Global Pulse

分类： world

  • Israeli finance minister calls for building settlements near Gaza amid ongoing Israeli offensive

    Israeli finance minister calls for building settlements near Gaza amid ongoing Israeli offensive

    Against a backdrop of unrelenting Israeli military operations across Gaza and the occupied West Bank — violations of a ceasefire deal reached last October — Israel’s far-right Finance Minister and head of the country’s Settlements Administration Bezalel Smotrich announced a provocative push on Sunday for three new Israeli settlements to be built along Gaza’s northern border fence.

    In a public post on the social platform X, Smotrich openly called on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to immediately greenlight the proposal. “The Settlements Administration under my leadership is prepared to establish 3 settlements in the northern sector of the Gaza Strip, and I call on the Prime Minister to give the green light to the move,” Smotrich wrote.

    The far-right leader framed the plan as part of a broader push to “return” Israelis to communities evacuated in 2005, when then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon implemented a unilateral disengagement plan that withdrew all Israeli military forces and settlers from the Gaza Strip, dismantling every Israeli settlement in the enclave alongside four additional settlements in the occupied West Bank. Smotrich added that the expansion would extend far beyond Gaza, with a wave of new settlement construction planned for the occupied West Bank’s northern Samaria region. “Alongside the four settlements to which we are returning, we will establish a long line of new settlements in northern Samaria. On Mount Ebal, in the Dothan Valley, and in more than 10 additional points, we will strengthen and fortify the settlement,” he said.

    Smotrich’s announcement comes as the death toll from ongoing Israeli attacks continues to climb, even after the October 2024 ceasefire entered into force. Data from Gaza’s Palestinian Ministry of Health, released over the weekend, recorded six Palestinian deaths and 23 injuries from Israeli strikes in the 24-hour period ending Sunday morning. Cumulatively, the ministry reports that at least 73,356 Palestinians have been killed and 174,185 wounded since Israel launched its military campaign in Gaza in October 2023. Since the ceasefire took effect, an additional 1,230 Palestinians have been killed and more than 4,000 wounded, the ministry confirmed.

    Local on-the-ground reports have revised death tolls even higher. Al Jazeera Arabic reported that nine Palestinians, including three children, were killed in Israeli strikes across Gaza from dawn Sunday alone. Later updates from local media raised the death toll to 11 after an Israeli airstrike targeted a civilian vehicle in Deir al-Balah, a city in central Gaza.

    The Israeli military has confirmed a number of targeted strikes over the past two days. On Saturday, it announced it had killed Salem Jamal Abdelrahman Abu Labad, a man it identified as a commander in Hamas’s Nukhba special forces unit, in an airstrike in southern Gaza. Israeli officials claim Abu Labad took part in the October 2023 attack on Kibbutz Nir Oz. A separate strike in central Gaza on Friday killed Muhammad Abdelnasser Muhammad Khatib, who the military identified as a commander with Hamas’s Maghazi Battalion.

    Parallel to ongoing military operations, diplomatic efforts to reach a lasting truce remain mired in deadlock. Following U.S. President Donald Trump’s announcement that a U.S.-led “Board of Peace” had secured an agreement for the full disarmament of all Palestinian armed factions in Gaza, Hamas clarified Friday that any deal to disarm Palestinian groups would be conditional on both Washington and Tel Aviv fully honoring existing commitments under the 2024 ceasefire agreement.

    Israeli officials have publicly pushed back against Trump’s announcement, making clear that the Israeli government rejects the framework. Former Israeli Ambassador Alon Pinkas told Al Jazeera that Israel was “absolutely not” satisfied with the arrangement. “Israel is presented with a situation where the U.S. president says there’s an agreement, but there isn’t really an agreement, and so I am extraordinarily skeptical that this is going to work out,” Pinkas said. He added that Netanyahu views the proposed deal as a “colossal failure,” and noted that Israel has refused to implement core obligations outlined in the framework, including withdrawing Israeli forces to the pre-agreed “Yellow Line” buffer zone, allowing unimpeded entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza, and halting all offensive military operations.

