Kyiv:

The United Nations on Tuesday said there was a “high likelihood” that the children’s hospital in Kyiv suffered “a direct hit” from a Russian missile.

Danielle Bell, head of the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, called Monday’s strike “one of the most egregious attacks that we’ve seen since the onset of the full-scale invasion” in February 2022.

She was speaking after Russia attacked cities across Ukraine on Monday with a missile barrage that killed more than three dozen people and ripped open the Okhmatdyt children’s hospital in Kyiv, sparking international outcry.

Dozens of volunteers including hospital staff and rescue workers dug through debris from the hospital in a desperate search for survivors after the rare day-time bombardment, AFP journalists on the scene saw.

Russia has denied that it was responsible for the hospital strike, claiming the extensive missile damage in Kyiv was caused by Ukrainian air defence systems.

But Bell told reporters in Geneva that video footage “shows the weapon directly impacting the hospital”.

The Okhmatdyt paediatric hospital is a children’s specialist facility where families from across the country bring their children for treatment of serious medical conditions, such as cancer and kidney disease, she said, speaking via video-link from Kyiv.

“Analysis of the video footage and assessment made at the incident site indicates a high likelihood that the children’s hospital suffered a direct hit, rather than receiving damages due to an intercepted weapons system. 

“This must be investigated,” said Bell, who said her team and military experts had observed the damage at the hospital and spoken to staff, patients’ parents and local residents.

She said that at the time of the attack, 670 child patients and more than a thousand medical staff were present.

Bell said Russia had likely fired from an aircraft a Kh-101 air-to-surface cruise missile armed with several hundred kilogrammes of explosives.

“The factors suggesting that it was a direct hit are based on video footage which shows the technical specification of the type of weapon that was used; it shows the weapon directly impacting the hospital, rather than being intercepted in the air,” said Bell.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

According to sources, India and Russia will sign “several” documents at the end of the talks on Tuesday, including a comprehensive joint statement, a vision statement, the future course on energy and trade, cooperation on investments in Russia’s Far East and a number of MoUs. The two sides are also discussing India’s desire to open new consulates in Russia, the sources confirmed.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. File
| Photo Credit: AP

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on June 24 that his country has hit more than 30 Russian oil processing and storage facilities. The Ukrainian military has stepped up attacks on Russian oil infrastructure this year, seeking to disrupt oil supplies to the Russian army and curb Moscow’s revenues to finance its war against Ukraine.

“More than 30 oil refineries, terminals, and oil depots of the terrorist state have been hit,” Mr. Zelenskyy told officers of Special Operations Centre “A” of the State Security Service (SBU) involved in attacks. He did not provide any additional details or give a time period. A video of his address was shared on his account on X.

Ukraine has been using its long-range drones, developed both by military intelligence and the SBU, for the strikes.

“For SBU drones, a distance of 1,500 km is no longer a problem,” Mr. Zelenskyy said, apparently referring to a May 9 strike when a major oil processing plant in the Bashkiria region was hit.

In the most recent attack on June 21, drones hit four refineries, including the Ilsky refinery, one of the main fuel producers in southern Russia.

Kyiv, Ukraine:

Russia bombed a residential building in Ukraine’s northeastern city of Kharkiv on Saturday, killing three people and wounding almost 30, as it stepped up its renewed hostilities.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky posted footage of the torn-off facade of an apartment block and a crater outside.

“Russian terrorists have again hit Kharkiv with guided bombs,” he wrote on Telegram after the latest attack on Ukraine’s second largest city, announcing three dead while rescuers still cleared debris.

Interior minister Igor Klymenko said there were 29 injured.

Regional governor Oleg Synegubov said two children had been hospitalised and “only civilian infrastructure was damaged”.

Kharkiv is close to the border with Russia, which launched an offensive in the region in May, taking significant territory. It has increasingly targeted the city with air launched bombs.

In May, a guided bomb attack on a hardware store killed 16 people and wounded dozens.

