标签： Europe

A coordinated wave of Russian missile assaults carried out overnight across Ukraine’s capital Kyiv and its surrounding outskirts has left at least five civilians dead and 23 more wounded, Ukrainian emergency management officials confirmed Thursday. The State Emergency Service of Ukraine (DSNS) labeled the assault a “massive attack” that targeted multiple civilian sites, including multi-story residential apartment buildings and commercial storage warehouses, leaving several structures partially or fully reduced to rubble.

Emergency response teams have been deployed across the affected districts to search for survivors trapped beneath collapsed building debris, with crews already extracting at least one person alive from the wreckage. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko confirmed that a children’s hospital in the capital suffered damage during the strikes, with shattered window panes and multiple civilian vehicles parked nearby set on fire by blast waves. The Solomyanskyi district, an industrial hub located in Kyiv’s southwest, was also struck by multiple missiles, according to the mayor.

Outside the city boundaries, the Brovary district of the broader Kyiv region recorded one fatality and one additional injury, regional governor Tymur Tkachenko announced. Regional authorities issued public shelter alerts early in the night ahead of the strikes, notifying residents that active air defense operations would be underway across the area. Multiple follow-up missile warnings were issued by local administrative bodies, aligned with alerts from Ukraine’s national air force command.

The strikes severed electrical transmission lines across the region, cutting power to thousands of residential and commercial properties and leaving large swathes of the Kyiv area without power overnight. Utility technicians have launched urgent repair work to restore service to damaged energy infrastructure. Photos from the scene show Kyiv residents seeking shelter in underground spaces to avoid incoming fire, with thick plumes of smoke rising from impact sites across the capital.

This latest attack comes as Kyiv has endured almost daily overnight assaults over recent weeks, with some waves of strikes resulting in dozens of fatalities and severe casualties. The escalation in Russian attacks follows a string of recent missile and drone strikes targeting Russian territory that have raised pressure on Moscow’s government to enter peace negotiations to end the conflict, which has now stretched into its fifth year. This week alone, two separate attacks on Russian soil have killed at least 16 people, including one child.

Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and as of the latest frontline reports, Russian forces occupy approximately one-fifth of Ukraine’s internationally recognized territory, with most occupied land concentrated along the country’s eastern border regions.

During an interview with The Associated Press on Wednesday, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Tom Fletcher issued a stark warning following his on-the-ground visit to the frontline city of Kherson in southern Ukraine: the growing use of drones targeting civilians and aid workers has created a lethal and growing barrier to delivering life-saving support to vulnerable communities across the country.

Kherson, split by the Dnipro River which forms the active frontline between Russian-held territory on the eastern bank and Ukrainian-controlled land on the west, offered Fletcher a first-hand look at the daily danger facing local populations. He described the experience as “quite chilling,” noting that kamikaze and reconnaissance drones regularly cross the river to target civilian homes, passenger vehicles and public transit systems. The constant threat of attack has not only put local residents at extreme risk but also severely disrupted the ability of humanitarian teams to reach those most in need.

Fletcher’s comments came just after he took part in a memorial service for two humanitarian workers killed in the line of duty in Ukraine. He emphasized that drones pose an immediate, indiscriminate threat to both civilian populations and the aid workers deployed to support them, even noting that clearly marked humanitarian vehicles, which are protected under international humanitarian law, have been repeatedly targeted in attacks. These incidents have forced aid organizations to scale back operations in high-risk areas, leaving countless vulnerable people cut off from critical support.

Local humanitarian groups, which carry out more than two-thirds of all aid projects funded through Ukraine’s national humanitarian fund, face the greatest exposure to these risks. Fletcher shared that these local organizations have repeatedly raised alarm that they lack adequate protection to carry out their critical work.

Beyond the immediate threat of drone attacks, Fletcher also outlined major long-term challenges facing humanitarian operations in Ukraine, particularly ahead of the approaching winter season. He noted that the U.N. requires more than $2 billion to fund its prioritized emergency response for Ukraine in 2024, with damage to critical civilian infrastructure — including electric grids, water systems and natural gas networks — raising the risk that millions of Ukrainians could face life-threatening conditions similar to those seen during the harsh winter of 2022-2023.

Global humanitarian funding shortages have compounded these challenges, as the U.N. has been forced to narrow its priorities amid plummeting donor contributions. The organization now estimates that 92 million people across the globe face catastrophic humanitarian need, up from an initial projection of 87 million, driven by new crises including the Ebola outbreak in Central Africa, the deadly earthquake in Venezuela, and spreading conflicts in multiple regions. To address all these urgent needs, the U.N. is seeking $23 billion in total donor funding, and as of yet has only raised roughly half that amount.

While Ukraine’s humanitarian program is comparatively better funded than many other global crises, with approximately 70 to 75 percent of its top-priority funding target met, Fletcher stressed that even full funding would only address a fraction of the country’s overall humanitarian needs. He added that fundraising has become far more difficult in recent months, as donor governments have increasingly reallocated public spending to defense priorities and domestic programs rather than international aid.

“We’re in a more transactional world, I would say a more selfish world,” Fletcher said. In response to this shift, he noted that the U.N. now has a heightened responsibility to prove it is using limited taxpayer resources efficiently and strategically, demonstrating to donor nations that funds are being allocated sensibly, wisely and to the highest-priority needs.

