More mercenaries from Russia’s Wagner military contractor rolled into Belarus on Monday, a monitoring group said, continuing their relocation to the ex-Soviet nation following last month’s short-lived mutiny.
Belaruski Hajun, a Belarusian activist group that monitors troops movements in Belarus, said that a convoy of about 20 vehicles carrying Russian flags and Wagner insignia entered the country, heading toward a field camp that Belarusian authorities had offered to the company.
The group said it was a third Wagner convoy entering the country since last week.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who brokered a deal that ended last month’s rebellion launched by Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, has said that his country’s military could benefit from the mercenaries’ combat experience.
On Friday, Belarusian state TV broadcast video of Wagner instructors training Belarusian territorial defense forces at a firing range in the Asipovichy region, where a camp offered to Wagner is located.
A Belarusian messaging app channel alleged last week that Prigozhin spent a night at the camp near Tsel, about 90 kilometers (about 55 miles) southeast of Minsk, and posted a photo of him in a tent.
In the revolt that started on June 23 and lasted less than 24 hours, Prigozhin’s mercenaries quickly swept through the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don and captured the military headquarters there without firing a shot, before driving to within about 200 kilometers (125 miles) of Moscow.
Prigozhin called it a “march of justice” to oust Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and General Staff chief Gen. Valery Gerasimov, who demanded that Wagner sign contracts with the Defense Ministry.
The mutiny faced little resistance and the mercenaries downed at least six military helicopters and a command post aircraft, killing at least 10 airmen. Prigozhin ordered his troops back to their camps after striking a deal to end the rebellion in exchange for an amnesty for him and his men, and permission to move to Belarus. The terms of the deal and Prigozhin’s fate have remained murky.
The Belarusian Defense Ministry didn’t say how many Wagner troops were in Belarus. Lukashenko has previously said it was up to Prigozhin and Moscow to decide on a move to Belarus. The Kremlin has refrained from comment.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has declared that Wagner troops had a choice between signing contracts with the Defense Ministry, moving to Belarus or retiring from service. Putin said last week that he offered Wagner officers the option of continuing to serve as a single unit under their same commander when he met with them five days after the rebellion.
Putin’s comments appeared to reflect his efforts to secure the loyalty of Wagner mercenaries, some of the most capable Russian forces in Ukraine, after the group’s brief revolt last month that posed the most serious threat to his 23-year rule.
The Russian Defense Ministry said last week that Wagner was completing the handover of its weapons to the Russian military, part of efforts by Russian authorities to defuse the threat posed by the mercenaries that seemed to herald an end to their operations in Ukraine where they had played a prominent role as one of the most capable elements of Russian forces.
The Belarusian leader has rejected the allegations that Wagner’s presence in Belarus could destabilize the country, but some observers noted that he would likely order the country’s security agencies to maintain a close watch over the group’s activities.
“Lukashenko is a very cautious politician and he would be worried about possible surprises from the Russian mercenaries, whom he would seek to control day and night,” Belarusian political analyst Valery Karbalevich said. “The Belarusian security agencies will now focus their entire potential on not allowing Wagner to have any autonomy in Belarus.”
During Monday’s meeting with the country’s chief prosecutor, Lukashenko spoke about the need to tighten control over the mi
A magnitude 5.3 earthquake shook southern Türkiye on Thursday, causing damage to buildings and wounding 23 people, Turkish officials said.
At least 23 were injured as a result of Thursday’s quake, which was centered in the town of Yesilyurt in Malatya province and felt in Adiyaman, both provinces hit by the devastating earthquakes in February, which killed at least 50,000 people in Türkiye and Syria, The Associated Press said.
Türkiye’s Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said in a social media post that the injuries sustained in Malatya and Adiyaman consisted of falls and people throwing themselves off buildings to avoid being crushed under a collapsed building.
Private broadcaster NTV reported that some damage could be seen in buildings as a result of Thursday’s earthquake.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the United States and ECOWAS were united in demanding the safety of Bazoum, to whom he said he has spoken half a dozen times since the takeover.
