits elections during wartime in Ukraine, and Zelensky has offered to stage a vote or referendum on a final peace deal if a full ceasefire is in place. Putin has said he would only meet Zelensky to finalise an already agreed deal, rejecting calls to meet before then. &quot;Zelensky can come at any time to Moscow,&quot; state media quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying after the letter was published. &#39;Strengthen&#39; air defencesUkraine has intensified its long-range retaliatory strikes on Russian energy and military targets in recent months -- attacks it calls a fair response to nightly barrages by Russia&#39;s army. &quot;If you do not personally come to the conclusion that it is time to end this war, Ukraine will continue fighting for its existence,&quot; Zelensky said in the letter. Putin on Thursday hailed his forces&#39; achievements on the battlefield in the face of growing confidence in Ukraine. When asked about whether Russia&#39;s offensive against Ukraine had become a &quot;strategic disaster&quot;, Putin said that Russia was &quot;advancing along the entire line of contact&quot;. &quot;We are absolutely ready and willing to reach an agreement with Ukraine through peaceful means,&quot; he added. The pace of Russia&#39;s advance has slowed since late 2025, and recent data shows Ukraine has regained ground against Russia. Ukraine recaptured more territory than it lost to Russian forces in May for the second straight month, according to an AFP analysis of data from the Institute for the Study of War (ISW). Putin also accepted that Russia needs to improve its air defence systems, speaking a day after Ukrainian drones struck an oil terminal and naval base in Saint Petersburg, just as the Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) -- dubbed Russian Davos -- opened. &quot;Russia has an air defence system. Yes, we must improve it. Yes, we must strengthen it. And we will do so,&quot; the Russian leader said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky propose a face-to-face meeting with Vladimir Putin in a rare open letter to the Russian leader 

Zelensky, in open letter to Putin, proposes face-to-face meeting

MOSCOW: A Ukrainian strike killed at least three people in Crimea, the region&#39;s Moscow-installed authorities said Thursday, a day after Kyiv targeted energy and military sites in Saint Petersburg, where Russia was hosting an economic forum. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned of a &quot;real&quot; risk of the Ukraine war escalating as Kyiv underlines its ability to strike deep inside Russian territory with the attacks. Ukraine has described its strikes on Saint Petersburg as &quot;fair&quot; retaliation for a wave of Russian bombardment on its territory. Sergey Aksyonov, the Moscow-installed head of the Crimea region, said early Thursday that preliminary reports showed a strike on non-residential buildings in Simferopol claimed three lives and wounded seven others. &quot;Emergency services are currently at the scene,&quot; Aksyonov wrote on Telegram. The strike came as 20,000 people from 130 countries were due at the three-day annual Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), an event once dubbed &quot;Russia&#39;s Davos.&quot; President Vladimir Putin is to give a keynote address at the forum on Friday, and Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov vowed Russia would provide a &quot;systemic&quot; response to Ukraine&#39;s strikes on the city. Black smoke from the strikes was visible from the conference venue as the first sessions started on Wednesday. Valeria, a 32-year-old businesswoman from Moscow at the forum, told AFP she was used to the threat of attacks. &quot;We have been living under such attacks for many years now,&quot; she said. &#39;Real&#39; escalation risk&nbsp;Ukrainian officials have said the Saint Petersburg attack on an oil terminal and the city&#39;s Kronstadt military base was meant to disrupt the conference. &quot;The Petersburg forum is opening with a nice plume of black smoke in the background after Ukrainian strikes,&quot; said Sergiy Sternenko, an adviser to the Ukrainian defense minister. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said his country was responding &quot;accordingly&quot; to Russian bombardment. &quot;It&#39;s just a matter of time before we can scale up the intensity of our responses,&quot; Zelensky said during a press conference in Kyiv with NATO chief Mark Rutte. On Wednesday, a drone strike on a bus in Russian-occupied east Ukraine killed at least seven people, Moscow-installed officials said. Two others were killed, one in the Bryansk region near the Ukraine border and another in the Russian-occupied Kharkiv region, they added. Meanwhile, Russian attacks left at least 10 dead across Ukraine, local officials said. Rubio said at a US Senate appropriations panel that Ukraine has &quot;become increasingly effective at conducting long-range strikes deep into Russia.&quot; It&#39;s &quot;one of the things that reminds us of why it&#39;s important to try to bring this war to an end, if we can, because the risk of escalation is real, more real than it was two years ago,&quot; Rubio added. Speaking earlier to the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Rubio lamented the lack of progress on ending the war, which began with Russia&#39;s full-scale invasion in February 2022. &quot;To this point, neither side has been willing to make concessions, particularly on the Russian side, necessary in order to bring peace about,&quot; he said. &quot;But we stand ready, and we&#39;ve engaged and invested a tremendous amount of high-level time on that conflict over the last year,&quot; he added. EU foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas earlier told AFP that Ukraine&#39;s attacks had spooked the Kremlin. &quot;It clearly shows also panic on the Russian side &mdash; why they are increasing the terrorist attacks that they&#39;re doing in Ukraine is because they don&#39;t know what to do with these things,&quot; Kallas said in an interview. &quot;Putin is losing money, men, and momentum, and that&#39;s why he&#39;s increasing attacks on civilians.&quot;

