At least seven people, including two children, were killed and 10 injured in Kharkiv after Russia attacked Ukraine with ballistic missiles and drones overnight, officials said.
A countrywide air raid alert was issued at around 3am local time to warn people against incoming Russian projectiles.
Kharkiv oblast governor Oleh Syniehubov said fires were reported as a result of a ballistic missile attack, which killed four civilians and injured 10, including two children.
Explosions were first reported in Kyiv at around 1.30am local time, the Kyiv Independent reported, followed by more blasts at around 1.40am local time.
The attack came hours after Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said he had visited the eastern front on Friday.
Zelensky said he gave awards to soldiers defending positions near Druzhkivka and Kostiantynivka in the eastern Donetsk region where Russian forces were concentrated in preparation for a spring offensive.
Ukraine’s foreign ministry, meanwhile, said it had summoned Hungary‘s acting charge d’affaires in Kyiv following the detention of Ukrainian nationals transporting a cash-and-gold haul in Budapest.
Kyiv summons Hungarian envoy over detention of Ukrainians
Ukraine’s foreign ministry said it summoned Hungary’s acting charge d’affaires in Kyiv over the detention of Ukrainian nationals in Budapest.
A ministry statement said Ukraine reserves the right to respond, including via sanctions and other restrictive measures against those involved in “unlawful” actions.
Russia providing Iran intelligence to target US forces – report
Russia is providing Iran with targeting information that includes locations of US warships and aircraft in the Middle East, the Washington Post reported, citing three officials familiar with the intelligence.
The extent of Russia’s support to Iran was not entirely clear but the Iranian military’s own ability to locate US forces has been degraded since the US and Israel launched strikes against Tehran last week, the Post reported.
The war has since escalated, triggering retaliatory strikes by Iran, and ensnared its neighbours as it seeks to impose a high cost on the US, Israel and their allies.
The US military has identified six reserve soldiers killed in Kuwait when a drone slammed into a US military facility in Port Shuaiba. Trump and other senior officials have warned the conflict will likely result in more US military deaths.
A White House spokesperson did not directly comment on the alleged Russian support to Iran.
“The Iranian regime is being absolutely crushed. Their ballistic missile retaliation is decreasing every day, their navy is being wiped out, their production capacity is being demolished, and proxies are hardly putting up a fight,” White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said.
Russia was in dialogue with representatives of Iran’s leadership, the Kremlin said on Friday. It declined to provide details when asked by reporters whether Moscow was helping Tehran.
Watch: Zelensky plans to expand ‘security ‘cooperation’ from partners as Ukraine provides support in US-Iran war
UK discloses four maintenance facilities operating in Ukraine
The UK is operating four facilities in Ukraine to carry out repair and maintenance work for armoured vehicles and other military equipment being used in the war with Russia, the British ministry of defence said this morning.
The facilities, which had not previously been divulged, were set up using both British and Ukrainian workers, operated under contracts issued by Britain’s defence ministry.
“From the factory floor to the frontline, the UK is standing with Ukraine,” Luke Pollard, defence readiness and industry minister said in a statement.
“Our pioneering facilities are helping keep Ukraine’s defiant armed forces in the fight against (Russian president Vladimir) Putin’s brutal attacks, and British firms are boosting long-term industrial production in Ukraine and partnering with Ukrainian companies to benefit both our nations,” he said.
“Britain has been one of Ukraine’s closest allies since Russia invaded its neighbour in February 2022, having committed more than £21.8bn ($29.2bn) of support to Kyiv,” he said.
The British defence ministry said that as part of their work the four facilities in Ukraine were repairing CVR-T armoured vehicles, Husky support vehicles, L119 light guns and AS-90 artillery systems, which Britain had donated.
A fifth facility was also being planned, it said.
Oil, railway stations and grain warehouse among targets of Russian air attack overnight
In Kharkiv, seven residential apartment houses, commercial and administrative buildings, electricity distribution lines, and cars were damaged by the Russian attacks, Syniehubov said.
Ukrainian officials said that Russia attacked four railway stations and other railway infrastructure in central Ukraine and port infrastructure in the southern Odesa region, setting on fire containers with vegetable oil and damaging a grain warehouse.
In photos: Russia attacks Ukraine with nearly 500 drones and a dozen ballistic missiles
The Paralympics are welcoming Russia back to the Winter Games – and this is just the start
In the days after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) arranged a call involving all of its eclectic membership. The 100 or so IOC members include a Mongolian banker, a Cape Verdean schoolteacher, a Fijian doctor, the Grand Duke of Luxembourg and HRH Princess Anne, and they jumped on a Zoom to discuss what to do about Russia.
The point was made by IOC president Thomas Bach that the invasion of another sovereign nation deserved strong sanctions, but his proposal to ban Russia from global sporting events was met with plenty of opposition. One south Asian member spoke up to ask why, if that was the IOC’s policy on war, Britain wasn’t banished for invading Iraq.
The tension in that meeting spoke to a wider geopolitical reality – that Europe’s fury at Russia’s invasion wasn’t, and still isn’t, replicated around the world. Over the past 12 months, Russia has begun a slow creep back into the sporting fold. The International Judo Federation announced full reinstatement last year, and Fifa president Gianni Infantino has made clear that football is heading in the same direction under his watch.
Zelensky says Russia’s ‘savage strikes’ killed seven overnight
Volodymyr Zelensky has accused Russia of carrying out “savage strikes” by using ballistic missiles and nearly 500 drones overnight on Ukrainian cities.
“Russia used 29 missiles, nearly half of them ballistic, and 480 drones, most of them “shaheds,” against Ukraine. They targeted energy infrastructure in Kyiv, the Khmelnytskyi and Chernivtsi regions, and the railway in the Zhytomyr region,” he said.
There must be a response from partners to these savage strikes against life, Zelensky said.
He also accused Russia of continuing to attack Ukrainian cities. “Russia has not abandoned its attempts to destroy Ukraine’s residential and critical infrastructure, and therefore support must continue,” he said.
Why Ukraine’s homegrown defence is answer to Iran’s Shahed drones
The homegrown Ukrainian munitions have transformed Kyiv’s air defence as it faces hundreds of Shahed-type drones launched by Russia every night.
The drones, which come in both winged and copter forms, are piloted by humans who steer them towards their targets. They are equipped with advanced communications systems, allowing them to reach a high altitude, and can reach a speed of around 330km per hour before striking their target, officials say.
“It needs to be faster than Shahed, which flies 200km per hour, and this drone has to find, catch and destroy it,” Serhii Beskrestnov, a consultant to the Ukrainian military, told Politico last August.
Volodymyr Zelensky has been in contact with the emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, and the UAE president Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, about the use of Ukraine’s anti-drone technology.
Russian strike kills seven, including two children, in Kharkiv, governor says
A Russian missile strike killed at least seven people, including two children, in Ukraine’s city of Kharkiv, regional governor Oleh Syniehubov said this morning.
Syniehubov said the missile damaged a five-storey residential building in one of the districts of Kharkiv. Rescue workers are on site to clear
Source: independent.co.uk