标签： Europe

As a new wave of devastating Russian ballistic missile attacks has left dozens of Ukrainian civilians dead and key infrastructure damaged, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is heading to a NATO gathering in Ankara, Turkey, with a clear and urgent priority: convincing Western allies to deliver the large-scale air defense systems Kyiv desperately needs to fend off Moscow’s escalating aerial campaign.

Zelensky’s appeal carries unprecedented urgency, coming just days after Russia launched two separate missile barrages on Kyiv that struck residential apartment blocks, claimed more than 50 civilian lives, and laid bare critical gaps in Ukraine’s current air defense network. During the most recent Monday attack, Ukrainian air defenses successfully intercepted nearly all incoming Russian drones, but failed to shoot down a single ballistic missile — a failure that exposes the dangerous shortage of U.S.-made Patriot interceptor missiles, the primary system capable of countering the high-speed weapons that travel at thousands of kilometers per hour.

In a blunt, frustrated video address delivered on the eve of the summit, Zelensky condemned the slow pace of military production, calling it “absurd” that output has not been scaled up to meet the clear need to protect Ukrainian civilians from what he terms “ballistic terror.” He has repeatedly called on European NATO members to release their stockpiled Patriot missiles, arguing that stockpiling weapons while Ukrainian civilians die serves no strategic purpose. “Russia is placing its bets on ballistic weapons, and those who want peace must place their bets on protection against ballistic attacks,” Zelensky stated, laying out his core argument for allied leaders in Ankara.

Beyond the urgent push for air defense, the Ankara summit will also give Zelensky a high-stakes opportunity to meet with former U.S. President Donald Trump, where he will make the case that Russia’s brutal current aerial offensive is actually a sign of weakness, not strength. Zelensky will argue that mounting Ukrainian long-range drone strikes on Russian military and energy targets have severely strained Moscow’s capabilities, opening a narrow window of opportunity to pressure Russian President Vladimir Putin into negotiations for a “dignified” peace that preserves Ukraine’s sovereignty.

Over recent weeks, Ukraine has ramped up its deep-strike drone campaign, hitting targets hundreds of kilometers inside Russian territory with growing frequency and accuracy. Strikes have taken out key oil refineries across Russia, from western regions to as far east as Omsk in Siberia, 2,500 kilometers from the Ukrainian border, triggering widespread fuel shortages that have seen Russians queuing for hours to buy gasoline and even fighting over limited allocations. Drone strikes have also hit Moscow and St. Petersburg ahead of major Russian political events, and daily attacks on Russian-held Crimea have disrupted military logistics, energy infrastructure, and civilian supply chains, prompting local authorities to declare a state of emergency over widespread power, fuel, and food shortages. One local Crimean resident described the situation as “catastrophic,” comparing current conditions to the economic chaos that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s — a direct rebuke of Putin’s core political claim that he pulled Russia out of post-Soviet chaos and restored national stability.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has already echoed Zelensky’s call, urging alliance member states to “pull their weight” and deliver the military assistance Ukraine needs to defend its sovereignty. Rutte noted that Ukraine has already shifted the battlefield dynamic, stalling Russian ground advances in eastern Ukraine and gaining a critical upper hand through its deep-strike drone campaign.

Despite this momentum, critical challenges remain. Patriot defense systems and interceptor missiles are in short supply globally, and it remains unclear how many additional systems Ukraine can secure even after Zelensky’s push. To address long-term gaps, Zelensky has also raised the possibility of Ukraine producing its own domestic equivalent of the Patriot system with NATO support.

Moscow has framed Ukraine’s deep strikes as “terrorist” attacks, echoing the same language Russia has used for years to justify its own strikes on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure, including widespread winter attacks on power generation facilities that left millions without heat. For Zelensky, however, the drone campaign is a deliberate “influence campaign” designed to erode Russian public and political support for the war and force Putin to the negotiating table on terms acceptable to Kyiv — terms that do not include surrendering the entire eastern Donbas region, as Moscow continues to demand.