    Amid rising tensions, reports have emerged of expanding U.S. military support for Israel. Israeli outlet Ynet, citing unnamed Israeli security officials, reported that the U.S. plans to deploy an additional 10 aerial refueling aircraft to Israel in the coming days. The aircraft will join more than 30 U.S. refueling planes already stationed at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport, according to the report.

    Conflict has also escalated in the occupied West Bank, where Israeli forces carried out new raids over the weekend. Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that Israeli troops detained five Palestinians during operations in Bethlehem and Nablus. During the raids, forces raided multiple private homes and posted threatening notices on the exterior walls of Bethlehem’s Salah al-Din Mosque. The latest raids come one week after a sharp escalation of violence that saw armed Israeli settlers launch attacks on Palestinian villages near Nablus, leaving four Palestinians and two Israelis dead.

    In diplomatic developments over the weekend, a Hamas delegation led by Zaher Jabarin met with leaders from Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Cairo on Saturday to discuss coordinated efforts to end Israeli attacks on Gaza and address recent developments in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. Following the meeting, both factions released a joint statement stressing the need to force a full Israeli withdrawal from all of Gaza and calling for deeper unity and coordination between all Palestinian political and armed groups.

  • In Ceuta, some migrants cling to hopes of someday reaching mainland Spain

    In Ceuta, some migrants cling to hopes of someday reaching mainland Spain

    Five days after swimming across to the Spanish North African territory of Ceuta with her teenage sister and cousin, 20-year-old Moroccan migrant Dikra has no certainty of where her next meal will come from — all her meals so far have been donated by generous local residents. One thing she is completely sure of, however, is that she will not return to her home country. “I want to stay. I want to reach mainland Spain,” Dikra told reporters, requesting her last name be withheld to protect her family back in Morocco for safety reasons.

    By Sunday afternoon, Dikra counted herself among the small group of remaining holdout migrants in Ceuta, after more than 59,000 of the 60,000 people who breached the Morocco-Ceuta border on Thursday and Friday of the previous week voluntarily crossed back into Morocco. The unprecedented mass crossing left at least 72 people dead during the dangerous journey, and the sudden humanitarian crisis sparked by the surge has reignited long-simmering debates over immigration policy across Europe and the rest of the globe.

    For Dikra, the decision to leave Morocco grew out of urgent personal need. While she worked as a cleaner in the coastal city of Tangier, she fled her home to escape an abusive alcoholic father. She holds a professional diploma in hairdressing, and hopes to put that qualification to work building a new life in mainland Spain — a goal that remains out of reach for now, separated by the Strait of Gibraltar and the European Union’s layered, often slow-moving asylum system.

    Migrants who have chosen to stay in Ceuta are left in limbo, with no clear information on what authorities will do with them next. Thirty-five-year-old Abdel Karim, another migrant from Morocco, waited outside Ceuta’s official migration reception center all day Sunday, desperate for any updates on his case. Karim was unemployed in Morocco, and had previously lived in mainland Spain years before the crossing. He was later expelled from France, where he had been living homeless on the streets after leaving Spain.

    “In Morocco, I’m labeled a deportee,” Karim explained. “Anyone who has been deported knows what that label brings — constant stress, chronic depression, crippling anguish.” Karim said he saw viral social media posts about the mass border crossing, and chose to seize the chaotic window of opportunity. He crossed into Ceuta with just 10 euros in his pocket, and showed reporters his feet, blistered and sore from the long journey. He says he is willing to take any work he can find in Spain, and remains unshaken by the bureaucratic hurdles standing between him and the mainland.

    Ceuta, along with its sister Spanish enclave Melilla on the Moroccan coast, is not part of the European Union’s Schengen Area of free movement. Any migrant seeking to travel from either enclave to mainland Spain must pass through mandatory official border checks and asylum processing before being allowed entry.

