World

(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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(THAMES VALLEY, England) — Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, formerly known as Prince Andrew, is facing new scrutiny over his communications with the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The police department in Thames Valley, England, confirmed Monday it is assessing new allegations that Mountbatten-Windsor, a brother of Britain’s King Charles III, shared with Epstein confidential reports from a 2010 tour of Southeast Asia he took as Britain’s then-envoy for international trade.

“We can confirm receipt of this report and are assessing the information in line with our established procedures,” a Thames Valley Police spokesperson told ABC News Monday.

A Buckingham Palace spokesperson said Monday the palace will support authorities as needed.

“The King has made clear, in words and through unprecedented actions, his profound concern at allegations which continue to come to light in respect of Mr Mountbatten-Windsor’s conduct,” the spokesperson said in a statement to ABC News. “While the specific claims in question are for Mr Mountbatten-Windsor to address, if we are approached by Thames Valley Police we stand ready to support them as you would expect.”

The spokesperson continued, “As was previously stated, Their Majesties’ thoughts and sympathies have been, and remain with, the victims of any and all forms of abuse.”

The new allegations against Andrew come shortly after the U.S. Department of Justice public released 3 million pages of documents related to Epstein, who died by suicide in 2019 while awaiting trial on charges of sex trafficking minor girls. 

Mountbatten-Windsor’s name shows up in the documents in his communications with Epstein, including correspondence in 2010 after Epstein concluded a 13-month jail sentence and work release — the result of a 2008 plea bargain with federal prosecutors in Florida. 

The documents also show the two men communicated beyond the time that Mountbatten-Windsor said publicly that he had cut ties with Epstein.

ABC News has reached out to a representative for Mountbatten-Windsor for comment about the documents.

The former prince has repeatedly denied wrongdoing with respect to Epstein.

Last year, Charles ordered that Mountbatten-Windsor, a son of the late Queen Elizabeth II, have his “style, titles and honours,” including his “prince” title, removed amid continued fallout from his relationship with Epstein.

ABC News confirmed that Mountbatten-Windsor has also moved out of his longtime royal residence,  Royal Lodge, a 30-room mansion on the grounds of Windsor Estate, and will now live permanently on the king’s privately owned Sandringham Estate in Norfolk, England, over 100 miles away from his previous home.

As the fallout for Mountbatten-Windsor continues, his nephew and heir to the throne, Prince William, and William’s wife Kate, the Princess of Wales, spoke out publicly for the first time Monday about the latest release of Epstein-related documents.

Ahead of William’s arrival in Saudi Arabia for an official visit, a Kensington Palace spokesperson released a statement, saying, “I can confirm The Prince and Princess have been deeply concerned by the continuing revelations. Their thoughts remain focused on the victims.”

Buckingham Palace has so far not commented publicly on the latest Epstein documents.

Charles, as well as his wife Queen Camilla and younger brother Prince Edward, have each faced questions about the Epstein documents from onlookers at public engagements over the past week.

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(HONG KONG) — China critic and media mogul Jimmy Lai has been sentenced to 20 years in prison in Hong Kong for national security offences, a penalty his son Sebastien called “heartbreaking.”

Lai was found guilty on charges of sedition and conspiracy to collude with foreign forces. He had pleaded not guilty.

It is the harshest sentence delivered to anyone under the sweeping national security law since Beijing introduced it as part of crackdowns in 2020. Lai’s family has been worried their 78-year-old dad would die in prison, and given his age and this 20-year-penalty, there is now a real chance that will happen.

It was a tense morning at the court in Hong Kong. Where there would once be huge lively crowds gathering in support of Hong Kong’s democracy figures, the mood was subdued and yet at the same time on edge. There was a heavy police presence outside the court, where officers were tightly controlling the media and the supporters who were queueing up outside of the court.

Lai’s wife, Teresa, walked out of the court holding back tears behind her large black glasses after seeing her husband in the dock, expressionless as he received his sentence.

Jimmy Lai is a U.K. citizen, and his son Sebastien said he is hoping, now that the case has worked its way through the Hong Kong judicial system, that China may release his father as a way to appease the U.K. and the U.S., especially ahead of President Donald Trump’s scheduled visit to China in April.

“Even though it was expected, it’s still quite a hard reality to have to deal with,” Sebastien Lai said. “There’s no upside in what China is doing to dad and there are very real consequences if he dies in there. That April visit is key.”

“I’m sure many Americans would want to have done what my father did in standing for freedom and defending his people. And for that heroism he is being tortured and sentenced to life in prison,” he added.