“Like ECOWAS, the United States will hold the Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland accountable for the safety and security of President Bazoum, his family, and detained members of the government,” he said in the statement, referring to Niger’s military leaders.
Niger’s Prime Minister Ouhoumoudou Mahamadou recently said that Bazoum was being held with his wife and son without electricity or water.
Blinken also called Thursday for a peaceful solution to reverse Niger’s coup after the West African bloc ECOWAS approved a “standby” military force.
“The United States appreciates the determination of ECOWAS to explore all options for the peaceful resolution of the crisis.”
The statement came after Blinken, addressing reporters, backed efforts by ECOWAS without mentioning the decision on a potential military option.
“ECOWAS, an organization that brings together West African countries, is playing a key role in making clear the imperative of a return to constitutional order, and we very much support ECOWAS’ leadership and work on this,” he told a news conference alongside his Mexican counterpart.
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) approved military intervention in Niger “as soon as possible” to restore constitutional order, announced Ivory Coast’s President Alassane Ouattara on Thursday.
“The chiefs of staff will have other conferences to finalize things, but they have the agreement of the Conference of Heads of State for the operation to start as soon as possible,” said Ouattara as he returned from the emergency ECOWAS summit.
ECOWAS decided to deploy the organization’s standby force for possible use against the junta in Niger and demand the return of the ousted President Mohamed Bazoum to office.
The ECOWAS Chair, Nigerian President Bola Tinubu, said after a summit to discuss the coup in Niger: “No option is taken off the table, including the use of force as a last resort.”
An official statement was read out, which included a resolution asking the bloc’s defense chiefs to “activate the ECOWAS Standby Force with all its elements immediately,” according to Reuters.
ECOWAS Commission President Omar Touray said after the extraordinary summit that the organization had ordered the deployment of the ECOWAS reserve force to restore constitutional order in Niger.
Representatives of the junta told US Under Secretary of State Victoria Nuland of the threat to Bazoum during her visit to the country this week, a Western military official told the Associated Press (AP).
The summit, which Nigeria hosted Thursday, was held to discuss the response of the ECOWAS leaders after the military junta in Niamey challenged their previous threat to use force to restore democracy.
The meeting, which included closed-door talks, occurred hours after the coup leaders formed a new government, which imposed itself on the summit’s agenda before it began.
Since the July 26 coup, the military council rejected diplomatic initiatives and ignored the August 06 deadline set by ECOWAS to relinquish power and free Bazoum to exercise his mandate.
Western officials say Niger junta threatened to kill deposed president if neighboring countries intervened militarily.
Niger’s junta told a top US diplomat that they would kill deposed President Mohamed Bazoum if regional countries attempted any military intervention to restore his rule, two Western officials told The Associated Press.
Representatives of the junta told US Under Secretary of State Victoria Nuland of the threat to Bazoum during her visit to the country this week, a Western military official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation.
A US official confirmed that account, also speaking on condition of anonymity, because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
Bazoum was deposed by coup leaders on July 26 and says he is being held hostage at his residence.
West African heads of state began meeting Thursday on next steps after the junta defied their deadline to reinstate the nation’s deposed president, but analysts say the bloc known as ECOWAS may be running out of options as support fades for a military intervention.
Nine of the 11 heads of state expected to attend were present, including the presidents of Senegal, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Togo, Benin, Guinea-Bissau and Sierra Leone. The non-ECOWAS leaders of Mauritania and Burundi also participated in the closed-door meeting in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja.
“It is crucial that we prioritize diplomatic negotiations and dialogue as the bedrock of our approach,” said Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who currently chairs the bloc, said before the closed part of the meeting. He said leaders must act with a “sense of urgency,” though appeared to retreat from the bloc’s earlier threat to use force.
As the crisis drags on there are increasing concerns for Bazum’s safety if a peaceful solution is not found.
Niger was seen as the last country in the Sahel region south of the Sahara Desert that Western nations could partner with to counter extremist violence linked to al-Qaida and the ISIS group that has killed thousands and displaced millions of people. The international community is scrambling to find a peaceful solution to the country’s leadership crisis.
