World

(LONDON) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Wednesday that Russia is yet to respond to a U.S.-backed energy truce, as the two combatants continue to exchange long-range drone and missile strikes amid American-led peace talks.

Recent trilateral U.S.-Ukraine-Russia talks in the United Arab Emirates were described by all sides as constructive, though appear to have failed to find a breakthrough on several contentious points or secure a new truce covering critical energy infrastructure.

After the most recent round of talks last week, Zelenskyy said that U.S. officials proposed a temporary pause in attacks on energy targets, which would have mirrored the brief pause on such attacks that occurred at the end of January.

Zelenskyy said on Thursday that Kyiv is yet to receive a response from Moscow on the purported offer. “On the contrary, we’ve received a response in the form of drone and missile attacks. This suggests that they are not yet ready for the energy ceasefire proposed in Abu Dhabi by the American side,” he said.

Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 25 missiles and 219 drones into the country overnight, of which 16 missiles and 197 drones were shot down or suppressed.

The impacts of nine missiles and 19 drones were reported across 13 locations, the air force said. “The main targets are Kyiv, Kharkiv, Dnipro and Odesa,” the air force wrote on Telegram.

Four people, including two children, were also injured in strikes on the central city of Dnipro, Ukraine’s Interior Ministry said. An earlier strike on the Synelnykove city just outside of Dnipro killed four people and injured three others, the regional administration said in posts to Telegram.

The Interior Ministry said that at least 13 people were injured in a series of drone strikes in the city of Barvinkove in the northeastern Kharkiv region.

The regional military administration in Odesa said one person was also injured there by Russian strikes.

The Interior Ministry reported damage to several areas of the capital. At least two people were injured by the attacks on Kyiv, according to the head of the city’s military administration, Tymur Tkachenko.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said that almost 2,600 residential buildings were left without heating due to “damage to critical infrastructure targeted by the enemy.”

In total, approximately more than 1 million people without heating in the Ukrainian capital, according to Klitschko and Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Kuleba.

DTEK — Ukraine’s top private energy firm — reported major damage to its energy infrastructure in Odesa, plus an attack on a thermal power plant.

Ukrenergo, the state energy transmission operator, reported power outages in Kyiv, Odesa and Dnipropetrovsk.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha described the attacks as “Russian terror” in a post to X. “Each such strike is a blow to peace efforts aimed at ending the war. Russia must be forced to take diplomacy seriously and deescalate,” he said.

Zelenskyy said in a post to Telegram, “There needs to be more protection against these attacks.”

“The most effective defense against Russian ballistic missiles is the ‘Patriot’ system, and the supply of missiles for these systems is needed every day,” he added, referring to the U.S.-made surface-to-air missile platform.

“Everything currently available in the air defense program should arrive faster,” he said.

Ukraine continued its own drone strike campaign overnight. The Russian Defense Ministry said its forces shot down 106 Ukrainian drones overnight into Thursday morning.

Belgorod Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov reported that two people were killed in drone attacks. At least 15 other people were injured across the region by Ukrainian attacks, the governor said. Gladkov also said Ukrainian forces fired several missiles into the region.

Local officials in the Volgograd, Tambov and Voronezh reported damage to industrial sites and falling drone debris in or close to residential areas.

Russia’s federal air transport agency, Rosaviatsiya, reported temporary flight restrictions for airports in Kaluga, Volgograd, Saratov, Yaroslavl, Kotlas, Ukhta, Perm and Kirov.

Ukraine’s General Staff said in a statement posted to social media that among the targets of the strikes were the main arsenal of Russia’s missile and artillery forces in the Volgograd region. “This arsenal is one of the largest ammunition storage sites of the Russian army,” the General Staff said.

The ongoing peace talks have seen no easing of long-range strikes by either side, as the fourth anniversary of Moscow’s February 2022 full-scale invasion approaches.

As yet, no next round of talks have been scheduled. Zelenskyy said the U.S. had proposed a new trilateral meeting to be held in Miami, but that, “So far, as I understand it, Russia is hesitating.”

“We are ready. It doesn’t matter to us whether the meeting will be in Miami or Abu Dhabi. The main thing is that there should be a result,” the Ukrainian president said.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told journalists on Thursday that Moscow had “a certain understanding” regarding the next round of talks. “We expect the next round to take place soon. We’ll also give you directions on the location,” he added, as quoted by the state-run Tass news agency.