Defence Minister Rustem Umerov said last month that Russia has dropped almost 10,000 guided bombs on Ukraine this year.

“This Russian terror with guided bombs must be stopped and can be stopped. We need strong decisions from our partners so that we can destroy Russian terrorists and Russian combat aircraft where they are,” Zelensky said.

Russia also launched 16 cruise missiles and 13 attack drones at energy infrastructure in several regions, Ukraine’s military said.

The Ukrainian energy ministry said this was Russia’s “eighth massive, combined attack on energy infrastructure facilities” in three months.

More than two years into the Russian invasion, missile and drone attacks have crippled Ukraine’s electricity generation capacity and forced Kyiv to impose blackouts and import supplies from the European Union.

Russia said its troops “carried out a group strike with long-range high-precision weaponry from air and sea and also drones on Ukrainian energy facilities that power arms production”.

The defence ministry said strikes also targeted warehouses containing munitions and “air-launched weapons provided to the Ukrainian military by western countries”.

“All the set targets were hit,” the ministry said, justifying the strikes as retaliation for Ukrainian attacks on Russia’s energy network.

Ukraine’s energy ministry said equipment at operator Ukrenergo “facilities in the Zaporizhzhia and Lviv regions was damaged”.

Maksym Kozytskyi, governor of the Lviv region, said one Russian attack started a fire at “a critical energy infrastructure facility”.

Ukrenergo said two employees were wounded and hospitalised in Zaporizhzhia, where Europe’s biggest nuclear plant is located.

Russian attacks have destroyed half of Ukraine’s energy capacity, according to Zelensky.

He has repeatedly urged allies to send more air-defence systems to protect the country’s vital infrastructure.

In southern Zaporizhzhia, Russian shelling killed one civilian and destroyed residential buildings and infrastructure, according to the regional military administration.

Russia controls a part of the region,including its nuclear plant.

The Russian-appointed administration said Ukrainian attacks had damaged a substation linked to the plant but did not compromise nuclear safety.

Donetsk and Lugansk

Frontline clashes were reported Saturday in the Donetsk region area near the towns of Pokrovsk and Toretsk, where Moscow “continues to increase the pace of offensive actions, deploying significant forces,” Kyiv’s military said.

Russia’s defence ministry said troops had improved positions in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions and the Kharkiv region.

Five civilians were killed by Russian shelling in frontline areas of the Donetsk region, regional head Vadym Filashkin said.

In the southern Kherson region, a policeman manning a checkpoint was killed by a drone, Ukraine’s police said.

The head of Russian authorities in the Donetsk region, Denis Pushilin, said the separatist-controlled city of Donetsk and the nearby town of Gorlivka had come under heavy attack from Ukraine.

Three men working for a construction firm were killed by a rocket releasing cluster munitions, he said.

Three more were wounded by a drone attack on a civilian minibus, Pushilin added, and another man was wounded by an anti-personnel mine.

In Russia’s southern Belgorod region, a man was killed in the shelling of an business near the border with Ukraine’s Kharkiv, said governor Vyacheslav Gladkov.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida (L) and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Italy, on June 4, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AFP

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday, June 14, 2024, left for home after concluding his day-long visit to Italy during which he attended the G7 summit and held bilaterals with several world leaders including British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, French President Emmanuel Macron and Pope Francis.

Also read:G7 Summit 2024 highlights: At Outreach session, PM Modi called for ending monopoly in technology

In an address at an Outreach session of the G7 summit in Italy’s Apulia region, Mr. Modi called for ending the monopoly in technology and said it must be made creative to lay the foundation of an inclusive society.

The Prime Minister spoke extensively on the importance of ending monopoly in technology with a particular emphasis on artificial intelligence. Mr. Modi said India is among the first few countries to formulate a national strategy on artificial intelligence.