“Let me tell you, any coup that has succeeded beyond 24 hours has come to stay. So, as it is, they are speaking from the point of strength and advantage,” said Oladeinde Ariyo, a security analyst in Nigeria. “So, negotiating with them will have to be on their terms.”
On Wednesday, a Nigerian delegation led by the former Emir of Kano, Khalifa Muhammad Sanusi, met the junta’s leader, Gen. Abdourahmane Tchiani. The former emir was one of few people allowed to meet Tchiani.
West Africa’s regional bloc has failed to stem past coups throughout the region. Niger is the fourth country in the 15-member state bloc to have experienced a coup in the last three years.
The bloc has imposed harsh economic and travel sanctions.
But as the junta becomes more entrenched, the options for negotiations are becoming limited, said Andrew Lebovich, a research fellow with the Clingendael Institute.
“It’s very difficult to say what might come out of it, but the fact that the initial deadline passed without intervention and that the (junta) has continued to hold a fairly firm line, indicate that they think they can outlast this pressure,” he said.
The main parties’ positions are dangerously far apart, according to the International Crisis Group, which said that if dialogue is going to succeed, each side is going to have to make concessions, which they’ve so far refused to do.
Since seizing power, the junta has cut ties with France and exploited popular grievances toward its former colonial ruler to shore up its support base. It also has asked for help from the Russian mercenary group Wagner, which operates in a handful of African countries and has been accused of committing human rights abuses.
Moscow is using Wagner and other channels of influence to discredit Western nations, asserted Lou Osborn, an investigator with All Eyes on Wagner, a project focusing on the group.
Tactics include using social media to spread rumors about Wagner’s upcoming arrival to Niger and employing fake accounts to mobilize demonstrations and spread false narratives, Osborn said. “Their objective is not to support the junta or an alternative political approach but to sow discord, create chaos, destabilize,” she said.
She pointed to a Telegram post on Wednesday by an alleged Wagner operative, Alexander Ivanov, asserting that France had begun the “mass removal of children” likely to be used for slave labor and sexual exploitation.
Neither Russia’s government nor Wagner responded to questions.
While there’s no reason to believe Russia was behind the coup, it will leverage the opportunity to gain a stronger foothold in the region, something Western nations were trying to avoid, Sahel experts say.
France and the United States have more than 2,500 military personnel in Niger and along with other European nations have poured hundreds of millions of dollars of military assistance into propping up the country’s forces. Much of that aid has now been suspended.
Meanwhile, Niger’s approximately 25 million people are feeling the impact of the sanctions.
Some neighborhoods in the capital, Niamey have little access to electricity and there are frequent power cuts across the city. The country gets up to 90% of its power from Nigeria, which has cut off some of the supply.
Since the coup, Hamidou Albade, 48, said he’s been unable to run his shop on the outskirts of Niamey because there’s been no electricity. He also works as a taxi driver but lost business there, too, because a lot of his foreign clients have left the city.
“It’s very difficult, I just sit at home doing nothing,” he said. Still, he supports the junta. “We’re suffering now, but I know the junta will find a solution to get out of the crisis,” he said.
Ukrainian authorities ordered a mandatory evacuation Thursday of nearly 12,000 civilians from 37 towns and villages in the eastern Kharkiv region, where Russian forces reportedly are making a concerted effort to punch through the front line.
The local military administration in Kharkiv’s Kupiansk district said residents must comply with the evacuation order or sign a document saying they would stay at their own risk. Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar had said the previous day that “the intensity of combat and enemy shelling is high” in the area.
The city of Kupiansk and the territories around it were under Russian occupation until September 2022, when Ukrainian forces conducted a rapid offensive operation that dislodged the Kremlin’s forces from nearly the entire Kharkiv region.
The retaking of those areas strengthened Ukraine’s arguments that its troops could deliver more stinging defeats to Russia with additional armament deliveries, which its Western allies duly provided. But as Ukraine has pursued a slow-moving counteroffensive in recent weeks, Russian forces have struck back in some areas.
Maliar said Russia “has formed an offensive group and is attempting to move forward” in the area in an effort to advance on the Ukrainian-held city of Kupiansk, an important rail junction.