    By Sunday evening, hundreds of recent arrivals gathered on one of Ceuta’s public beaches. Some clustered around military trucks as Spanish armed forces personnel distributed bottled water to the crowd. A short distance away, outside a local migrant shelter, 25-year-old Senegalese migrant Cesse Aliou rested with a group of other sub-Saharan African migrants who had made the crossing together. Aliou said he had worked at a call center in Morocco, earning roughly 279 euros ($322) per month, but the position was irregular and offered no long-term stability.

    He traveled by train from Casablanca to Tangier, then on to the border town of Fnideq, before swimming the short distance across to Ceuta. Just a short distance from where Aliou rested, on a wooded patch of public land across the street from the shelter, a violent scuffle broke out between a group of migrants over access to drinking water that had been dropped off by local volunteers. “We are all exhausted here,” Aliou said, gesturing toward the ongoing fight. “Finding food, finding a place to sleep — it’s all incredibly hard right now. You can see for yourself what the situation is like.”

  • Trump ‘cancels’ Iran strikes as Israeli attacks on Gaza continue

    Trump ‘cancels’ Iran strikes as Israeli attacks on Gaza continue

    Tensions across the Middle East reached a critical boiling point over the weekend before an unexpected announcement from former US President Donald Trump paused imminent military confrontation between Washington and Tehran, even as deadly Israeli operations in Gaza continue to drive a rising civilian death toll.

    Trump said Saturday via his Truth Social platform that he has called off a planned major US attack on Iran, conditional on the rapid completion of a new agreement centered on two core demands: the full, permanent reopening of the strategic Strait of Hormuz and a permanent end to what he frames as Iran’s nuclear threat. The pause came at the request of Iran and unspecified other Middle Eastern nations, Trump added, noting the decision was made “for the future benefit of the WORLD and, likewise, the survival of a successful and prosperous Iran.” He also confirmed Israel shares the commitment to this diplomatic path.

    The sudden de-escalation follows a sequence of tit-for-tat military moves and diplomatic pressure from regional powers. Hours before Trump’s announcement, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps confirmed it had launched multiple ballistic missile strikes targeting a US F-35 repair hangar and aircraft ramp at Jordan’s Al-Azraq Base. The strike came as US military forces were reportedly positioning for major retaliatory attacks on Iran’s energy infrastructure. Prior to that, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had warned his counterparts from Turkey, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia that Iran would respond “decisively” to any new act of US aggression.

    Multiple sources confirm regional leaders pushed aggressively for Trump to step back from military action. Axios, citing anonymous US officials, reported that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman placed a direct call to Trump Saturday urging de-escalation and urging him to abandon the planned strikes. In an official statement carried by Saudi state media Sunday, the crown prince reinforced that position, stressing “the necessity of prioritising dialogue to de-escalate tensions and the importance of exerting all possible efforts to achieve a truce, which paves the way for diplomatic solutions.” He added that diplomatic negotiations are the only way to preserve regional security and stability and prevent the entire area from being dragged into a far wider, more devastating conflict.

    While the US-Iran standoff has temporarily eased, violence continues to escalate in Gaza, where Israeli military operations have now killed more than 73,000 Palestinians since October 2023, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health. Al Jazeera Arabic reported Sunday that fresh Israeli air strikes across the enclave left nine Palestinians dead, including three children. Over the prior two days, the Israeli military announced it had killed two senior Hamas commanders in targeted air strikes: Salem Jamal Abd al-Rahman Abu Labad, a cell commander in Hamas’s elite Nukhba special forces, and Muhammad Abd al-Nasser Muhammad Khatib, a battalion commander in the Maghazi area of central Gaza.

    Diplomatic efforts to broker a ceasefire are ongoing in Cairo, where a Hamas delegation held talks Sunday with leaders of Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Both factions issued a joint statement stressing the priority of forcing Israel to end its military offensive and withdraw all forces from Gaza. They called for coordinated joint action and a unified national Palestinian position to protect civilian lives and secure the Palestinian people’s long-standing legitimate rights.