Russian Foreign Ministry officials have this week been critical of the ongoing peace push.

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov this week suggested that the U.S. side had drifted from the understandings reached between Moscow and Washington at the August meeting between Presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin in Alaska.

Lavrov also said Trump’s administration had failed to roll back former President Joe Biden-era sanctions against Moscow.

Lavrov and Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova framed the lack of progress as the fault of Kyiv and its European backers.

“At the current stage, it is the European Union that is preventing the Kyiv regime from making any compromises in exchange for promises to provide everything necessary to continue military operations,” Zakharova said in a briefing on Thursday, as quoted by Tass.

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(LONDON) — A total of eight people were killed — most of them at a school — and more than two dozen were wounded, after a shooter opened fire on Tuesday in a small community in Canada’s British Columbia. Officials had earlier said nine people were killed before revising the death toll.

The suspected shooter — identified as 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar — is dead from what is believed to be a self-inflicted injury, according to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

The suspect did not currently have any firearms registered to her, but police have a history of visiting her home, according to the RCMP.

Van Rootselaar was not currently registered or attending the school where the shooting took place. Among the dead are members of the suspect’s family and students between the ages of 13 and 17, according to the RCMP. 

Van Rootselaar was assigned male at birth but publicly identified as a female, according to the RCMP.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced seven days of mourning after the deadly shooting. A visibly emotional Carney called it “a very difficult day for the nation.”

“This morning, parents, grandparents, sisters, brothers in Tumbler Ridge will wake up without someone they love. The nation mourns with you. Canada stands by you,” Carney told reporters on Wednesday in Ottawa. 

“We thank the first responders, the teachers, the staff, the residents, for everything that they’ve done in this terrible situation. I, on the advice of the Clerk of the Privy Council and Heritage Canada, I’ve asked that the flags of the Peace Tower here and across all government buildings be flown at half-mast for the next seven days,” he said.

The gunfire was reported at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School at about 1:20 p.m., the RCMP said.

Officers responding to the scene found six people dead inside the school, and another person died while being taken to the hospital, police said. 

Two other victims were airlifted to the hospital with serious or life-threatening injuries. About 25 others were being assessed for injuries that were not believed to be life-threatening, authorities said.

As part of the investigation, police identified what they called a “secondary location believed to be connected to the incident” where two other victims were found dead inside a residence, police said.

“Officers are conducting further searches of additional homes and properties to determine whether anyone else may be injured or otherwise linked to today’s events,” the RCMP said in the statement. 

In a statement, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said he was “devastated” by the shooting.

“I join Canadians in grieving with those whose lives have been changed irreversibly today, and in gratitude for the courage and selflessness of the first responders who risked their lives to protect their fellow citizens, Carney said in the statement.

Tumbler Ridge is a small community of about 2,400 people located in the Northern Rockies in northeastern British Columbia.

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(LONDON) — A total of nine people were killed — most of them at a school — and more than two dozen were wounded, after a shooter opened fire on Tuesday in a small community in Canada’s British Columbia.

The suspected shooter is dead from what is believed to be a self-inflicted injury, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said in a statement.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced seven days of mourning after the deadly shooting. A visibly emotional Carney called it “a very difficult day for the nation.”

“This morning, parents, grandparents, sisters, brothers in Tumbler Ridge will wake up without someone they love. The nation mourns with you. Canada stands by you,” Carney told reporters on Wednesday in Ottawa. 

“We thank the first responders, the teachers, the staff, the residents, for everything that they’ve done in this terrible situation. I, on the advice of the Clerk of the Privy Council and Heritage Canada, I’ve asked that the flags of the Peace Tower here and across all government buildings be flown at half-mast for the next seven days,” he said.

The gunfire was reported at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School at about 1:20 p.m., the RCMP said.

Officers responding to the scene found six people dead inside the school, and another person died while being taken to the hospital, police said. 

Two other victims were airlifted to the hospital with serious or life-threatening injuries. About 25 others were being assessed for injuries that were not believed to be life-threatening, authorities said.