On the sidelines of the summit, Mr. Modi met U.S. President Joe Biden, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, French President Macron, British Prime Minister Sunak, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni, Pope Francis and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida among others.

Also read:Way to peace is through ‘dialogue and diplomacy’: PM Modi tells Volodymyr Zelenskyy

The meeting with Mr. Macron was Mr. Modi’s first official bilateral meeting with an international leader since taking charge for his third term as Prime Minister earlier this month.

Besides India, Italy invited leaders from 11 developing countries in Africa, South America and the Indo-Pacific region to attend the G7 Summit.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky (L) speaks during the 21st Shangri-La Dialogue summit at the Shangri-La Hotel in Singapore on June 2, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AFP

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused China on Sunday of working hard to stop countries from going to a peace summit, which Beijing has publicly criticised because Russia is not invited.

Mr. Zelensky made the remarks at a security forum in Singapore as he sought to rally support for the conference and appealed for more military aid for Ukraine, which has been ceding ground to Russian troops.

“China, unfortunately, is working hard today to prevent countries from coming to the peace summit,” Mr. Zelensky told reporters on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue, which draws defence officials from around the world.

Beijing believes the conference “should have the recognition of Russia and Ukraine, equal participation of all parties and fair discussion of all peace plans”, foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning told a regular news conference on Friday.

“Otherwise, it is difficult for the conference to play a substantive role in restoring peace,” she said.

Mr. Zelensky also expressed disappointment that “some world leaders” had not signed up to the conference, with China signalling Xi Jinping will not attend while U.S. President Joe Biden is yet to commit.

China said it would be “difficult” for it to attend if Russia did not participate, which Ukraine has rejected.

Through the peace summit, Kyiv hopes to win broad international backing for its vision of the terms needed to end Russia’s war.

Mr. Zelensky said on Sunday that more than 100 countries and organisations had signed up to the conference, and he urged Asia-Pacific nations to join.

The peace summit threatens to be overshadowed if key Ukraine backer Mr. Biden – who is locked in an election campaign against Donald Trump and has given no sign he would participate – ultimately stays away.

Mr. Zelensky said China was “a tool in Putin’s hands” and accused Russia of using Chinese influence and diplomats to do “everything to disrupt the peace summit.”

While China says it is a neutral party in the Ukraine conflict, it has been criticised for refusing to condemn Moscow for its offensive.

‘Unwavering U.S. support’

Mr. Zelensky also met with U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Sunday on the sidelines of the Singapore security forum. Mr. Zelensky told reporters they had a “very good” meeting.

In a post on X, Mr. Zelensky said the pair discussed “the defence needs of our country, bolstering Ukraine’s air defence system, the F-16 coalition, and drafting of a bilateral security agreement.”

In a readout of the talks, Pentagon spokesman Major General Pat Ryder said Austin reiterated “unwavering U.S. support for Ukraine in the face of Russian aggression”.

Mr. Austin also “reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to maintaining the strong support of a coalition of over fifty countries to help Ukraine defend its freedom,” Mr. Ryder said.

The meeting came after Washington decided to partially lift restrictions on using U.S.-provided weapons to strike inside Russia, which Mr. Zelensky has hailed as a “step forward”.

Mr. Zelensky and Mr. Austin last met face-to-face in December in Washington, where Mr. Zelensky made a last-ditch plea for U.S. aid before it ran out.

The U.S. Congress approved in April a $61-billion aid package for Ukraine following months of political wrangling, unlocking much-needed arms for the country’s outgunned troops.

Chinese defence spokesman Wu Qian told AFP he was not aware of any plans for Chinese Defense Minister Dong Jun to meet with Zelensky in Singapore.

Ukraine is struggling to hold back a Russian ground offensive in the Kharkiv region, where Moscow recently made its largest territorial gains in 18 months.

Mr. Zelensky has been touring European nations in recent days seeking more military aid for Ukrainian troops, and warning partners of the risks if they show any signs of fatigue over the war.