Russia has concentrated assault troops supported by tank units, aviation and artillery in the Kupiansk area, Ukraine National Guard spokesman Ruslan Muzychuk said on national television.
The Russians have formed eight so-called “Storm-Z” detachments – made up of convicts released from prison acting under military commanders – for the push, and fighting in the area was “intense,” according to Oleksandr Syrskyi, the ground forces commander of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
“Some positions are passed from hand to hand constantly,” he said.
It was not possible to independently verify either side’s battlefield claims.
Earlier Thursday, Russian air defense systems on Thursday shot down two drones heading toward Moscow for a second straight day, officials said. The reported attack disrupted flights at two international airports as Ukraine appeared to step up its assault on Russian soil.
One drone was downed in the Kaluga region southwest of Moscow and another near a major Moscow ring road, according to Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin and the Russian Defense Ministry, which blamed the attack on Ukraine.
No casualties or damage were immediately reported.
Domodedovo airport, south of the city, halted flights for more than two hours and Vnukovo airport, southwest of the city, stopped flights for more than two and a half hours, according to Russian news agencies. Ten flights were diverted, Russia’s Federal Agency for Air Transport said.
Firing drones at Moscow after more than 17 months of war has little apparent military value for Ukraine, but the strategy has served to unsettle Russians and bring home to them the conflict’s consequences.
Kyiv officials, as usual, neither confirmed nor denied Ukraine’s possible involvement in the drone strikes, though Air Force spokesman Yurii Ihnat remarked: “This cannot but please us because people in Moscow thought they were safe. Now, the war affects each and every Russian.”
“We now see that ‘something’ happens in Moscow on a regular basis,” he added.
Russia’s Defense Ministry also said it had stopped Ukrainian drone attacks in Moscow-annexed Crimea. It said it shot down two drones near the port city of Sevastopol and electronically jammed nine that crashed into the Black Sea.
The Pentagon is to provide Ukraine with another $200 million in weapons and ammunition to help sustain the counteroffensive, according to US officials.
Ukraine has already received more than $43 billion from the US since Russia invaded last year.
Ukraine’s presidential office said at least six civilians were killed and 27 were injured between Wednesday and Thursday mornings.
In eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk province, Russia shelled 16 cities and villages, and three people were killed, the office reported. In Zaporizhzhia, three people were killed and nine wounded, including an 11-month-old baby.
Meanwhile, 12 people remained missing after an explosion Wednesday at a factory that makes optical equipment for Russian security forces, Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported, citing emergency officials.
Russia’s Emergency Ministry said 71 people required medical assistance after the explosion.
Russian officials did not offer a suspected cause of the explosion at the Zagorsk plant in the region around Moscow, which added to jitters about potential Ukrainian drone strikes.
The fallout from Russia’s war against Ukraine has brought concerns to neighboring countries, including the presence of Russia-linked Wagner group mercenaries in Belarus this summer after their short-lived mutiny in Russia.
Poland’s defense minister said Thursday that the country intends to put 10,000 soldiers along its border with Belarus amid fears of a spike in illegal immigration.
Polish officials have accused Belarusian authorities of organizing illegal border crossings to disrupt and pressure Warsaw, which along with other NATO countries has provided support for Kyiv’s war effort.
At least 36 people have died after wildfires, fanned by winds from a faraway hurricane, devastated much of the resort city Lahaina on Hawaii’s Maui island, the Maui County said in a statement late on Wednesday.
Multiple neighborhoods were burnt to the ground as the western side of the island was nearly cut off, with only one highway open and thousands to evacuate as officials told of widespread devastation to Lahaina, its harbor and surrounding areas.
Some people fled into the ocean to escape the smoke and flames.
“We just had the worst disaster I’ve ever seen. All of Lahaina is burnt to a crisp. It’s like an apocalypse,” said Lahaina resident Mason Jarvi, who escaped from the city.
Jarvi showed Reuters pictures he took of the ashen-colored destruction along the Lahaina waterfront. Wearing shorts, he also showed blisters on his thigh that he said he suffered when riding through flames on his electric bike to save his dog.