As part of the investigation, police identified what they called a “secondary location believed to be connected to the incident” where two other victims were found dead inside a residence, police said.

“Officers are conducting further searches of additional homes and properties to determine whether anyone else may be injured or otherwise linked to today’s events,” the RCMP said in the statement.

In a statement, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said he was “devastated” by the shooting.

“I join Canadians in grieving with those whose lives have been changed irreversibly today, and in gratitude for the courage and selflessness of the first responders who risked their lives to protect their fellow citizens, Carney said in the statement.

Tumbler Ridge is a small community of about 2,400 people located in the Northern Rockies in northeastern British Columbia.

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(LONDON) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Wednesday that another night of Russian long-range strikes further undermined “trust in all diplomatic efforts to end this war,” as the sides continue to maneuver for advantage in ongoing U.S.-led peace negotiations.

Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 129 drones into Ukraine overnight into Wednesday morning, of which 112 were shot down or suppressed. Fifteen drones impacted across eight locations, the air force said.

Zelenskyy said in a post to Telegram that drones attacked the Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Sumy, Dnipro and Poltava regions.

Ukraine’s State Emergency Service (SES) said that four people were killed, three of them children, by a Russian drone strike on a residential building in the northeastern city of Kharkiv. Two other people were injured in the attack, the SES said.

Two people were killed and nine others by Russian strikes in the northeastern Sumy region, according to regional Gov. Oleg Hryhorov.

The SES also reported a drone attack on a residential property in the southern city of Zaporozhzhia, in which at least five people were injured. Zelenskyy said that the attack in the city also damaged a hospital.

Oleksandr Prokudin, the governor of the southern Kherson region, said six people were injured there by Russian shelling.

Each night of attacks “proves that it is only through tough pressure on Russia and clear security guarantees for Ukraine that we can put an end to the killings,” Zelenskyy said in a post to social media.

“Until the pressure on the aggressor is insufficient and until our, Ukraine’s security is not guaranteed, nothing else will work,” he added. “The Russian army is not preparing to stop — they are preparing to continue fighting.”

The Ukrainian president again called for Western partners to provide more air defense support to Ukraine to help blunt Russian attacks and “protect life.”

Russia’s Defense Ministry, meanwhile, said its forces shot down 118 Ukrainian drones over 15 regions overnight.

Russia’s federal air transport agency, Rosaviatsiya, said that temporary flight restrictions were introduced at airports in Cheboksary, Kaluga, Kazan, Saratov, Volgograd, Ulyanovsk and Nizhnekamsk.

Two people were injured in a drone attack on the western Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine, Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov reported in a post to Telegram.

In the southern region of Volgograd, Gov. Andrey Bocharov reported a fire at an industrial site in the south of the region, plus drone damage to an apartment building and a kindergarten.

Andriy Kovalenko, the head of the Counter-Disinformation Center operating as part of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, suggested in a post to Telegram that an attack occurred at a major oil refinery in the Volgograd area.

Both sides have continued their long-range strike campaigns despite recent trilateral peace talks with U.S. representatives. All participants at last week’s second round of trilateral talks in Abu Dhabi described the meetings as constructive, but the negotiations did not appear to achieve a breakthrough on several contentious points.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov this week continued his recent criticism of ongoing peace negotiations.

In an interview published on Wednesday, Lavrov alleged to the Kremlin-aligned Empathy Manuchi online project that Kyiv and its European partners are sabotaging what he called the “balance of vital interests” agreed between Russia and the U.S. at the August summit between Presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin in Alaska.

Putin and his top officials have repeatedly referred back to the “spirit and letter” of the Anchorage summit amid Trump’s efforts to hammer out a peace deal. The meeting was widely interpreted as a diplomatic and political coup for Putin.

Lavrov — as quoted by Russia’s state-run Tass news agency — claimed that the understandings reached in Alaska made it “entirely possible to quickly agree on a final agreement on a settlement,” but accused Kyiv and its European partners of trying to “turn it all to their advantage.”

Moscow, he said, will take steps to “ensure our own security.” Russia has demanded that Ukrainian forces withdraw from all of the partially-occupied Donetsk and Luhansk regions — which together form the Donbas region — as a part of any peace deal. Kyiv has refused the demand.