“It is very important for Ukrainians that the world does not get tired… that the world understands that it cannot get tired of the war launched by the aggressor,” Mr. Zelensky said in Portugal on Tuesday.

Kharkiv, Ukraine:

Russia on Saturday said it had captured five villages in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region during a surprise ground offensive that prompted mass evacuations, as President Volodymyr Zelensky made an urgent call for military aid. 

Moscow’s defence ministry said its troops had “liberated” five villages in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region near the Russian border — Borysivka, Ogirtseve, Pletenivka, Pylna and Strilecha — as well as taking one village in the Donetsk region.

Ukraine’s defence ministry said Friday Russia had launched a surprise attack on the Kharkiv region, making small advances into a border zone from where it had been pushed back nearly two years ago. Later Saturday, Ukraine’s military command said that Russia’s ground troops had had air support.

Zelensky said in his nightly address on Saturday that Ukrainian troops had been carrying out counterattacks in border villages in Kharkiv region.

“Disrupting Russian offensive plans is now our number one task,” he said.

There has been “heavy fighting” in the border area and 1,775 people have been evacuated, Kharkiv regional governor Oleg Synegubov wrote on social media earlier Saturday.

Two men aged 50 and 48 were killed and two wounded by guided aerial bomb attacks on the town of Vovchansk close to the border, Synegubov added later. He posted video from Vovchansk showing windows blown out of a multi-storey block of flats and shattered houses on fire.

The governor insisted there was “no threat of a ground operation” for the city of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest.

Groups of people fleeing the border area were arriving in vans and cars loaded with bags at a reception centre for evacuees near Kharkiv, AFP journalists saw.

‘Impossible to live there’

Evacuees — many of them elderly — received food and medical assistance and could sleep in bunk beds.

One 61-year-old woman, Lyubov Nikolaieva, told AFP she had fled the border village of Lyptsi along with her 81-year-old mother.

“It’s impossible to live there,” said Nikolaieva, adding that her family “stayed there until the last moment” without gas or electricity.

“There is constant incoming fire: those guided aerial bombs and mortar shells whistling overhead. It became very scary,” she said.

An aid worker helping evacuate residents, Dmytro Tkachenko, 37, told AFP: “There is a really hard, difficult situation in the directions of Vovchansk and Lyptsi.

“There is some (troop) movement and at the moment, it really complicates the evacuation from these areas, because it’s really dangerous.”

‘Saves lives’

The Kharkiv region has been mostly under Ukrainian control since September 2022.

Zelensky said Saturday troops must “return the initiative to Ukraine” and urged Kyiv’s allies to speed up arms deliveries.

“Every air-defence system, every anti-missile system is literally what saves lives,” Zelensky said.

“It is important that our partners support our soldiers and Ukrainian resilience with timely deliveries — really timely ones,” he added.

“The package that really helps is the weapons brought to Ukraine, not just the announced ones.”

Ukrainian forces have multiplied attacks inside Russia and Russia-held areas of Ukraine, particularly on energy infrastructure.

Also Saturday, a missile strike killed three people when it hit a restaurant called Paradise in the Russian-held city of Donetsk, eastern Ukraine.

The attack using US HIMARS precision rocket launchers killed two diners and a restaurant worker and wounded nine, officials from the Russian-backed administration said.

‘Not a big offensive’

Officials in Kyiv had warned for weeks that Moscow might try to attack its northeastern border regions, pressing its advantage as Ukraine struggles with delays in Western aid and manpower shortages.

Ukraine’s military said it had deployed reserve units “to strengthen the defence in these areas of the front”.

Military expert Olivier Kempf told AFP Saturday that Russia’s ground operation was most likely aimed at creating a buffer zone near its Belgorod region, recently raided by pro-Ukrainian units, or diverting Ukraine’s resources from the Donetsk region.

“Twenty-four hours after the launch of the operations, it doesn’t look like a big offensive,” said the associate fellow at the Foundation for Strategic Research, a French think tank.