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio warns of a 'real' risk of the Ukraine war escalating as Kyiv underlines its ability to strike deep inside Russian territory with the attacks; Ukraine describes its strikes on Saint Petersburg as 'fair' retaliation for a wave of Russian bombardment on its territory.

Ukraine strike kills 3 in Russian-occupied Crimea

MOSCOW: Russia on Monday banned the export of aviation fuel until the end of November as Ukraine escalates its strikes on Russian refineries, depots and pipelines.&nbsp;Kyiv has increased attacks on Russian energy facilities in recent weeks, hitting targets as far as the Urals.&nbsp;The attacks often cause major fires but their impact has been difficult to assess.&nbsp;But in a sign of tension in the sector, the Russian government announced a &quot;temporary ban on the export of jet fuel from Russia.&quot;&nbsp;&quot;The purpose of this decision is to ensure stability in the domestic fuel market,&quot; it said.&nbsp;It clarified that the ban does not apply to shipments made under intergovernmental agreements.&nbsp;Russia, one of the world&#39;s oil and gas giants, had already restricted the export of car fuel, as pressures on the market mount during the Ukraine war.&nbsp;Ukraine -- facing daily Russian barrages of missiles and drones -- has increased its campaign on Russian energy infrastructure in recent weeks.

Russia banned aviation fuel exports until the end of November to stabilize domestic supplies amid escalating Ukrainian attacks on refineries, depots, and pipelines. The move follows earlier restrictions on car fuel exports as wartime pressures Russia’s energy sector.

Russia bans aviation fuel exports

MOSCOW: Russia said Monday it plans to launch more strikes on Kyiv, including on its &quot;decision-making centres&quot;, and repeated a call for foreign citizens and diplomats to leave the city.&nbsp;Russia launched scores of drones and missiles at Ukraine over the weekend, killing four people, wounding dozens and causing damage across the Ukrainian capital.&nbsp;Among the weapons Russia used was its Oreshnik hypersonic missile, which can travel 10 times the speed of sound and is capable of carrying nuclear warheads, according to Moscow.&nbsp;The barrage came days after Russia accused Kyiv of striking a vocational school in the Russian-occupied Lugansk region, killing 21 people. Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his military to retaliate.&nbsp;&quot;Under the current circumstances, the Russian Armed Forces are starting to launch systematic strikes against Ukrainian military-industrial facilities in Kyiv,&quot; Russia&#39;s foreign ministry said in a statement.&nbsp;&quot;The strikes will target both decision-making centres and command posts... We are warning foreign citizens, including personnel of diplomatic missions and international organisations, to leave the city as soon as possible,&quot; it added.&nbsp;Ukraine described Russia&#39;s threats as &quot;rhetoric&quot;.&nbsp;&quot;We are now telling our partners that they should not give in to all this Russian blackmail,&quot; Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga said.&nbsp;Russia had already called on foreign citizens and diplomats to evacuate Kyiv earlier this month, when it threatened massive strikes on central Kyiv if Ukraine disrupted a military parade on Red Square.

Russia says it plans more strikes on Kyiv, including “decision-making centres,” after weekend attacks kill four people. Moscow urges foreign citizens and diplomats to leave the city, while Ukraine dismisses the threats as Russian blackmail.