    Negotiations remain deadlocked over key terms of any potential agreement. Last week, Trump stated that a so-called “Board of Peace” would oversee the collection of Hamas’s weapons as the group begins disarmament, a claim that contradicted the board’s own earlier announcement that a Palestinian technocratic governing body would take on that responsibility. Hamas has since clarified that any agreement for full disarmament of Palestinian factions in Gaza is conditional on the United States and Israel upholding all commitments laid out in the 10 October ceasefire deal. Hamas representative Ghazi Hamad told Reuters Friday that the group will retain its weapons until Israel halts all military operations, allows increased humanitarian aid and commercial goods into the blockaded enclave, and completes a full withdrawal of its forces from Gaza.

  • Massive Attack responds after Singapore ban over Palestine display

    Massive Attack responds after Singapore ban over Palestine display

    British trip-hop pioneers Massive Attack has publicly spoken out against the heavy-handed response from Singaporean authorities after the band made a pro-Palestine statement during a recent concert in the Southeast Asian city-state, describing the entire ordeal as deeply unexpected and disappointing.

    In an Instagram post published Sunday, the group detailed that its core members were taken into police custody, separated from one another, and interrogated individually. Some members also had their hotel rooms searched by officers and had their passports temporarily seized during the interaction.

    The controversy stems from the band’s 29 July performance in Singapore, where founding members Robert Del Naja and Grant Marshall joined audience members to hold up a Palestinian flag and chant the slogan “Free Palestine”.

    In the wake of the incident, Singaporean officials have announced an indefinite entry and performance ban on the entire group, a confirmation that a police spokeswoman provided to the BBC Friday.

    Del Naja and Marshall have also received formal stern warnings over alleged violations of two local statutes: one that restricts the public display of foreign national flags, and another that regulates political expression at public gatherings.

    Massive Attack pushed back on the enforcement in its statement, noting that chants of “Free Palestine” first emerged organically from large sections of the audience before the band added its own support. The group said the crowd was likely aware that the spontaneous expression ran afoul of Singapore’s censorship regulations, but chose to speak out regardless.

    While the band did not directly issue a formal response challenging the ban, it framed the entire experience as surreal. “We did not imagine that merely holding up the flag of a sovereign state recognised by 157 countries would violate any law,” the group wrote.

    The collective added that it remains proud of the impromptu display of solidarity with Palestinian people that it shared with Singaporean fans, who it said “clearly felt a moral imperative” to stand with Palestinians amid the ongoing Israel-Gaza conflict.

    Massive Attack has a long, well-documented history of publicly advocating for political causes across a wide range of global issues, and the Gaza war is no exception. Earlier this year, Del Naja, 61, was arrested during a London protest on suspicion of supporting Palestine Action, a pro-Palestinian organization that is proscribed under U.K. law. Del Naja was photographed sitting among hundreds of fellow demonstrators holding a sign that read “I Oppose Genocide, I Support Palestine Action”.

    For its part, Singapore has justified its strict rules around public discussion of the Israel-Gaza war, arguing that tight regulation of such divisive issues is required to maintain racial and social cohesion in the country’s diverse multicultural society. As early as 2023, Singapore’s Ministry of Home Affairs issued a formal advisory banning the public display and wearing of items linked to the Israel-Gaza conflict, including emblems of foreign national entities.

    Massive Attack is currently mid-way through a global tour, having wrapped its Asia leg following the Singapore show, and is scheduled to perform a series of shows in Australia next week. The BBC has reached out to Singaporean police for additional comment on the incident.

  • Two crew killed as British pilot survives after firefighting helicopters collide in Greece

    Two crew killed as British pilot survives after firefighting helicopters collide in Greece

    A devastating mid-air collision between two firefighting helicopters has left two people dead in Greece, as the country grapples with a wave of destructive wildfires fueled by record-breaking heatwaves that have swept across much of Southern Europe this summer.