Washington announced a new $400 million military aid package for Kyiv hours after the offensive began, and said it was confident Ukraine could repel any fresh Russian campaign.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Firefighters work at a site of a Russian missile strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kharkiv, Ukraine on May 10, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Russian forces began a renewed ground assault in Ukraine’s northeast, killing and injuring several people and forcing more than 1,700 civilians to evacuate from the Kharkiv region, officials said on May 11.

Artillery, mortar, and aerial bombardments hit more than 30 different towns and villages, leaving at least three people dead and five others injured, said Kharkiv Gov. Oleh Syniehubov.

Ukraine rushed reinforcements to the Kharkiv region on May 10 to hold off a Russian attempt to breach local defenses, authorities said.

Ukrainian forces also launched a barrage of drones and missiles on May 11 night, Russia’s Ministry of Defense said, with air defense systems downing 21 rockets and 16 drones over Russia’s Belgorod, Kursk and Volgograd regions. One person died in a drone strike in the Belgorod region, and another in the Kursk region, local officials said.

Another strike set ablaze an oil depot in Ukraine’s Russian-occupied Luhansk region, killing three people and injuring eight more, Leonid Pasechnik, the region’s Moscow-installed leader said on the messaging app Telegram on May 11.

Russian forces stepped up their bombardment of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, in late March. May 10’s attack signaled a tactical switch in the war by Moscow that Ukrainian officials had been expecting for weeks.

Russian military bloggers said the assault could mark the start of a Russian attempt to carve out a “buffer zone” that President Vladimir Putin vowed to create earlier this year to halt frequent Ukrainian attacks on Belgorod and other Russian border regions.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed on May 10 evening that Russian forces were expanding their operations. He also called on the country’s Western allies to ensure that promised deliveries of military aid would swiftly reach the front lines.

“It is critical that partners support our warriors and Ukrainian resilience with timely deliveries. Truly timely ones,” he said in a video statement on X. “A package that truly helps is the actual delivery of weapons to Ukraine, rather than just the announcement of a package.”

The Kremlin’s forces have repeatedly sought to exploit Ukraine’s shortages of ammunition and personnel as the flow of Western military aid to Kyiv has tapered off in recent months, with promised new support still yet to arrive.

Ukraine previously said it was aware that Russia was assembling thousands of troops along the northeastern border, close to the Kharkiv and Sumy regions. Intelligence officials also said they had expected an attack there though Russia’s most recent ground offensive had been focused on parts of eastern Ukraine farther south.

While Russia’s gains in the region have so far been limited, analysts at the U.S. think tank Institute of the Study of War described them Friday as “tactically significant.”

They said Russia had only “committed relatively limited manpower to their initial assaults” but that the offensive in Kharkiv “is meant to … (draw) Ukrainian manpower and materiel from other critical sectors of the front in eastern Ukraine.”

The Russian military could also try to cut key supply routes and try to blockade Kharkiv, home to roughly 1.1 million people and only about 30 km south of the border.

In the war’s early days, Russia made a botched attempt to quickly storm Kharkiv but retreated from its outskirts after about a month. In the fall of 2022, seven months later, Ukraine’s army pushed them out of Kharkiv. The bold counterattack helped persuade Western countries that Ukraine could defeat Russia on the battlefield and merited military support.

The U.S.’ announcement to send more Patriot missiles to Ukraine came after the country’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Kyiv needs these missiles to create an air shield against further Russian missile attacks.
| Photo Credit: AP

The U.S. will provide Ukraine additional Patriot missiles for its air defence systems as part of a massive $6 billion additional aid package, Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin announced on April 26.

The missiles will be used to replenish previously supplied Patriot air defence systems and are part of a package that also includes more munitions for the National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems, or NASAMS, and additional gear to integrate Western air defence launchers, missiles and radars into Ukraine’s existing weaponry, much of which still dates back to previous Soviet-era systems.

