International

Explosions rock Ukrainian capital Kyiv, mayor says

Published

2 years ago

June 5, 2022

Kyiv was rocked by several explosions early on Sunday, the mayor of the Ukrainian capital said, a day after officials said troops had recaptured a swath of the battlefield city of Sievierodonetsk in a counter-offensive against Russia.

“Several explosions in Darnytskyi and Dniprovskyi districts of the capital,” Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko wrote on the Telegram messaging app. “Services are already working on site. More detailed information – later.”

A Reuters witness saw smoke in the city after the explosions.

The Ukrainian claim on Sievierodonetsk could not be independently verified, and Moscow said its own forces were making gains there. But it was the first time Kyiv has claimed to have launched a big counter-attack in the small industrial city after days of yielding ground.

Sievierodonetsk Mayor Oleksandr Stryuk said street fighting continued during the day on Saturday, with both sides exchanging artillery fire.

“The situation is tense, complicated,” he told national television, saying there was a shortage of food, fuel and medicine. “Our military is doing everything it can to drive the enemy out of the city.”

Russia has concentrated its forces on Sievierodonetsk in recent weeks for one of the biggest ground battles of the war, with Moscow appearing to bet its campaign on capturing one of two eastern provinces it claims on behalf of separatist proxies.

Both sides claim to have inflicted huge casualties in the fighting, a battle that military experts say could determine which side has the momentum for a prolonged war of attrition in coming months.

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In the diplomatic sphere, Kyiv rebuked French President Emmanuel Macron for saying it was important not to “humiliate” Moscow.

“We must not humiliate Russia so that the day when the fighting stops we can build an exit ramp through diplomatic means,” Macron told regional newspapers in an interview published on Saturday, adding he was “convinced that it is France’s role to be a mediating power.”

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted in response: “Calls to avoid humiliation of Russia can only humiliate France and every other country that would call for it.

“Because it is Russia that humiliates itself. We all better focus on how to put Russia in its place. This will bring peace and save lives.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy offered a stark message: “The terrible consequences of this war can be stopped at any moment … if one person in Moscow simply gives the order,” he said, in an apparent reference to Russian President Vladimir Putin. “And the fact that there is still no such order is obviously a humiliation for the whole world.”

‘NO POINT’ IN NEGOTIATIONS

Putin will discuss the war in an interview due to be broadcast on national television on Sunday. In a brief excerpt aired on Saturday he said Russian antiaircraft forces have shot down dozens of Ukrainian weapons and are “cracking them like nuts”.

Ukraine says it aims to push Russian forces back as far as possible on the battlefield, counting on advanced missile systems pledged in recent days by the United States and Britain to swing the war in its favour.

Asked about Macron’s mediation offer on national television, Zelenskiy adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said there was “no point in holding negotiations” until Ukraine received all the pledged weapons, strengthened its position and pushed Russian forces “back as far as possible to the borders of Ukraine”.

Moscow has said the Western weapons will pour “fuel on the fire” but will not change the course of what it calls a “special military operation” to disarm Ukraine and rid it of nationalists.

Russia’s defence ministry said its troops were forcing the Ukrainians to withdraw across the Siverskiy Donets River to Lysychansk on the opposite bank.

Serhiy Gaidai, governor of Ukraine’s Luhansk province, which includes Sievierodonetsk, said Ukrainian forces previously in control of just 30% of the city had mounted a counter-attack, recapturing another 20% of it.

Gaidai said the Russians were blowing up bridges across the river to prevent Ukraine from bringing in military reinforcements and delivering aid to civilians in Sievierodonetsk.

“The Russian army, as we understand, is throwing all its efforts, all its reserves in that direction,” Gaidai said in a live TV broadcast.

Tens of thousands are believed to have died, millions have been uprooted from their homes, and the global economy has been disrupted in a war that marked its 100th day on Friday.

Ukraine is one of the world’s leading sources of grain and cooking oil, but those supplies were largely cut off by Russia’s closure of its Black Sea ports, with more than 20 million tonnes of grain stuck in silos.

