Russia hits Ukraine with rare daytime barrage as new offensive begins
Al Jazeera
Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy warns that Kyiv faces a deficit of missiles as Washington is focused on its war on Iran.
Russia has carried out one of the largest aerial attacks since the start of its war on Ukraine, launching 948 drones in a 24-hour period as it moved troops and equipment to the front line in what appeared to be the start of its new offensive.
Tuesday’s rare daytime attacks killed two people in the western Ukrainian city of Ivano-Frankivsk and one person in the region of Vinnytsia, according to regional authorities.
In Lviv, footage posted online showed a drone crashing into an old building next to a church in the historic centre. Lviv’s Governor Maksym Kozytskyi said part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site around the 17th-century St Andrew’s Church had been damaged.
“Russia is attacking a crowded city centre in broad daylight,” Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko wrote on X.
The strikes followed an overnight bombardment across 11 regions that killed five people, including two in the Poltava region, and one each in the regions of Zaporizhia, Kherson and Kharkiv.
Mojtaba Khamenei has not been seen in public since he replaced his slain father as Iran’s supreme leader.
The F-35 fighter jet landed safely and the pilot is in stable condition, CENTCOM spokesman Captain Tim Hawkins said.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth hints war funding may change, leaving timeline decisions to President Trump.
Prices are likely to rise substantially if the Strait of Hormuz remains, in effect, closed, market watchers say.
Trump has called on other navies to help open the strait, but countries are instead striking deals with Iran.
If the death of Esmaeil Khatib is confirmed, it would be the third major high-profile assassination in successive days.
Iranian Foreign Minister Araghchi says US-Israeli assassinations will not topple Tehran’s ‘strong political structure’.
Kent is the highest-level official to leave Trump administration over the US president’s decision to wage war on Iran.
The attacks are part of an escalating cycle of violence between US forces and Iraqi groups aligned with Tehran.
UN rights office says more than 36,000 Palestinians forcibly displaced in a year due to Israeli settler, army violence.
Rare US-Hamas talks come as the war on Iran strains the battered Gaza ‘ceasefire’ and post-war plans.
Israel’s Defence Minister Katz has claimed that Iran’s security chief has been assassinated
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