When ABC News interviewed Lai at his home while he was on bail in September 2020, Lai explained why he was willing to risk it all. He said he escaped from China at the age of 12 with just a dollar, “This place gave me everything. My reward is to pay back. It’s my redemption.”

U.K. Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said Hong Kong should free Lai “on humanitarian grounds” and the UK government has also pledged to “rapidly engage further” with Beijing. Trump said back in December that he asked President Xi Jinping to consider Lai’s release, and the U.S. ambassador to China David Perdue has said Lai’s case is part of “ongoing discussions” with the Chinese side.

The sentence has been widely condemned by human rights groups, with Human Rights Watch calling the length of the sentence “effectively a death sentence.”

Amnesty International said it was “another grim milestone in Hong Kong’s transformation from a city governed by the rule of law to one ruled by fear.”

Meanwhile, Beijing and Hong Kong officials welcomed the penalty, with Hong Kong’s leader John Lee saying Lai deserved the 20-year prison sentence for his “evil deeds.”

China’s foreign ministry on Monday called the punishment “legitimate and reasonable.”

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(LONDON) — At least three people in Ukraine were killed in Russian overnight drone and missile strikes, the Interior Ministry in Kyiv reported on Monday, as Moscow continued its nightly long-range bombardment campaign.

Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 149 drones and 11 ballistic missiles into the country from Sunday evening into Monday morning, of which 116 drones and an undetermined number of missiles were shot down or suppressed. The air force said that the impacts of 23 drones and some missiles were recorded across 15 locations.

A woman and a 10-year-old boy were killed when a Russian drone hit the town of Bogodukhiv, around 35 miles northwest of the city of Kharkiv, the Interior Ministry said in a post to Telegram. Three other people were injured, it added.

Another person was killed by a Russian drone attack on the southern Black Sea port city of Odesa, Ukraine’s State Emergency Service (SES) said in a Telegram post. Two other people were injured, the SES said.

Elsewhere, the Interior Ministry said that nine people were injured by a Russian strike on a residential area in Shakhtarsk, in the central Dnipropetrovsk region.

The latest round of strikes came soon after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy again called for more Western aid to replenish and expand the country’s air defense network, which is called into service every night by long-range Russian attacks. 

On Sunday, several Russian ballistic missiles struck Kyiv, Zelenskyy said. “Each of our partners must recognize their strength, their ability to support Ukraine and protect lives,” the Ukrainian president said in posts to social media. 

“Missiles for air defense are needed every single day. Protection against Russian ballistic attacks is needed every single day,” Zelenskyy added. “No country in the world should be left alone and without assistance under such strikes and in such a war.”

Russia’s Defense Ministry, meanwhile, said its forces shot down at least 71 Ukrainian drones overnight into Monday morning.

Flight operations at two airports — one in Russia’s southern city of Volgograd and the other in the western city of Kaluga — were temporarily paused, Russia’s federal air transport agency said.

Zelenskyy on Sunday defended Ukraine’s attacks deep inside Russia. Kyiv has said in recent months that its drone and missile strikes are focused on the Russian energy sector, which Zelenskyy described 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.”

Both sides have continued long-range strikes despite recent U.S.-led peace efforts. Last week saw American, Ukrainian and Russian negotiators meet for a second round of trilateral talks in the United Arab Emirates, with all three participants describing the meetings as productive.

But the talks did not appear to achieve a breakthrough on several contentious points. Among the most difficult are the fate of Ukraine’s partially-occupied eastern Donbas region, the nature of post-war Western security guarantees for Ukraine and control of the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in the south of the country.

On Friday, Zelenskyy told journalists that the U.S. proposed hosting the next round of trilateral talks, “likely in Miami, in a week.” Zelenskyy said the Ukrainian side “confirmed our participation.”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, meanwhile, said in an interview with the TV BRICS outlet that Moscow sees no “bright future” in its future economic relations with the U.S.

U.S. President Donald Trump, presidential peace envoy Steve Witkoff and Russian negotiator Kirill Dmitriev — who is also the CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund — have all suggested that a peace deal in Ukraine could facilitate a lucrative new era for American-Russian economic cooperation.

But Lavrov alleged that the U.S. had “declared their goal of economic dominance,” according to quotes published by the state-run Tass news agency.

Lavrov also explicitly criticized Trump’s administration for failing to roll back the punitive sanctions imposed on Moscow as a response to its February 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, an operation that followed eight years of aggression beginning with Russia’s seizure of Crimea in 2014.

Trump has threatened more sanctions and tariffs on Russia if Moscow fails to make a deal with Ukraine to end its war, which this month will turn four years old.

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