Lavrov said that Ukrainian troops “will eventually be driven out” of the area regardless.

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(LONDON and TEL AVIV) — The Israeli government adopted a series of significant, bureaucratically complex measures that would allow Israelis and Jews abroad to more easily purchase and build on contested land in the West Bank, consolidating Israeli control in the area that would potentially serve as the heartland for a future Palestinian state.

The measures, which were approved over the weekend, are likely to be challenged in the Israeli Supreme Court. But they represent the most far-reaching attempts by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing government to advance a de-facto annexation of the West Bank.

The Palestinian Authority, the governing body for Palestinians that already has only limited powers in the West Bank, described the moves as an “unprecedented escalation” and “illegal,” views echoed by regional Arab states.

U.S. President Donald Trump has previously said the U.S. opposes attempts by Israel to annex the West Bank, a long-held dream of some settler groups and far-right ministers who now hold powerful positions in Netanyahu’s government.

The newly adopted measures are expected to deepen Israeli civil — as opposed to military — control of new areas within the West Bank, including key religious sites in Hebron, and are designed to make it easier for Israelis to buy land in the territory.

Israel’s Security Cabinet, headed by Netanyahu, approved on Sunday a series of new measures that would lift a ban on the sale of land to private Israeli Jews, transfer construction authority at religious and sensitive sites in the city of Hebron to the Israeli government, and declassify land registry records.

The United Nations condemned the measures, with a spokesperson for the secretary-general saying in a statement that “all Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and their associated regime and infrastructure, have no legal validity and are in flagrant violation of international law, including relevant United Nations resolutions.”

The measures would allow the Israeli government to operate under the guise of civilian issues in Palestinian areas A and B for the first time, which contravenes the Oslo Accords. Under the Oslo Accords, the Palestinian Authority is the sole authority responsible for civilian matters in Area A and B. Israel, in contrast, has full Israeli civil and security control over Area C, which represents about 60% of the West Bank.

Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s far-right, pro-settlement finance minister, hailed the move as an “historic day for settlement for Judea and Samaria,” as parts of the West Bank are known in Hebrew.

He said the changes would “fundamentally change the legal and civil reality.” He boasted that it would end the prospects for a potential Palestinian State.

Netanyahu has vowed that a Palestinian state “will not be established,” even as Western countries, including France, Canada and the United Kingdom, have moved to recognize a Palestinian state.

The office of the Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, issued a statement condemning the measures as “dangerous decisions” designed to “deepen attempts to annex the occupied West Bank.”

The president’s office said the move was a “blatant violation” of the Oslo Accords, which divided the West Bank into Areas A, B and C, adding that the move represents an “unprecedented escalation targeting the Palestinian presence and its national and historical rights throughout the Palestinian territory.”

Abbas’ office described the move as illegal and called for the U.S. and the European Union to intervene.

​A joint statement by the foreign ministers of eight Muslim countries condemned the new measures.

The foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Qatar, Indonesia, Egypt, Turkey, Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates said in a statement posted on social media that they collectively “condemned in the strongest terms the illegal Israeli decisions and measures aimed at imposing unlawful Israeli sovereignty, entrenching settlement activity, and enforcing a new legal and administrative reality in the occupied West Bank, thereby accelerating attempts at its illegal annexation and the displacement of the Palestinian people.”

“They reaffirmed that Israel has no sovereignty over the occupied Palestinian territories,” the statement added.

According to Peace Now, an Israeli settlement watchdog and activist nongovernmental organization, the measures adopted over the weekend would effectively mean that Israeli authorities can now carry out legal demolitions of Palestinian property in Areas A and B, which comprise around 40% of the West Bank and which under the Oslo accords have been governed by the Palestinian Authority.

While the Israeli military could operate in those areas as the occupying power, the “government is now seeking to ignore its international commitments and begin administrative operations inside areas of the Palestinian Authority. Under the Oslo Accords, Israel has operated militarily in PA areas since the early 2000s,” the watchdog said.

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(LONDON and TEL AVIV) — The Israeli government adopted a series of significant, bureaucratically complex measures that would allow Israelis and Jews abroad to more easily purchase and build on contested land in the West Bank, consolidating Israeli control in the area that would potentially serve as the heartland for a future Palestinian state.