    Local authorities confirmed the identities of the victims: a Danish helicopter pilot and a Greek fire service liaison officer assigned to the mission. On board the second helicopter, a British pilot and a second Greek liaison officer walked away from the crash with their lives, though details of their current health conditions have not yet been released to the public.

    Footage of the collision, which took place roughly 40 miles west of Athens in the Psatha region near the Attica-Boeotia border, captures one of the leased Bell helicopters striking the rotor blades of the other. The impact immediately ignited an intense blaze on the damaged aircraft, and both helicopters ultimately crashed into a deep ravine below the collision site.

    The crash unfolded as hundreds of Greek firefighters have been locked in what local media has called a “titanic battle” to contain multiple large wildfires that have sprung up across the country over the past week. Blazes are burning across a wide swathe of Greek territory, spanning Porto Germeno, Psatha, Fokida, Megara and Kefalonia. Over 500 firefighters have worked around the clock for 72 straight hours to gain control of the spread, forcing mass evacuations of at-risk communities across the affected regions.

    Greece is far from the only European nation facing this climate-fueled crisis. Early this same week, large uncontrolled wildfires broke out in both France and Spain, forcing widespread evacuations. The blazes near Madrid, Spain and Bordeaux, France have been partially contained but continue to burn, though approximately 300,000 people who were forced to leave their homes have begun returning to their properties.

    Climate scientists and fire officials have repeatedly warned that human-caused climate change is drastically increasing the frequency and severity of extreme wildfire conditions across the Mediterranean. This year, an unusually mild and wet winter across Southern Europe encouraged more abundant vegetation growth across forests and wildlands. As successive record-breaking heatwaves rolled through the region this summer, that extra vegetation dried out completely, creating massive amounts of highly flammable fuel for wildfires to feed on. While most blazes are still ignited by human activity, whether accidental or intentional, the amplified heat and dry conditions driven by climate change make it far easier for small fires to explode into large, uncontrollable infernos.

  • At the scene of deadly Moscow bomb blast

    At the scene of deadly Moscow bomb blast

    A shocking act of violence has shaken the Russian capital, after an explosive device detonated inside a popular Italian restaurant in central Moscow. According to preliminary reports released by Russian state and independent media outlets, the blast has claimed three lives and left 21 other people with injuries ranging from minor to critical. Emergency services quickly rushed to the scene of the incident, cordoning off the area to launch forensic investigations into the origin of the explosive and the circumstances surrounding the attack. Local health authorities have confirmed that medical teams are working around the clock to treat the wounded, with several casualties still in intensive care as of the latest updates. The attack has sparked immediate concern across the country, as law enforcement agencies launch a manhunt for those responsible for the bombing, while communities in Moscow grapple with the aftermath of this deadly incident.

  • Uganda unveils statue of Israel PM’s brother who died in Entebbe rescue mission

    Uganda unveils statue of Israel PM’s brother who died in Entebbe rescue mission

    Half a century after one of the most bold hostage rescue operations in modern military history, Uganda has inaugurated a public statue honoring Yonatan Netanyahu, the fallen Israeli commando leader and older brother of current Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who died during the Entebbe raid. The memorial stands directly outside the defunct Entebbe International Airport terminal where the 1976 operation unfolded, casting a permanent marker to the complex legacy of the event that transformed relations between Uganda and Israel.