In a separate grim assessment released alongside his comments, the U.N. confirmed that 907 aid workers were killed, injured or kidnapped in violent attacks globally in 2023, and more than 1,000 aid workers have been killed in the line of duty over the past three years. Fletcher admitted that the current response from the international community gives him no confidence that those responsible for attacks on aid workers will be held accountable. He called for expanded accountability that goes beyond prosecuting only the individuals who directly carry out attacks, saying “I want to see investigations into the people who fired the weapon or flew the drone.”

For nearly three decades, the violent killing of a young American tourist in western Germany remained one of the country’s most high-profile unsolved cold cases. That chapter of mystery closed this week, when an 82-year-old German man publicly admitted to the 1994 murder of 24-year-old Amy Lopez, a Texas native who was traveling across Europe when she died.

Lopez was last seen alive in September 1994, making her way along a steep hiking path toward Ehrenbreitstein Fortress, a iconic historic site in the city of Koblenz. Just two hours after she was spotted heading to the landmark, her body was discovered at the scene. Prosecutors lay out that the attacker encountered Lopez by chance on her route to the fortress, then lured her into a hidden, isolated space below the structure called the General von Aster room, named for a 19th-century Prussian military leader. There, they allege, he sexually assaulted her and stabbed her nine times, killing her with what prosecutors call base motives driven by sexual desire.

For decades, the case went without a breakthrough, despite ongoing interest from local authorities. It was not until last year that advances in forensic science and a renewed investigative push broke the case open. Four years ago, improved DNA testing allowed investigators to isolate a genetic trace from skin fragments left on Lopez’s trousers, a clue that had not been detectable with older technology. Last year, Koblenz law enforcement launched a dedicated cold-case task force to reexamine the killing, launched repeated public appeals for information, and even featured the unsolved crime on a popular national German television program focused on unclosed cases.

While the television broadcast generated dozens of new leads, the critical break came when investigators began collecting voluntary saliva samples from local residents to cross-check against the DNA trace. That effort led to the arrest of Hans S., then 50 at the time of the killing, who was taken into custody at a local retirement home in February 2024. German privacy laws prohibit releasing the suspect’s full surname to the public.

According to the defendant’s defense attorney, Hans S. chose to provide a voluntary saliva sample because the 32-year-old case had “weighed heavily” on him, and he sought resolution for the long-unresolved crime. Investigators confirmed the DNA recovered from the victim’s clothing matched Hans S.’s sample perfectly. Notably, the suspect had already been convicted of a separate sexual offense in 1999, but at that time, investigators did not have the solid DNA evidence needed to connect him to Lopez’s killing.

On the first day of his trial this week, the packed courtroom reflected the lasting notoriety of the case in the Koblenz region. The defendant entered the room using a walking frame. When his defense counsel confirmed that Hans S. admitted to committing the murder, the presiding judge asked him to verify the statement directly, and the defendant responded simply, “Yes.”

Prosecutors have commissioned a psychiatric expert analysis, which already concluded that Hans S. was fully criminally responsible for his actions at the time of the killing. A final formal ruling on criminal responsibility will be delivered at the end of the trial, however. The defendant now faces a mandatory life sentence in prison, and a final verdict is expected to be handed down by the court early next month.

A shocking murder case has rocked southern France, after authorities officially confirmed that a burned body found in a local vineyard belongs to 29-year-old French social media influencer Sonia Bellina, with two men already taken into custody in connection with the killing.

The case first emerged on August 12, when a local farmer made the grim discovery: a charred body abandoned between rows of grapevines in Saint-Gilles, a small village located near the city of Nîmes. Law enforcement immediately launched a formal murder probe, but for several days, investigators could only confirm that the remains belonged to a young woman, requiring additional forensic testing to pinpoint a positive identification. Over the following week, Bellina’s name spread rapidly across social media and French news outlets, with her family and an anonymous woman claiming to be her sister publicly stating they were certain the remains were Bellina’s long before official confirmation.

Cécile Gensac, the chief prosecutor for Nîmes, released an official statement on Wednesday confirming that DNA testing and cross-investigative work had formally verified Bellina’s identity. She noted that the influencer’s name had already been widely circulated in public discourse over the prior 48 hours ahead of the official announcement. At the time of her death, Bellina was visiting family in southern France, just one month ahead of her upcoming 30th birthday. She had built a following of roughly 260,000 followers on the short-video platform TikTok.

Gensac confirmed that two men had been placed into police custody on Wednesday, citing substantial evidence linking the pair to either direct or indirect involvement in Bellina’s death. No further details about the suspects, their connection to the influencer, or a potential motive have been released to the public as the investigation remains active.

Mourad Battikh, the legal representative for Bellina’s family, has described the killing as a murder of uncommon brutality, telling broadcaster RTL that Bellina’s body was discarded in the vineyard like common garbage. Even before official identification, the case sparked widespread speculation and unfounded rumors across social media platforms, which have added immense strain to the grieving family. In an interview with local outlet Midi Libre, the anonymous woman claiming to be Bellina’s sister said the family has been subjected to unconscionable harassment, including hurtful online comments claiming Bellina deserved her violent death.

Battikh has issued a firm warning that the legal team will not tolerate any defamatory or harmful online content about Bellina or her family, noting that all published statements will be reviewed, and inappropriate posts will be reported to authorities as appropriate. In a formal press statement, Battikh emphasized that the Bellina family is navigating an unspeakably traumatic ordeal. “They request respect for their privacy and their grief and will not be making any further statements,” he added.