Russia threatens more strikes on Kyiv, urges foreigners to leave city

KYIV: Russia pounded Kyiv with a massive missile and drone attack that killed four people early on Sunday, authorities said, after President Vladimir Putin threatened retaliation for strikes in Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine. Multiple rounds of loud explosions were heard in the Ukrainian capital throughout the early hours of the morning, AFP journalists reported, in a barrage the air force said involved 600 drones and 90 missiles. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said two people had been killed in the capital and 56 wounded, while the head of the surrounding Kyiv region said two people had also been killed there, and nine wounded. Air defences intercepted 549 of the drones and 55 missiles, the air force said. Ukraine&#39;s President Volodymyr Zelensky said the Russians had fired a nuclear-capable hypersonic Oreshnik missile in the barrage. &quot;Three Russian missiles against a water supply facility, a market burnt down, dozens of residential buildings damaged, several ordinary schools, and he (Putin) launched his &#39;Oreshnik&#39; against Bila Tserkva (in central Ukraine),&quot; Zelensky said on Telegram. &quot;They are genuinely deranged.&quot; Russian army also confirmed to have launched a nuclear-capable Oreshnik hypersonic ballistic missile. &quot;In response to Ukraine&rsquo;s terrorist attacks on civilian infrastructure on Russian territory, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation carried out a massive strike using Oreshnik ballistic missiles, Iskander air-launched ballistic missiles, Kinzhal hypersonic air-launched ballistic missiles and Tsirkon cruise missiles,&quot; as well as drones, the ministry said in a statement. The blasts in the capital caused a residential building near the government district to shake, while dozens of people took shelter in an underground metro station in the city centre, AFP reporters said. Residents were instructed to stay in shelters, as city officials warned fires had broken out. Ukrainian authorities and the US embassy had earlier warned of a possible significant attack on Kyiv, after Russia said it would &quot;punish&quot; those responsible for deadly strikes in a part of eastern Ukraine under its control. Klitschko said damage had been recorded in every district of Kyiv, adding that a strike on a school had sparked a fire and another on a business centre led to people being trapped in a shelter. Ukrainian authorities said Russian strikes had also wounded 11 in the Cherkasy region and seven in the Dnipropetrovsk region. WarningUkraine had been expecting a major attack after its own forces launched a drone barrage on Starobilsk, in the Russian-occupied east of the country, which Moscow said hit a college dormitory and killed at least 18 people. Launched overnight on Thursday to Friday, the drone salvo -- one of Ukraine&#39;s deadliest such strikes in months -- also wounded 42 in the city, located in the occupied Lugansk region. Ukraine denied targeting civilians, saying it had hit a Russian drone unit stationed in the area. Russia&#39;s foreign ministry said on Friday those responsible would face &quot;inevitable and severe punishment&quot;. On Saturday, Zelensky warned that Ukraine was &quot;seeing signs of preparation for a combined strike on Ukrainian territory, including Kyiv&quot;. Similarly, the US embassy said it had &quot;received information concerning a potentially significant air attack that may occur at any time over the next 24 hours&quot;. Ukraine regularly targets Russian-controlled areas of the country with drones, arguing that the strikes are retaliation for Russian attacks. Occupied territoryRussia&#39;s emergency ministry said on Saturday it had pulled two more bodies from the rubble of the dormitory in Starobilsk, taking the death toll to 18. Video shared by the ministry showed dozens of rescuers sifting through what remained of a section of the five-storey building. Most of those killed and missing were young women born between 2003 and 2008, according to a list of casualties published by the Moscow-backed governor of occupied Lugansk, Leonid Pasechnik. &quot;The region and the entire country share the fate of these people and the pain of their families,&quot; he said on Telegram. Starobilsk lies about 65 kilometres (40 miles) from the front line in eastern Ukraine. It was captured by Russian forces in the early months of the offensive in 2022. Kyiv has recently expanded its drone capabilities and stepped up strikes on undisputed Russian territory, including residential areas and oil export infrastructure. Moscow has hit Ukraine almost daily with barrages of missiles and drones since launching its full-scale invasion of the country in 2022, also hitting infrastructure and causing civilian deaths. It denies targeting civilians. US-led efforts to negotiate an end to more than four years of war have slowed in recent months, with Washington&#39;s attention diverted towards its conflict in the Middle East.

Firefighters work to extinguish a fire at the site of a heavily damaged building following Russian strikes to the Ukrainian capital in Kyiv on May 24, 2026, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Photo: AFP)

Ukrainian air force says their air defences intercepted 549 of the drones and 55 missiles; President Volodymyr Zelensky says the Russians had fired a nuclear-capable hypersonic Oreshnik missile in the barrage; Russian army later confirmed the same. 

Russian army confirms launching nuclear-capable Oreshnik missile at Ukraine

Web Desk

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has emphasized the need for sustained &ldquo;confidence-building measures&rdquo; and expedited &ldquo;resumption of negotiations,&rdquo; reiterating Islamabad&rsquo;s deep concern over the ongoing war in Ukraine.&nbsp; Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, with the ensuing conflict resulting in a tidal wave of destruction that has left entire cities in ruins. Speaking at the UNSC, Acting UN Permanent Representative of Pakistan Ambassador Usman Jadoon, the ambassador said, &ldquo;The conflict has persisted for over four years, resulting in widespread devastation that has severely impacted human lives and livelihoods.&rdquo; He said that Islamabad was concerned about the prolongation of the war, condemning reports of increased attacks. Such actions prolong the conflict, erode trust, and obstruct meaningful progress toward peace, he said, stressing that civilians remained the primary victims.&nbsp; The ambassador reiterated that protection of civilians, humanitarian workers, and civilian infrastructure was a fundamental legal obligation under international humanitarian law, which all parties must uphold under all circumstances. Welcoming the recent ceasefire announcements, the ambassador said these measures can help build confidence and should be sustained to create an enabling environment for a complete ceasefire and lasting peace. He also urged both parties to &ldquo;prioritize diplomacy, demonstrate genuine political will, and move forward constructively toward a just and enduring solution.&rdquo;

Foreign Affairs

Acting UN Permanent Representative of Pakistan says Islamabad is concerned about the prolongation of the war, condemns reports of increased attacks.