    In remarks at the unveiling ceremony, Uganda’s army chief General Muhoozi Kainerugaba framed the monument as a tribute to Netanyahu’s extraordinary courage and selfless commitment to duty. As the commander of the Israeli elite commando unit that carried out the raid, Yonatan Netanyahu remains the only Israeli soldier killed in the operation, which successfully freed more than 100 hostages held by hijackers.
    The 1976 crisis began when four militants — two Palestinian members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and two German collaborators — boarded an Air France Airbus A300 during a stopover in Athens. The flight had departed Tel Aviv bound for Paris, and the hijackers seized control of the aircraft, forcing it to refuel in Libya before diverting to Entebbe, where then-Ugandan dictator Idi Amin welcomed the plane and offered support to the hijackers.
    The militants issued sweeping demands: $5 million in ransom and the release of 53 imprisoned militants held across Israel, France, Germany, Switzerland and Kenya in exchange for the hostages’ lives. Most non-Israeli and non-Jewish hostages were released in the days immediately after the hijacking, but roughly 100 people who were Israeli or Jewish were kept captive in the old terminal building.
    In a pre-dawn raid on July 4, 1976, Israeli elite commandos flew nearly 2,500 miles from Israel via Kenya, landing undetected at Entebbe and launching an assault that concluded in less than 90 minutes. While the operation was widely celebrated in Israel as a landmark victory against terrorism, it delivered a devastating public humiliation to Amin’s regime.
    The human cost of the operation extended far beyond Yonatan Netanyahu’s death. Three hostages died during the fighting, and a fourth hostage, 74-year-old Dora Bloch, who had been transferred to a Kampala hospital for treatment, was later murdered on Amin’s orders. All seven hijackers and three local accomplices were killed in the raid, alongside at least 45 Ugandan soldiers who fought alongside the hijackers under orders from Amin’s government.
    In his address, Kainerugaba offered nuanced recognition of all lives lost in the operation. “The Ugandan soldiers fought valiantly… in what they believed was a justified cause,” he said. “Of course, today, we know that the government of Idi Amin, which they served, was a brutal dictatorship which did not represent the Ugandan people.” He also paid tribute to the fallen hostages, saying “May their memories continue to inspire future generations in the pursuit of peace, justice and human dignity.”
    The bronze statue depicts Netanyahu striding forward, weapon in hand, a dramatic depiction of the commando’s final advance during the raid. Looking back on the 50-year period since the operation, Kainerugaba described the Entebbe crisis as “one of the most significant episodes in modern history” and framed the current close relationship between Kampala and Jerusalem as a “remarkable journey” from a painful shared chapter to a constructive modern partnership.
    “Today, Uganda-Israel relations have developed into a partnership characterised by mutual trust, respect and co-operation,” he added. The event marks a striking turning point in how Uganda confronts the legacy of the Entebbe raid, decades after the operation toppled international confidence in Amin’s regime.
    Benjamin Netanyahu, who previously visited the Entebbe site 10 years ago, has long cited his brother’s example as a core influence on his approach to counterterrorism. “I learned from my brother that you need two things to defeat the terrorists: clarity and courage,” he said during that 2016 visit.

  • A suicide bomber strikes an anti-militant rally in northwestern Pakistan, killing at least 14

    A suicide bomber strikes an anti-militant rally in northwestern Pakistan, killing at least 14

    On a Sunday in northwestern Pakistan, a devastating suicide bombing targeted a crowd of demonstrators gathering to speak out against violent extremism, leaving at least 14 people dead and more than 20 others injured, according to senior local officials. Among the fatalities were at least five on-duty police officers, who had been deployed near the site of the protest.

    The attack unfolded in Kabal, a small town located within Swat Valley, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Eyewitness and official accounts confirm that the crowd had assembled within close proximity of a local police station, unified in chants condemning militant activity and calling for an end to regional violence. District police chief Omar Khan detailed that the bomber struck the gathered protesters mid-demonstration, turning a peaceful call for peace into a scene of tragedy.
    Bilal Faizi, spokesperson for the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provincial emergency response service, confirmed that the attacker specifically targeted the group of demonstrators engaged in anti-militant protest. Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi quickly issued a formal statement condemning the violent attack, extending heartfelt condolences to the families of those who lost loved ones, and offering official prayers for the rapid recovery of those wounded in the blast.

    The Swat Valley carries deep historical context for Pakistan’s fight against domestic militancy: the region was once a primary stronghold for Islamic militants, who enforced a harsh, extreme interpretation of Sharia law across the area until the Pakistani military launched a large-scale counterinsurgency operation in 2007. That operation successfully pushed militant forces out of the valley and reestablished formal government control over the territory.

