KYIV: Russian and Ukrainian forces exchanged missile and artillery barrages that killed at least six people Thursday as both sides refused to concede any ground despite recent military setbacks for Moscow and the toll on the invaded country after almost seven months of war.
Russian missile strikes in the southern city of Zaporizhzhia left one person dead and five others wounded, Ukrainian officials said. Officials in the separatist-controlled city of Donetsk said Ukrainian shelling killed at least five people.
Demonstrating that neither side was ready to ease up or pause the fighting, the exchange of fire came hours after the two sides made a major prisoner swap and the day after Russian President Vladimir Putin called up reserve troops to supplement his forces.
Kyrylo Tymoshenko, the deputy of the Ukrainian president’s office, said a hotel in the central part of Zaporizhzhia, said a hotel in the center of the city was struck and rescuers were trying to free people trapped in the rubble.
The governor of the Zaporizhzhia region, Oleksandr Starukh said Russian forces targeted infrastructure facilities and also damaged nearby apartment buildings. The region is one of four where officials installed by Moscow plan to hold referendums starting Friday on becoming part of Russia, but the city itself is in Ukrainian hands.
Meanwhile, the mayor of the separatist-controlled city of Donetsk, Alexei Kulemzin, said at least five people where killed when Ukrainian shelling Thursday hit a covered market and a passenger minibus.
Just hours before Thursday’s attacks, a high-profile prisoner swap saw 215 Ukrainian and foreign fighters exchanged — 200 of them for a single person, an ally of Putin’s. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov wouldn’t confirm if the lone Putin ally — pro-Russian Ukrainian opposition leader Viktor Medvedchuk — was part of the swap.
Among the freed fighters were Ukrainian defenders of a steel plant in Mariupol during a long Russian siege and 10 foreigners, including five British nationals and two US military veterans, who had fought with Ukrainian forces.
A video on the BBC news website Thursday showed two of the released British men, Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner, speaking inside a plane. It said they had arrived in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
“We just want to let everyone know that we’re now out of the danger zone and we’re on our way home to our families,” Aslin said in the video, as Pinner added: “By the skin of our teeth.”
The speed with which the Russian missile attack came after the swap suggested that the Kremlin was seeking to dispel any notion of weakness or waning determination to achieve its war aims following recent battlefield losses and setbacks that gravely undercut the aura of Russian military might.
Those losses culminated Wednesday in Putin’s order for a partial mobilization of reservists to bolster his forces in Ukraine. The order sparked rare protests in the Russia and was derided in the West as an act of weakness and desperation.
The partial call-up was short on details, raising concerns of a wider draft that sent some Russians scrambling to buy plane tickets to flee the country.
Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, said the mobilization was needed because Russia was “de facto facing all of NATO,” a reference to the military aid and other support that alliance members have provided to Ukraine.
A senior Kremlin official on Thursday repeated Putin’s threat to use nuclear weapons if Russian territory comes under attack.
Dmitry Medvedev, deputy head of Russia’s Security Council, said on his messaging app channel Thursday that strategic nuclear weapons are one of the options to safeguard Russian-controlled territories in eastern and southern Ukraine. The remark appeared to serve as a warning that Moscow could also target Ukraine’s Western allies.
Pro-Moscow authorities in Ukraine’s Russian-controlled regions are preparing to hold referendums on becoming part of Russia — a move that could allow Moscow to escalate the war. The votes start Friday in the Luhansk, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk regions.
Foreign leaders have called the votes illegitimate and nonbinding. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said they were a “sham” and “noise” to distract the public.
One person was killed during Russian shelling overnight in the center of Nikopol city, across the river from the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, according to Dnipropetrovsk region governor Valentyn Reznichenko.
The office of Zelensky’s office said five people were killed by shelling in the Donetsk region over the past day.
No let-up in hostilities in Ukraine despite prisoner swap
https://arab.news/cwrzh
No let-up in hostilities in Ukraine despite prisoner swap
- Russian missile strikes in the southern city of Zaporizhzhia left one person dead and five others wounded
- Demonstrating that neither side was ready to ease up or pause the fighting, the exchange of fire came hours after the two sides made a major prisoner
EU warns Armenia about Russian ‘hybrid threats’
YEREVAN: The EU’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas urged Armenia to protect its democratic values amid “hybrid threats” from Russia on a visit to Yerevan on Monday.
Ties between Armenia and its traditional ally Russia have been strained since Azerbaijan’s 2023 offensive on Nagorno-Karabakh, in which Moscow did not intervene.