Trump, who spoke with Putin for 90 minutes by phone earlier this week to hear the Russian leader’s perspective on the conflict, has recently signaled cautious support for Ukraine, adding uncertainty to the outcome of the upcoming meeting. For Kyiv, the summit comes as a critical moment: Ukrainian leaders aim to end the war before another harsh winter sets in, whether through continued military pressure or diplomatic negotiations. But Zelensky will make clear that to secure that outcome, Ukraine first needs the air defense capabilities to protect its people and cities from Russia’s intensifying missile terror.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – A series of coordinated attacks targeting commercial vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s most critical energy chokepoint, has sent shockwaves through global maritime and geopolitical circles Tuesday, as Iran grapples with the state funeral of its longtime supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, killed earlier in an ongoing regional conflict.

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO), a British military-run maritime security body, confirmed that three separate tankers were struck in attacks within the narrow waterway that connects the Persian Gulf to the Arabian Sea. Two vessels were hit by projectiles in the early part of the day, while a third was targeted by a drone hours later. Officials confirmed no fatalities or serious injuries across all three incidents.

Of the two initial projectile strikes, one liquefied natural gas tanker sailing off Oman’s coast caught fire following the impact. Iranian state television claimed the vessel ignored official warnings before the attack, but stopped short of directly claiming responsibility for the assault. Initial assessments indicate the second tanker sustained structural damage, though its exact location at the time of the strike has not been publicly disclosed. The third vessel hit by the drone only suffered minor damage and was able to continue its scheduled voyage after the attack, UKMTO added. No environmentally hazardous leaks have been reported from any of the damaged vessels, and local maritime authorities have launched a full investigation into the coordinated assaults.

Qatari officials later identified the attacked LNG tanker as the Al Rekayyat, which was carrying Qatari natural gas through the strait. Majed Al-Ansari, spokesperson for Qatar’s foreign ministry, condemned the strike as an unacceptable violation of international navigation rules and global energy security, calling it a “serious and explicit violation” of international law. In a post on X, Al-Ansari said Qatar holds Iran fully legally responsible for the attack.

The attacks come amid escalating tensions over shipping access in the strait, which historically carries roughly 20% of the world’s traded oil and natural gas in peacetime. Last Thursday, Iran’s joint military command issued an official warning requiring all tankers transiting the waterway to use only Tehran-approved shipping lanes, and threatened “rapid and decisive reaction” to any interference by U.S. forces in the area. Just one day before the attacks, the U.S. Navy-led multinational Joint Maritime Information Center reassured shipping companies that the expanded route along Oman’s coast remains open and safe for all commercial traffic.

Negotiations between Washington and Tehran, which aim to secure full reopening of the strait, roll back Iran’s disputed nuclear program, and end the ongoing regional conflict that began on February 28, have been paused this week as Iran mourns Khamenei, who was killed in an airstrike earlier this month. The 86-year-old supreme leader’s body was transported Tuesday to Qom, the holy center of Shiite seminary education, ahead of his final burial in his native Mashhad at the Imam Reza shrine. Massive crowds of hundreds of thousands of mourners gathered at Jamkaran Mosque just south of Qom to pay their respects, with many holding banners featuring images of Khamenei and his son, Mojtaba Khamenei, who has been named as the new supreme leader. The younger Khamenei has not appeared at public funeral events, and is widely believed to be in hiding after sustaining wounds in the same airstrike that killed his father. Israel, which has targeted top Iranian leaders throughout the ongoing conflict, has openly threatened to kill Mojtaba Khamenei as well. Many mourners chanted calls for the death of U.S. President Donald Trump during Tuesday’s processions.

U.S. President Trump reignited tensions Monday during a White House appearance, warning Iran that it must “make a deal, or we’re going to finish the job.” “I’d rather make a deal, because I don’t want to affect 91 million people,” Trump said. “We can knock down their bridges in one hour. We can knock out their energy supply.”