At UN, Pakistan calls for confidence-building measures, revival of talks on Ukraine

KYIV: Russia pummeled Kyiv for hours on Thursday, firing hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles in an attack that killed at least 16 people, including two children, and further shredded hopes of a halt to Moscow&#39;s grinding invasion. AFP journalists in the capital heard air raid sirens wailing across the city before several hours of thunderous explosions and flashes in the sky sent Kyiv residents running to shelter in metro stations. The Ukrainian air force said Russia had launched 675 attack drones and 56 missiles, mainly at Kyiv, adding its air defense units had downed 652 of the drones and 41 missiles. &quot;Everything was burning. People were screaming ... people were shouting,&quot; Andriy, a Kyiv resident still wearing a nightgown and with blood stains on his shirt, told AFP near a collapsed Soviet-era residential building. President Volodymyr Zelensky said 20 sites in the capital were damaged, including homes, a school, a veterinary clinic and other civilian infrastructure. &quot;Work is still ongoing in Kyiv at the site of the strike on the building &mdash; a Russian missile strike that literally levelled a residential block, from the first to the ninth floor,&quot; he said in an evening address. Sixteen people, including two children, were killed by the attacks, said Ukraine&#39;s emergency service. Seven bodies were pulled from the rubble of a single destroyed residential building &mdash; three men, three women, and a young girl, police said. Another 45 were wounded. Ballistic challenge&nbsp;Russian attacks also wounded people in the southern regions of Odesa and Kherson, and in the eastern region of Kharkiv. &quot;These are definitely not the actions of those who believe the war is coming to an end. It is important that partners do not remain silent about this strike,&quot; Zelensky said. Ukraine said it shot down 94% of all drones and 73% of the missiles fired by Russia. &quot;The most difficult challenge is defending against ballistic missiles,&quot; he said. A slew of Ukraine&#39;s allies, including the United Kingdom, Estonia, Latvia, Finland, the Netherlands, Moldova, and Slovakia, condemned the fatal attacks. &quot;By bombing civilians, Russia demonstrates less its strength than its weakness: it is running out of solutions on the military front and does not know how to end its war of aggression,&quot; French President Emmanuel Macron said. EU chief Ursula von der Leyen said the attacks on Kyiv showed that Russia &quot;openly mocks&quot; efforts to end the war. Russia, which invaded Ukraine more than four years ago, said the wave of missiles and drones had targeted military-linked sites and energy facilities that support the Ukrainian army. The conflict is the worst in Europe since World War II and has killed hundreds of thousands of people and displaced millions more. Chaotic rescue scenes&nbsp;At daybreak, AFP journalists witnessed chaotic scenes as rescue workers dug through mounds of debris from a collapsed residential building. Emergency service workers were seen hauling from the site those wounded and killed in the strikes, and residents cried as they waited for news of loved ones and neighbors. The barrage is the latest setback for efforts to end the conflict after US President Donald Trump raised faint hopes for peace by brokering a three-day ceasefire between Kyiv and Moscow last week. Russia&#39;s leader, Vladimir Putin, also suggested the war could be winding down. But the brief truce was marred by allegations of violations, and both sides resumed attacks straight after. Russia&#39;s army fired more than 1,500 drones at Ukraine over Wednesday and Thursday, Kyiv&#39;s air force said. The Kremlin has poured cold water on the idea that vague comments from Putin last Saturday that the war was &quot;heading to an end&quot; meant Moscow would soften its position. On Wednesday, it repeated its demand that Ukraine fully withdraw from the eastern Donbas region before a ceasefire and full-scale peace talks can take place. Kyiv has rejected such a move as tantamount to capitulation. Kyiv has urged Trump to discuss ending the conflict during his meetings in Beijing this week with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. &quot;This barbaric attack during such an important summit shows that the Russian regime poses a global threat to international security. Instead of peace and development, Moscow pursues aggression and terror,&quot; Ukraine&#39;s Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga said. Russian drones on Thursday also struck a UN vehicle in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, Zelensky said, accusing Moscow of having deliberately targeted it, but adding there were no casualties.

Ukrainian air force says Russia launched 675 attack drones and 56 missiles, mainly at Kyiv, adding its air defense units had downed 652 of the drones and 41 missiles; journalists in the capital hear air raid sirens wailing across the city before several hours of thunderous explosions, flashes in the sky.

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