We urgently need Patriot systems, says Zelenskyy

The announcement came after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Kyiv needs Patriot missiles to create an air shield against further Russian missile attacks. Mr. Zelenskyy discussed the need for Patriots on April 26 at the Ukraine Defence Contact Group, a coalition of about 50 countries gathering virtually in a Pentagon-led meeting.

His address marked the second anniversary of the group, which has “moved heaven and earth” since April 2022 to source millions of rounds of ammunition, rocket systems, armoured vehicles and even jets to help Ukraine rebuff Russia’s invasion, Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said at the meeting.

Mr. Zelenskyy said at least seven Patriot systems are needed to protect Ukrainian cities. “We urgently need Patriot systems and missiles for them,” he said. “This is what can and should save lives right now.”

U.S. officials said the aid package would be funded through the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, which pays for longer-term contracts with the defence industry and means that it could take many months or years for the weapons to arrive. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss details not yet made public.

The new funding — the largest tranche of USAI aid sent to date — will include a wide array of munitions for air defence, such as the National Advanced Surface to Air Missile System, or NASAM, and the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or HIMARS, as well as the Patriot munitions, Switchblade and Puma drones, counter-drone systems and artillery.

The Ukraine Defence Contact Group has been meeting about monthly for the past two years and is the primary forum for weapons contributions to Kyiv for the war.

U.S. spent $44 billion in funding Ukraine

The meeting on April 26 follows the White House decision earlier this week to approve the delivery of $1 billion in weapons and equipment to Ukraine. Those weapons include a variety of ammunition, such as air defence munitions and artillery rounds that are much in demand by Ukrainian forces, as well as armoured vehicles and other weapons.

That aid, however, will get to Ukraine quickly because it is being pulled off Pentagon shelves, including in warehouses in Europe.

The large back-to-back packages are the result of the new infusion of about $61 billion in funding for Ukraine that was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden on Wednesday. And they provide weapons Kyiv desperately needs to stall gains being made by Russian forces in the war.

Bitterly divided members of Congress deadlocked over the funding for months, forcing House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., to cobble together a bipartisan coalition to pass the bill. The $95 billion foreign aid package, which also included billions of dollars for Israel and Taiwan, passed the House on Saturday, and the Senate approved it Tuesday.

Senior U.S. officials have described dire battlefield conditions in Ukraine, as troops run low on munitions and Russian forces make gains.

Since Russia’s February 2022 invasion, the U.S. has sent more than $44 billion worth of weapons, maintenance, training and spare parts to Ukraine.

Among the weapons provided to Ukraine were Abrams M1A1 battle tanks. But Ukraine has now sidelined them in part because Russian drone warfare has made it too difficult for them to operate without detection or coming under attack, two U.S. military officials told The Associated Press.

Kyiv, Ukraine:

Ukraine authorities on Tuesday suspended consular services for men of fighting age living abroad, after announcing measures to bring them home amid manpower shortages in the army fighting Russia.

Ukraine’s army has been struggling to hold frontlines, partly due to a lack of soldiers over two years into Russia’s invasion.  

Ukraine’s foreign affairs ministry “announced a temporary suspension of accepting new applications for consular services” for men between 18 and 60. 

It made an exception for documents allowing Ukrainians to return to Ukraine. 

The move would likely oblige Ukrainian men to return from abroad to undergo  administrative procedures that were previously available abroad.

The government has already adopted a mobilisation law, due to come into force on May 18, that toughens penalties against draft dodgers and obliges men to keep their military registration up-to-date. 

The ministry said men would be able to access consular services once the law came into force and “after updating their military registration.”

“Male citizen of Ukraine aged 18 to 60 with valid military registration documents will have full access to consular services,” the ministry said. 

Ukrainian men have been forbidden to leave the country since the invasion began, apart from a few exceptions. 

But some lived away before the war began, and Ukrainian media estimates that thousands more illegally fled the country.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)