The current standoff over the strait stems from an interim 60-day truce deal that allowed commercial ships to transit the waterway without fees, but Iran has since insisted it retains the right to control shipping routes and impose passage fees – a move that upends decades of established open-access practice for the international waterway. The U.S. and a coalition of Gulf Arab states have rejected Tehran’s demand for tolls. Prior attacks on shipping in the strait have sparked U.S. retaliatory strikes in the past, worsening regional conflict.

Despite the escalating tensions, data from shipping analytics firm Kpler shows that at least 108 commercial vessels crossed the strait via multiple routes over last weekend, indicating ongoing commercial activity even amid the standoff.

Three years of unthinkable captivity left 64-year-old Liudmyla Huseinova with permanent physical and emotional scars — and a relentless mission to see the men she accuses of brutal abuse held accountable for their actions. Her harrowing account, at the core of a new BBC World Service investigation, has helped unmask three alleged perpetrators who now live seemingly ordinary lives in Russia and occupied Ukraine, shedding rare light on a shadowy detention system that has operated beyond the reach of global justice for nearly a decade.

Liudmyla’s nightmare began on an early October morning in 2019, when she left her home in Novoazovsk, a Donetsk region city that had fallen under Russian-backed paramilitary control after Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea and invasion of eastern Ukraine. Working as a safety engineer at a local poultry farm, Liudmyla had quietly supported Ukrainian forces and cared for local orphans under occupation; she believes a photo of a Ukrainian flag she shared with trusted friends tipped off separatist authorities, leading to her abduction. A group of masked men seized her bag, threw her into the back of a waiting car, and delivered her to Izolyatsia — a former factory and modern art centre that had been converted into one of the most notorious detention sites in the occupied region, where widespread accounts of torture have emerged from survivors for years.

The first days inside Izolyatsia were defined by unrelenting cruelty and terror. Liudmyla recalls being surrounded by men who subjected her to dehumanizing verbal abuse immediately upon arrival. Detainees were forced to stand continuously from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. each day, and bright lights were kept on around the clock to prevent sleep. “I have never heard such terrible screams before,” she told the BBC, describing the constant sounds of abuse echoing through the facility’s walls. Two weeks after her arrival, she was taken to a second-floor room where the worst of her abuse unfolded. A man known to prisoners only as “Koval” sexually assaulted her, she says — while Yurii Temerbek, a former Ukrainian traffic policeman who had joined the Russian-backed separatists, stood by laughing and making sarcastic comments.

The BBC’s investigation, carried out in partnership with two Ukrainian open-source investigators working with local non-profit Truth Hound, has confirmed Temerbek’s identity and uncovered his current circumstances. Now 56, Temerbek is a husband, father, and grandfather who studied Ukrainian language at university. Pre-2014 social media posts confirm he worked as a local traffic officer in the Donetsk region before joining the separatist Ministry of State Security (MGB). Ukrainian prosecutors have already launched criminal proceedings against him for participation in a terrorist group, and Liudmyla says he repeatedly threatened her during her captivity, including a late 2021 encounter where he called her a slur and threatened to send her to Siberia. Investigators found Temerbek and his family now reside in Russia’s Rostov region, just across the border from Ukraine, living an ordinary life far from the detention centre where he allegedly abused detainees.

The investigation also unmasked a second Izolyatsia guard, known to prisoners as “Yermak”: 46-year-old Ruslan Yeriomichev, a law graduate from Donetsk National University who was first identified by investigative group Bellingcat and former Izolyatsia detainee and journalist Stanlislav Aseyev. Liudmyla says Yeriomichev once ordered her to eat uncooked food mixed with dirt and rubbish; when she spat most of it out, he beat her for refusing to comply after she answered “I’m for justice” to his question “Are you for Ukraine?”. The trauma of that incident still haunts her today: she cannot bear the smell of cooking food and struggles to maintain a normal diet. Social media posts show Yeriomichev still lives in occupied eastern Ukraine, taking family holidays in Russian-annexed Crimea and sharing photos of trips with friends and family as recently as 2024. Like Temerbek, he holds both Ukrainian and Russian citizenship, and faces multiple charges from Ukrainian prosecutors including cruel treatment of civilians and prisoners of war.