Aerial video showed pillars of smoke rising from block after block of Lahaina, the largest tourist destination on Maui and home to multiple large hotels.
“It’s like an area was bombed. It’s like a war zone,” said helicopter pilot Richard Olsten, according to Hawaii News Now.
With firefighters battling three major blazes, western Maui was closed to all but emergency workers and evacuees.
Some 271 structures were damaged or destroyed, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported, citing official reports from flyovers conducted by the US Civil Air Patrol and the Maui Fire Department.
The fires, which started Tuesday night, also scorched parts of the Big Island of Hawaii. The state said thousands of acres burned.
Tourists flee
More than 11,000 travelers were evacuated from Maui, Ed Sniffen of the Hawaii Department of Transportation said late on Wednesday. Though at least 16 roads were closed, the Maui airport was operating fully and airlines were dropping fares and offering waivers to get people off the island, Sniffen had said earlier in the day.
Panicked evacuees posted images on social media showing clouds of smoke billowing over once-idyllic beaches and palm trees.
“I was the last one off the dock when the firestorm came through the banyan trees and took everything with it. And I just ran out and helped everyone I could along the way,” said Dustin Johnson, who was in Lahaina Harbor working for a charter boat company that offers two-hour tours. He spoke from Kahului Airport, normally a 25-minute drive east of Lahaina.
Some people were forced to jump into the Pacific Ocean to escape the smoke and fire conditions, prompting the US Coast Guard to rescue them, according to a Maui County press release.
Officials said they were looking into witness reports of people being trapped in their cars.
“Local people have lost everything. They’ve lost their house. They’ve lost their animals. It’s devastating,” said Jimmy Tokioka, director of the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism.
At least 20 people suffered serious burns and were airlifted to Oahu, Hawaii News Now reported, citing officials.
Evacuation efforts were complicated by power outages and disruption to cell phone service, as communication with the west side of Maui was only available via satellite, Lieutenant Governor Sylvia Luke said.
“We have shelters that are overrun. We have resources that are being taxed,” Luke said.
Summer of wildfires
The situation in Hawaii recalled scenes of devastation elsewhere in the world this summer, as wildfires caused by record-setting heat forced the evacuation of tens of thousands of people in Greece, Spain, Portugal and other parts of Europe, and western Canada suffered unusually severe fires.
Human-caused climate change, driven by fossil fuel use, is increasing the frequency and intensity of such extreme weather events, scientists say, having long warned that government officials must slash emissions to prevent climate catastrophe.
The White House issued a message of condolence from President Joe Biden, who praised the work of firefighters and ordered “all available Federal assets on the Islands to help with response.”
The National Guard, US Navy, Marines and Coast Guard were mobilized, while the US Department of Transportation aided evacuation efforts, Biden said.
Deanne Criswell, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said US assistance had already been authorized.
The cause in Maui had yet to be determined but the National Weather Service said the fires were fueled by a mix of dry vegetation, strong winds, and low humidity.
Officials said the winds from Hurricane Dora fanned the flames across the state. The storm was about 860 miles (1,380 km) southwest of Honolulu as of 11 a.m. local time (2100 GMT), the National Hurricane Center said.
The Hawaii Emergency Management Agency said late on Wednesday that the National Weather Service has canceled the “Red Flag Warning” and “High Wind Advisory” for all Hawaiian islands.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ordered his military to sharpen its war plans and signed off on expanding combat operations of frontline units, state media said Thursday, as the United States and South Korea prepare for a large-scale combined military exercise.
Condemning the allies’ expanding drills as invasion rehearsals, Kim has used them as a pretext to further accelerate his weapons demonstrations, which have included the testing-firings of more than 100 missiles since the start of 2022, driving tensions on the Korean Peninsula to their highest point in years.
Experts say Kim’s nuclear push is aimed at forcing the United States to accept the idea of the North as a nuclear power so he can eventually negotiate economic and security concessions from a position of strength.
Thursday’s meeting of the North Korean ruling Workers’ Party’s central military commission, which Kim controls as chairman, was to discuss advancing his military’s war readiness and establishing offensive countermeasure plans to deter his adversaries, which state media said were getting more blatant in their “reckless military confrontation” with the North.