The measures, which were approved over the weekend, are likely to be challenged in the Israeli Supreme Court. But they represent the most far-reaching attempts by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing government to advance a de-facto annexation of the West Bank.

The Palestinian Authority, the governing body for Palestinians that already has only limited powers in the West Bank, described the moves as an “unprecedented escalation” and “illegal,” views echoed by regional Arab states.

U.S. President Donald Trump has previously said the U.S. opposes attempts by Israel to annex the West Bank, a long-held dream of some settler groups and far-right ministers who now hold powerful positions in Netanyahu’s government.

The newly adopted measures are expected to deepen Israeli civil — as opposed to military — control of new areas within the West Bank, including key religious sites in Hebron, and are designed to make it easier for Israelis to buy land in the territory.

Israel’s Security Cabinet, headed by Netanyahu, approved on Sunday a series of new measures that would lift a ban on the sale of land to private Israeli Jews, transfer construction authority at religious and sensitive sites in the city of Hebron to the Israeli government, and declassify land registry records.

The United Nations condemned the measures, with a spokesperson for the secretary-general saying in a statement that “all Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and their associated regime and infrastructure, have no legal validity and are in flagrant violation of international law, including relevant United Nations resolutions.”

The measures would allow the Israeli government to operate under the guise of civilian issues in Palestinian areas A and B for the first time, which contravenes the Oslo Accords. Under the Oslo Accords, the Palestinian Authority is the sole authority responsible for civilian matters in Area A and B. Israel, in contrast, has full Israeli civil and security control over Area C, which represents about 60% of the West Bank.

Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s far-right, pro-settlement finance minister, hailed the move as an “historic day for settlement for Judea and Samaria,” as parts of the West Bank are known in Hebrew.

He said the changes would “fundamentally change the legal and civil reality.” He boasted that it would end the prospects for a potential Palestinian State.

Netanyahu has vowed that a Palestinian state “will not be established,” even as Western countries, including France, Canada and the United Kingdom, have moved to recognize a Palestinian state.

The office of the Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, issued a statement condemning the measures as “dangerous decisions” designed to “deepen attempts to annex the occupied West Bank.”

The president’s office said the move was a “blatant violation” of the Oslo Accords, which divided the West Bank into Areas A, B and C, adding that the move represents an “unprecedented escalation targeting the Palestinian presence and its national and historical rights throughout the Palestinian territory.”

Abbas’ office described the move as illegal and called for the U.S. and the European Union to intervene.

​A joint statement by the foreign ministers of eight Muslim countries condemned the new measures.

The foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Qatar, Indonesia, Egypt, Turkey, Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates said in a statement posted on social media that they collectively “condemned in the strongest terms the illegal Israeli decisions and measures aimed at imposing unlawful Israeli sovereignty, entrenching settlement activity, and enforcing a new legal and administrative reality in the occupied West Bank, thereby accelerating attempts at its illegal annexation and the displacement of the Palestinian people.”

“They reaffirmed that Israel has no sovereignty over the occupied Palestinian territories,” the statement added.

According to Peace Now, an Israeli settlement watchdog and activist nongovernmental organization, the measures adopted over the weekend would effectively mean that Israeli authorities can now carry out legal demolitions of Palestinian property in Areas A and B, which comprise around 40% of the West Bank and which under the Oslo accords have been governed by the Palestinian Authority.

While the Israeli military could operate in those areas as the occupying power, the “government is now seeking to ignore its international commitments and begin administrative operations inside areas of the Palestinian Authority. Under the Oslo Accords, Israel has operated militarily in PA areas since the early 2000s,” the watchdog said.

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(NEW YORK) — U.S. Southern Command announced on Monday that its forces conducted a new airstrike against an alleged drug smuggling boat in the Eastern Pacific, killing two people aboard and leaving one survivor.

SOUTHCOM said in a statement posted to X that it “immediately notified U.S. Coast Guard to activate the Search and Rescue system for the survivor.”

The statement was accompanied by video of the strike.

“Intelligence confirmed the vessel was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations,” SOUTHCOM said, noting that the strike was launched at the direction of commander Gen. Francis L. Donovan.