Reuters

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International

BREAKING : Israel launches deadly attacks on Iran

Published

12 hours ago

April 19, 2024

Trends Admin

File photo

BREAKING : Israel launches deadly attacks on Iran

Israel has attacked Iran, three people familiar with the matter said, as Iranian state media reported early on Friday that its forces had destroyed drones, days after Iran launched a retaliatory drone strike on Israel.

One source told Reuters the U.S. was not involved but was notified by Israel before the attack.

Iran’s Fars news agency reported three explosions were heard near an army base in the central city of Isfahan. An Iranian official told Reuters there was no missile attack and the explosions were the result of the activation of Iran’s air defense systems.

Iranian state TV said that shortly after midnight “three drones were observed in the sky over Isfahan. The air defense system became active and destroyed these drones in the sky.”

The broadcaster later said the situation in Isfahan was normal and no ground explosions had occurred.

The Israeli military had no comment on the reports.

Israel had said it would retaliate, opens new tab against Iran’s weekend attack, which involved hundreds of drones, opens new tab and missiles, in response to a suspected Israeli strike on its embassy compound in Syria. Most of the Iranian drones and missiles were downed before reaching Israeli territory.

Analysts and observers have raised concerns about the risks of the Israel-Gaza war spreading into the rest of the region.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi had warned Israel before Friday’s strike that Tehran would deliver a “severe response” to any attack on its territory.

BREAKING : Israel launches deadly attacks on Iran

(REUTERS)

International

Updated: Tragedy hits Kenya, Defence chief, nine others die in military helicopter crash

Published

17 hours ago

April 19, 2024

Trends Admin

Updated: Tragedy hits Kenya, Defence chief, nine others die in helicopter crash

A military helicopter on Thursday crashed in Kenya, claiming the life of the country’s Defence chief, Francis Ogolla, and nine officers on board.

Kenya’s President, William Ruto, confirmed the unfortunate accident in a televised address.

He said the helicopter crashed shortly after take-off Thursday afternoon local time, killing Ogolla and nine other members of the military.

Two people survived the crash, he added.

“I am deeply saddened to announce the passing on of General Francis Omondi Ogolla, the Chief of the Kenya Defence Forces,” he said.

A team of investigators was immediately dispatched to the site of the crash in Elgeyo Marakwet County to determine the cause of the accident, Ruto said.

Ogolla left Nairobi on Thursday to visit troops in the North Rift region of the country for inspection of ongoing school renovations, the president said.

Ruto has convened an urgent meeting of the country’s National Security Council in Nairobi, according to presidential spokesperson, Hussein Mohamed.

“For me, as the Commander in Chief of the Kenya Defence Forces, it is a tragic moment for the Kenya Defence Forces fraternity and it is a most unfortunate day for the nation at large,” Ruto said.

“Our motherland has lost one of her most valiant generals. We have also lost gallant officers, servicemen, and women,” he added.

Ruto said Kenya would observe three days of mourning beginning from Friday.

Ogolla is the first Kenyan military chief to die in active service.

The general joined the Kenya Defence Forces in 1984, becoming 2nd Lieutenant in 1985 before he was posted to the Kenya Air Force, according to the Ministry of Defence website.

International

JUST IN: Court orders Mohbad’s wife to do DNA test

Published

1 day ago

April 18, 2024

Trends Admin

Mohbad’s father, Joseph Aloba, Mohbad and baby

JUST IN: Court orders Mohbad’s wife to do DNA test

A Magistrate Court sitting in the Ikorodu area of Lagos has ordered that singer late Mohbad’s wife, Wunmi, be served notice of a pending DNA test application, by substituted means.

A statement signed by a member of the legal team to the Aloba family, Monisola Odumosu, disclosed this on Wednesday, April 17.

Mohbad’s father, Joseph Aloba, in the application filed by the legal team to the family sought an order to serve Wunmi by posting all the originating processes and other processes in the suit on the last-known address of the respondent.