After talks of boosting North Korean frontline units and stepping up war drills to incorporate new strategies and weapons, Kim signed an order to implement unspecified “important military measures,” Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency said.
During the meeting, Kim stressed that the military must acquire “more powerful strike means” to bolster his nuclear deterrent and make speedier deployments of those weapons to combat units. He called for the country’s munitions industry to step up mass production of various weapons and systems, and for the military to actively conduct “actual war drills” to digest those systems and enhance its war-fighting capabilities, KCNA said.
Photos of the meeting published by state media showed Kim pointing to spots in a blurred map of the Korean Peninsula. The spots appeared to be the metropolitan region surrounding the South Korean capital of Seoul, where half of the country’s 51 million people live, and an area around the central city of Daejeon, the location of South Korea’s army headquarters.
Kim also made personnel changes during the meeting, appointing Vice Marshal Ri Yong Gil as his new chief of general staff to replace Gen. Pak Su Il, KCNA said.
Since he began his rule in late 2011, Kim has shown a tendency to swiftly replace senior government and military officials if he was unhappy with their performances or needed to hold them responsible for broader policy failures, which the North never pins on its supreme leader.
The decision to sack Pak eight months into the job possibly indicates that Kim was dissatisfied about his ability to craft military strategies and went back to a more trusted hand in Ri, who had a lengthy previous stint as chief of general staff, said Cheong Seong-Chang, a senior analyst at South Korea’s Sejong Institute.
When asked about Kim’s comments, Ahn Eun-ju, a spokesperson at South Korea’s Foreign Ministry, said it was “deplorable” that North Korea was talking about boosting war readiness while ignoring the plight of its desperately poor population.
Some experts say the North’s economy is likely at its worst since Kim took power. COVID-19 restrictions further shocked an economy crippled by decades of mismanagement and US-led sanctions imposed over his nuclear ambitions. That hasn’t stopped Kim from channeling the country’s limited resources into expanding a nuclear arsenal he sees as his strongest guarantee of survival.
“North Korea should instead pay attention to the safety of its citizens with a typhoon approaching,” Ahn said, referring to Tropical Storm Khaunun, which pounded South Korea with intense rains and winds on Thursday and was expected to blow into North Korea early Friday.
“We are maintaining a firm readiness posture, and North Korea’s empty threats of force will not work with us,” she said.
Lee Sung Joon, spokesperson for South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, said during a briefing that the US and South Korean intelligence authorities were closely monitoring North Korean weapons development activities and possibilities of provocations.
Kim’s comments during the meeting echoed what he said last week during a three-day tour of the country’s key weapons factories, including a facility that produces launcher trucks for his intercontinental ballistic missiles designed to target the US mainland, and called for significant improvements to the country’s arms and war readiness.
Kim’s visits also included an artillery factory that deepened outside concerns that North Korea was preparing to export artillery and other arms supplies to Russia as President Vladimir Putin reaches out to other countries for support in the war in Ukraine.
In the face of deepening confrontations with Washington and Seoul, Kim has been trying boost the visibility of his partnerships with Moscow and Beijing to break out of diplomatic isolation and insert himself into a united front against the US.
Kim invited Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and a Chinese ruling party officials to share center stage at a giant military parade in Pyongyang where he rolled out his most powerful missiles designed to target South Korea and the United States.
Shoigu’s presence at the July 27 parade came after Kim took him on a tour of a domestic arms exhibition, which demonstrated North Korea’s support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and added to suspicions the North was willing to supply arms to Russia.
During Thursday’s meeting, North Korean officials also agreed to hold another military parade to mark the 75th anniversary of its government’s founding. The Sept. 9 parade would be the country’s third event in 2023 alone. Analysts say the North has never staged military parades more than twice in the same year.
Two young women and a man were killed and nine other people were wounded in a Russian missile attack on the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia late on Wednesday, Ukrainian officials said on Thursday.