Monday’s operation is the 38th airstrike conducted by U.S. forces since Sept. 2. The killings bring to 130 the number of people killed in these strikes.

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(NEW YORK) — U.S. Southern Command announced on Monday that its forces conducted a new airstrike against an alleged drug smuggling boat in the Eastern Pacific, killing two people aboard and leaving one survivor.

SOUTHCOM said in a statement posted to X that it “immediately notified U.S. Coast Guard to activate the Search and Rescue system for the survivor.”

The statement was accompanied by video of the strike.

“Intelligence confirmed the vessel was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations,” SOUTHCOM said, noting that the strike was launched at the direction of commander Gen. Francis L. Donovan.

Monday’s operation is the 38th airstrike conducted by U.S. forces since Sept. 2. The killings bring to 130 the number of people killed in these strikes.

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(LONDON) — Governors of two Russian regions bordering Ukraine said Tuesday that residents are facing sustained power outages as a result of Ukrainian attacks on energy infrastructure, as both sides continue long-range strikes in the run-up to the fourth anniversary of Moscow’s full-scale invasion of its neighbor.

Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor of Russia’s western Belgorod region said in posts to Telegram that power and heating outages had forced hundreds of people to rely on “heating points.”

“Unfortunately, rolling blackouts are inevitable,” Gladkov said, noting that Belgorod city will be among the areas subject to unpredictable outages.

Gov. Alexander Khinshtein of the neighboring Kursk region said that 28,000 customers were without power as a result of “another series of cowardly attacks on our territory.”

Both regions have been subject to regular Ukrainian drone, missile and artillery attacks. Both have also seen Ukrainian ground incursions during the nearly 4-year-old war.

Recent months have seen both Russia and Ukraine focus attacks on energy infrastructure targets. In Ukraine, millions have faced rolling outages as a result of months of Russian missile and drone strikes on energy targets all across the country. Moscow, Kyiv has said, is trying to freeze Ukrainians into submission.

The Kremlin, meanwhile, has framed long-range Ukrainian strikes as “terrorist attacks.”

Zelenskyy on Sunday defended Ukraine’s retaliatory attacks inside Russia, describing the Russian energy sector as “a legitimate target.”

“We do not have to choose whether we strike a military target or energy,” Zelenskyy said while addressing students at the National Aviation University in Kyiv. “He sells this energy. He sells oil. So is it energy, or is it a military target? Honestly, it’s the same thing. He sells oil, takes the money, invests it in weapons. And with those weapons, he kills Ukrainians.”

Zelenskyy said that left Ukraine with two options: “We either build weapons and strike their weapons. Or we strike the source where their money is generated and multiplied. And that source is their energy sector. That is what is happening. All of this is a legitimate target for us.”

The nightly exchange of drones continued on Monday night.

Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 125 drones into the country overnight, of which 110 were shot down or suppressed. Thirteen drones impacted across six locations, the air force said in a post to Telegram.

Vadym Filashkin, the governor of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, said in a post to social media that two people were killed and seven people injured by a Russian strike in the city of Slovyansk, close to the front line.

At least four people were injured by a drone strike on a house in the southern city of Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine’s Interior Ministry said. Among the injured was a 1-year-old child, the ministry said.

Oleh Kiper, the governor of the southern Odesa region, said in a post to Telegram that Russian drones attacked energy infrastructure overnight, leaving at least three communities partially without power.

The Russian Defense Ministry, meanwhile, said its forces shot down at least six Ukrainian drones overnight into Tuesday morning.

Russia’s federal air transport agency, Rosaviatsiya, said that temporary flight restrictions were introduced at airports in the Black Sea city of Gelendzhik and in the western city of Kaluga.

Peace maneuvers are ongoing against the backdrop of long-range strikes and Russia’s attritional offensive operations in eastern Ukraine.

Zelenskyy said in a post to social media on Monday night that proposed post-war Western security guarantees intended to protect Ukraine from repeated Russian aggression are “ready.”

“There is no alternative to security. There is no alternative to peace. There is no alternative to rebuilding our country,” Zelenskyy said.

The Ukrainian president also said there will be “significant international events this week — on defense and security.”

“Our negotiating team is working every single day on the documents and proposals that could deliver results at the upcoming meetings,” Zelenskyy said.