    As of the immediate aftermath of the bombing, no organized militant group has stepped forward to claim responsibility for the attack. But counterterrorism analysts and local officials widely expect suspicion to fall on Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), the Pakistani Taliban. The TTP operates as an independent group distinct from Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban, but maintains close ideological and operational alliances with the Kabul-based government. Since the Afghan Taliban returned to national power in 2021, many TTP leaders and fighters have relocated to safe havens across the border in Afghanistan, according to Pakistani security officials.

    Pakistan’s government has repeatedly levied formal accusations against Afghanistan’s Taliban administration, claiming it harbors TTP militants and allows the group to plan cross-border attacks from Afghan territory. The Taliban government in Kabul has consistently denied these allegations. In recent years, Pakistan has seen a marked uptick in militant attacks across the country, with police personnel and other security forces consistently the most common targets.

  • Ukraine says major Russian oil refinery and airfield hit, as Moscow reports eight deaths

    Ukraine says major Russian oil refinery and airfield hit, as Moscow reports eight deaths

    After months of largely static ground fighting and no visible progress in international mediation efforts, both Ukraine and Russia have sharply ramped up long-range cross-border strikes targeting key energy, logistics and military infrastructure, marking a new escalation of the three-and-a-half-year conflict.

    In overnight strikes carried out deep into Russian territory, Ukraine targeted multiple high-value sites hundreds of kilometers from its own border. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed that the attacks hit two key facilities in Russia’s Saratov Region, roughly 600 kilometers northeast of the Ukrainian border: the Engels-2 air base, a central hub for Russia’s strategic long-range aviation fleet, and a major crude oil refinery. Additional strikes were carried out against an oil storage depot in Russia’s Kaluga Region and a drone launch facility in Bryansk Region, which shares a border with northern Ukraine.

    Zelenskyy framed these deep strikes as “our long-range sanctions” in a social media post Sunday, noting that the targeted facilities directly contribute to funding and executing Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. “These are strategic facilities that enable the Russian war machine,” he stated. The Ukrainian military confirmed that the attack on Engels airfield sparked a large blaze at the base, which regularly deploys Tu-95MC and Tu-160 strategic bombers to launch cruise missile strikes against Ukrainian cities and infrastructure.

    Russian regional officials acknowledged the damage from the strikes, with Saratov Governor Roman Busargin confirming that drone attacks damaged civilian infrastructure in both Saratov and Engels and killed two people. Across other Russian regions, the death toll from Sunday’s coordinated strikes continued to climb: three people were killed in a drone strike on a civilian vehicle in the Udmurtia Republic, another three died in strikes in the border Belgorod Region, and Russian authorities reported a total of eight fatalities across all overnight attacks. Russian air defense forces also claimed to have intercepted and shot down 635 Ukrainian drones launched across multiple regions in the attack wave.

    A separate strike hit a logistics warehouse owned by Wildberries, Russia’s largest domestic e-commerce retailer, in the Samara Region. Samara Governor Vyacheslav Fedorishchev labeled the attack “another terrorist act” by Ukraine, though no casualties were reported in this strike. In recent weeks, Ukraine has repeatedly targeted Wildberries distribution hubs across Russia, justifying the attacks by claiming the retailer supplies drone components, navigation equipment and other military-grade gear to Russian forces. Often called “Russia’s Amazon,” Wildberries employs roughly 48,000 people nationwide, and repeated strikes on its logistics network have created significant disruptions for hundreds of small and medium-sized Russian businesses that rely on the platform to reach customers.

    Russia quickly retaliated for the Ukrainian strikes with its own overnight attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure. Moscow confirmed that its forces targeted two Ukrainian Black Sea ports and struck two commercial cargo vessels operating in the waterway. Later Sunday, a Russian strike on a Nova Poshta postal terminal near the northeastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv killed one Ukrainian civilian, Ukrainian officials confirmed.