Beyond the Izolyatsia case, the investigation mapped the full scale of the secret detention network run by Russian and Russian-backed forces across occupied Ukraine and Russia itself. Cross-referencing testimony from survivors, human rights reports, and open-source data, the BBC confirmed 93 active detention sites holding civilians and prisoners of war in occupied Ukraine between 2023 and 2025 — nearly a third of which are unofficial, operating out of repurposed buildings ranging from tax offices to hotels and private garages. An additional 102 detention sites were identified on Russian territory. None of these facilities have been open to unmonitored access by international human rights organizations.

A second survivor, 42-year-old Kherson-based cargo sailor Oleksii Sivak, shared his own account of abuse to the BBC. After Russia captured Kherson in 2022, Oleksii quietly resisted occupation by cooking for elderly residents and distributing pro-Ukraine leaflets. He was arrested and taken to a former police station repurposed as a detention centre, where he says guards tortured him with electric shocks to the genitals and beat him with blunt objects. When Ukrainian forces retook Kherson in late 2022, Russian-backed forces fled the city, taking most detainees with them; Oleksii escaped only because the departing convoys did not have enough space to hold him.

The BBC identified the commander of the Kherson detention facility as Andrey Spivak, a 40-year-old former prison guard from Russia’s Omsk region. Ukrainian prosecutors have charged Spivak with cruel treatment of civilians and violations of international war law. Investigators found Spivak has since returned to Omsk, where he works as a taxi driver and posts photos of his outdoor hobbies including fishing, hunting, and cross-country travel on social media.

The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has documented that torture, sexual violence, arbitrary detention, and cruel treatment are systematic and widespread across this network of detention centres. Former detainees have consistently reported beatings, electric shock torture, mock executions, and sexual assault, and families of the detained are rarely given any information about their loved ones’ fates. Ukraine’s general prosecutor’s office says more than 16,000 Ukrainian civilians have been captured or disappeared since 2014, and over 400 cases of conflict-related sexual violence against detainees have been documented since Russia’s full-scale 2022 invasion. The Kremlin has repeatedly dismissed these allegations as biased and “groundless lies”, and added Russia to the UN’s global blacklist of countries accused of using sexual violence in conflict in 2024. When contacted by the BBC about the allegations against Temerbek, Yeriomichev, and Spivak, none of the three men responded. The Russian Embassy in London stated that Russia “consistently advocated respect for international law and the rule of law” and that all allegations of abuse are investigated.

Liudmyla was released in a prisoner exchange in October 2022, three years and 13 days after her abduction. When she was welcomed home by friends, she found she could not cry: years of abuse had frozen her emotions, a condition she still lives with today in Kyiv, where she resides with her husband. She now runs a support organization for other female former detainees, and operates a secret network to deliver parcels from Ukrainian families to their loved ones still held in Russian-backed detention facilities.

To date, Ukrainian prosecutors have opened proceedings against dozens of alleged abusers, but very few have been arrested. Most are convicted in absentia, and only one senior former Izolyatsia commander has been sentenced to prison in Ukraine. The Izolyatsia facility itself remains operational under Russian-backed control, according to Ukrainian authorities. For Liudmyla and other survivors, unmasking the identities of the men who abused them is a critical first step toward accountability. “If the men I accuse aren’t found and imprisoned, then justice for me will be their names as criminals, and torturers, will be known to their children,” she said. “For me, justice is not revenge. For me, justice is confirming that these people intentionally, deliberately did what they did. I want them to be punished by law.”