“Most importantly, our partners must be aligned the same way we are in Ukraine: peace is needed, and reliable security guarantees are the only real foundation for peace and for preventing the Russians from breaking agreements through strikes or hybrid operation of some kind,” he added.

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(LONDON) — One month after Iran was rocked by the beginning of the deadliest crackdown in its modern history, the full toll of the regime’s response to nationwide protests is still coming into focus.

On Jan. 8 and 9, Iranian security forces launched what activists describe as the most brutal assault yet on citizens who had poured into streets across the country, chanting for regime change.

While international media coverage has gradually shifted toward renewed negotiations between the United States and the Islamic Republic over Tehran’s nuclear program, human rights groups and Iranians inside and outside the country warn that repression on the ground has intensified. They describe an atmosphere of fear, torture, and systemic violence ruling the country. 

As of Monday, more than 6,400 protesters have been killed and over 51,500 arrested on charges linked to the demonstrations, according to the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA). Over 11,000 more related deaths remain under review. ABC News cannot independently verify these numbers.

Farsi-language social media remains flooded with images of the dead, missing and detained. Videos show families grieving loved ones killed in the streets, while others are pleas from relatives searching for missing family members in morgues and prisons, or seeking legal support for those behind bars. 

Many wounded protesters still seek medical advice from doctors on social media on how to treat their injuries at home, because they fear getting arrested in hospitals by regime forces, who closely monitor hospitals in order to track wounded protesters. An Iranian lawyer told ABC News last week that several of doctors who provided home treatment to wounded protesters have been arrested.

The volume of such social media posts has shown no sign of slowing.

200 students were killed
The Coordinating Council of Iranian Teachers’ Trade Associations (CCITTA) published the names on Sunday of 200 students they said are confirmed killed during the protests.  

“Each name carries a wish with it: I wish he were alive; I wish his school was still waiting for him,” CCITTA said in a statement on X, adding that “the empty benches are not just a sign of absence; they are a reminder of a crime that has reached the classroom.”

Mounting concerns over detainees
Over the weekend, in a post on X, the Hengaw human rights organization warned of widespread sexual violence during this wave of arrests, citing interviews with former detainees. Hengaw described the mental condition of those still in custody as “dire,” because of the torture during detention. 

Among those arrested is Iranian journalist and activist Vida Rabbani, who was detained after signing a joint statement declaring the downfall of the Islamic Republic “inevitable.” Her husband says she has been tortured after her arrest. 

“There were many obvious bruises on Vida’s body. She had been severely beaten,” Hamidreza Amiri wrote on Instagram this weekend after visiting her in prison.

He said that when Rabbani refused to wear the compulsory hijab in prison, guards pulled out her hair.

“The artist girl had made a bracelet from a handful of her own hair,” he wrote. “The bracelet, next to the bruises on her hand, created a strange and deeply moving scene.”

Activists warn that if such abuse is inflicted on high-profile figures with media visibility, the treatment of ordinary protesters whose cases often go unreported may be far worse. 

Waves of forced confessions
According to HRANA, at least 331 forced confessions related to the protests have been broadcast so far.

One recent case involves Mohammad Ali Saedinia, a prominent business owner who had supported the protests by closing all branches of his well-known confectionery chain nationwide and joining strike actions. 

On Monday, state-affiliated Fars News published a scanned letter allegedly signed by Saedinia, calling his decision to shut down his stores in January a “mistake,” condemning Israel and the U.S., and apologizing to the Iranian people. Earlier this month, the judiciary’s spokesperson confirmed Saedinia’s arrest, and that his properties were ordered seized by the Iranian regime.

Arrests of reformist figures
The Iranian regime also arrested several prominent reformist figures on Monday, according to Fars News, after they allegedly criticized the authorities’ handling of the protests. They face charges including “attacking national unity” and “coordinating with enemy propaganda,” according to Fars News.

Speaking anonymously for security reasons, an Iranian analyst told ABC News on Monday that the arrests are “significant,” since the Trump administration might be weighing the possibility of engaging with some insiders of the Iranian government if the regime collapses.

The analyst added that the move could be hardliners aligned with Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei tightening their grip on power, given the uncertainty of the future of the ongoing negotiations with the U.S.

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