    Russia has mirrored Ukraine’s strategy of targeting commercial logistics infrastructure in recent weeks, launching repeated strikes on warehouses operated by Ukraine’s leading postal service Nova Poshta and top domestic e-commerce retailer Rozetka. Overnight, Russian drones hit Rozetka’s largest warehouse facility, the company confirmed Sunday. No injuries were reported in the attack, which comes as part of a sustained Russian campaign against Ukrainian logistics and retail networks.

    The escalation of cross-border strikes comes as the main front line stretching across eastern and southern Ukraine remains largely stagnant, and US-led international mediation efforts to negotiate a end to the conflict have failed to produce any breakthrough. Russian President Vladimir Putin launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and the conflict has entered its fifth year of continuous fighting with little prospect of a near-term diplomatic resolution.

  • Ukrainian drones kill 5 in Russia and set fire to Wildberries warehouse

    Ukrainian drones kill 5 in Russia and set fire to Wildberries warehouse

    A new wave of tit-for-tat drone assaults between Russia and Ukraine has left multiple civilians dead on both sides, with Kyiv extending its aerial campaign targeting Russian commercial and industrial infrastructure deep inside Russian territory, local officials confirmed over the weekend.

    At the center of Kyiv’s latest strikes is Russia’s largest e-commerce platform Wildberries, often dubbed the domestic equivalent of Amazon. This attack marks at least the latest hit to the retailer’s facilities in less than two weeks, part of a coordinated Ukrainian strategy to disrupt Moscow’s war economy and bring the costs of the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine home to the Russian public. Since the first strikes against Wildberries depots in Elektrostal (east of Moscow) and the Tambov region on July 18, Ukraine has targeted more than a dozen of the company’s warehouses across western, southern Russia and Russian-occupied Crimea, leaving at least nine people dead and dozens injured to date.

    The most recent Wildberries strike hit a depot in Russia’s Samara region, located roughly 500 miles from the Russia-Ukraine border. Samara Governor Vyacheslav Fedorishchev reported that the strike sparked a large fire but resulted in no casualties.

    Across other regions of Russia, the overnight drone attacks left a devastating civilian toll. In the Saratov region, east of Samara, two civilians were killed when a drone hit a residential building in Engels, Governor Roman Busargin announced. The strike also damaged civilian infrastructure in both Engels and the regional capital Saratov—two locations that have emerged as frequent Ukrainian strike targets in recent years, due to their hosting of a key military airbase (in Engels) and a large-scale oil refinery (in Saratov).

    Further north in Russia’s Bashkortostan republic, air defense systems repelled a mass drone attack on industrial facilities in the city of Ufa, Governor Radiy Khabirov stated. While Khabirov did not disclose details on the specific facilities targeted, he confirmed that emergency crews were working to extinguish a post-strike fire.

    In the Udmurt Republic, located northwest of Bashkortostan, three additional civilians were killed and two more wounded in a drone strike, according to acting regional head Olga Abramova. Abramova added that Russian air defenses downed two of the attacking drones and foiled another attempted incursion, noting that a civilian car was damaged in the attack, though she did not specify if the damage came from downed drone debris.

    Overall, local Russian officials confirmed that the latest round of Ukrainian drone strikes across multiple Russian regions left at least five civilians dead.

    In response to the Ukrainian attacks, Moscow claimed its air defense systems shot down 635 Ukrainian drones overnight across occupied Crimea, the Black Sea and the Azov Sea. The Russian Defense Ministry did not provide details on how many drones Ukraine launched total, or how many successfully reached their intended targets.

    Russia launched its own large-scale drone assault on Ukraine the same night, according to Ukraine’s Air Force. Ukrainian officials reported that Russia launched 133 drones, 24 of which evaded air defenses to strike targets across the country.

    Separate Russian strikes on Ukrainian territory on Sunday left two more civilians dead. In the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia, one civilian was killed when a Russian guided bomb hit a residential building, local administration head Ivan Fedorov confirmed. In northeastern Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, a second civilian died in a strike that ignited a fire at a postal terminal on the city’s outskirts, regional governor Oleh Syniehubov reported.