A Reuters reporter at the scene saw emergency workers lifting a body, putting it on a stretcher, and wrapping it into a black body bag. Rescuers sifted through debris and an ambulance was parked near damaged buildings.
“Three people dead and nine people injured including an 11-month baby – this is the result of the strike on the regional center,” a statement from President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s office said. “The Russian shell took away the lives of a 43-year-old man and young women who were 19 and 21.”
Officials said two of the people had been killed on the spot and a woman had died overnight at a hospital.
A video posted by Zelenskiy showed smoke rising from burning and badly damaged buildings next to a church.
Zaporizhzhia city council secretary Anatoliy Kurtev said the church had been destroyed and about 15 high-rise buildings had been damaged. The authorities received requests from residents of at least 400 apartments to repair smashed windows and damaged balconies.
Pictures posted by city officials on the Telegram messaging app showed several buses and a row of foldable tables and chairs set up outside near damaged buildings where residents and city workers were filling in papers to record the damages.
Ukrainian officials have reported a recent increase in the amount of Russian shelling of the Zaporizhzhia region in the south.
Zelenskiy’s office said the Russian military over the past 24 hours had conducted 82 strikes on 21 villages and towns across the Zaporizhzhia region, using artillery, missiles and drones.
The Ukrainian military launched an offensive on occupying Russian forces in the key Zaporizhzhia region at the start of the summer and reported steady advances in that direction.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi pledged to foil the movement demanding the removal of the mandatory hijab in the country.
He made his remarks a month before the first anniversary of protests that erupted following the death of Mahsa Amini.
“I am telling you that the removal of the hijab will definitely come to an end, do not worry,” Raisi said Wednesday at a commemoration ceremony for Iranian fighters killed in Iraq and Syria.
The president’s statements coincide with the enforcement of strict security measures in anticipation of a renewal of the protests, fueled by the death of Amini, a young Kurdish woman, who was on a family visit to Tehran when police arrested her for not abiding by the country’s strict dress code for women. She died in custody, sparking the protests.
Following the protests, women defied authorities and more and more have been seen in Tehran and main cities without the hijab.
Raisi slammed the removal of the hijab, saying it was part of an “organized movement” and threatening to hold to account those “involved in the enemies’ plot”.
An Iranian draft law that would set new penalties for women not wearing a headscarf in public has sparked heated debate.
More than 500 protesters were killed in the violent crackdown on the protests in wake of Amini’s death. Over 20,000 people were arrested and seven executed on charges of attacking the security forces.
Around 70 members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ Basij forces, the police, and the security forces were killed in clashes with demonstrators.
Last month, Iran relaunched patrols by the morality police to tackle the growing phenomenon of the hijab removal.
Police plan to use smart technology in public places to identify women who don’t wear a headscarf. Authorities have also shut down dozens of restaurants, stores, and other businesses across the country they say were failing to comply with the mandatory headscarf law.
Russia said on Thursday that it had downed 13 Ukrainian drones seeking to attack the largest city in Russian-annexed Crimea and Moscow.
Russia’s defense ministry said two drones were hit by air defenses near Sevastopol, the city in Crimea which serves as Russia’s Black Sea navy base, and nine more were jammed and crashed into the Black Sea.
One drone was shot down as it approached the Russian capital over the Kaluga region, southwest of Moscow, and another was shot down over the prestigious Odintsovo district of Moscow region, the defense ministry said.
“Today… attempts by the Kyiv regime to carry out terrorist attacks with unmanned aerial vehicles were thwarted,” the defense ministry said. It said there were no casualties due to the drones.
Drone air strikes deep inside Russia have increased since a drone was destroyed over the Kremlin in early May. Civilian areas of the capital were hit later in May and a Moscow business district was targeted twice in three days earlier this month.
In recent days, Ukrainian remotely piloted boats, also referred to as drones, have attacked a Russian fuel tanker and a navy base at Russia’s Novorossiysk port on the Black Sea.
Ukraine typically does not comment on who is behind attacks on Russian territory, although officials have publicly expressed satisfaction over them.
The New York Times reported in May that United States intelligence agencies believed Ukrainian spies or military intelligence were behind the drone strike on the Kremlin.
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