Russia has for years been the main mediator between Armenia and Azerbaijan. But Brussels has played a stronger role recently, with Russia tied up with its Ukraine invasion.
Kallas visited several days after Armenia arrested a powerful cleric accused of plotting a coup against Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.
She said she discussed “Russia’s aggression against Ukraine and specifically Russian hybrid activities in all countries” with Armenia’s foreign minister Ararat Mirzoyan.
“Armenia’s commitment to democracy and freedom is key. These values must be protected, especially in the face of hybrid threats, disinformation, and foreign interference,” she said.
Mirzoyan warned Moscow against interfering in its internal political affairs after the arrest of powerful cleric Bagrat Galstanyan.
But speaking in Kyrgyzstan, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned Armenia against turning away from Moscow and against “attacks on the canonical, millennia-old Armenian Apostolic Church.”
“We do not put any pressure on Armenian authorities, we will wait for clarity on all these issues,” Lavrov said according to Russian news agencies.
“But we all understand that if Armenia turns away from its allies, its closest partners and neighbors, it will hardly be in the interests of the Armenian people,” he added.
Mirzoyan said Lavrov “would do better not to interfere in Armenia’s internal affairs and domestic politics,” calling on Russian officials to “show greater respect for the sovereignty of the Republic of Armenia.”
Kallas said “the EU and Armenia have never been as close as we are now.”
She announced a new EU-Armenia partnership and a 270-million-euro “resilience and growth plan for 2024-2027.” She also welcomed Armenia’s move to initiate an EU accession process earlier this year.
Kallas re-affirmed the EU’s support to normalizing relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Cyprus invites Turkiye’s Erdogan to summit despite long rift over 1974 invasion
NICOSIA: Cyprus said on Monday it would invite arch-foe Turkiye to a summit during its European Union presidency next year despite a decades-long rift over Ankara’s 1974 invasion and its backing of a breakaway state on the divided island.
Nicosia will hold the rotating EU presidency in the first six months of 2026 and plans a summit of regional leaders, including Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, on issues related to the Middle East, Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides said.
“You can’t change geography — Turkiye will always be a neighbor state to the Republic of Cyprus .. Mr.Erdogan will of course be welcome to this summit to discuss developments in the area,” he told journalists in Nicosia.
Christodoulides had earlier said the same in a British podcast aired on Monday in response to a question, saying the summit was planned for April 2026.
The Turkish presidency did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on the invitation to Erdogan.
Cyprus and Turkiye have no diplomatic relations and hosting a Turkish president might prove challenging both because of the diplomatic tightrope arising from past conflict and logistical issues.
The eastern Mediterranean island was partitioned by a Turkish invasion in 1974 sparked by a brief Greek-inspired coup, and Ankara supports a breakaway, unrecognized state in north Cyprus where it stations thousands of troops.
Christodoulides heads a Greek Cypriot administration that represents all of Cyprus within the EU but with its powers stopping at a ceasefire line splitting the island into northern and southern sections. Erdogan has never visited the south.
A hard right lawmaker is sworn in as Greece’s migration minister
- Thanos Plevris, 48, is expected to maintain Greece’s hard line in migration policy
ATHENS: A hard-right lawmaker was sworn in Monday as Greece’s migration minister, replacing a fellow right-wing political heavyweight who resigned following accusations of involvement in the distribution of European Union farm subsidies.
Five high-ranking government officials, including the previous migration minister, Makis Voridis, three deputy ministers and a secretary general, resigned last Friday following allegations they were involved in a scheme to provide EU agriculture subsidies to undeserving recipients.
The funds, which were handled by a government body known by its Greek acronym OPEKEPE, were allegedly given to numerous people who had made false declarations of owning or leasing non-existent pastures or livestock.
Thanos Plevris, 48, succeeded Voridis and is expected to maintain Greece’s hard line in migration policy. Both Plevris and Voridis joined the conservative New Democracy party in 2012, from the right-wing populist Popular Orthodox Rally, or LAOS, party.
Voridis has denied any involvement in the alleged farm subsidy fraud and said he resigned in order to clear his name.
The European Public Prosecutor’s Office, which has investigated the case, passed on a hefty file to the Greek Parliament last week that includes allegations of possible involvement of government ministers. Lawmakers enjoy immunity from prosecution in Greece that can only be lifted by parliamentary vote.
On Sunday, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said his New Democracy party had failed to stamp out graft.
“Significant reform efforts were made,” Mitsotakis said in a social media post. “But let’s be honest. We failed.”
He said anyone found to have received EU funds they were not entitled to would be ordered to return the money.
“Our many farmers and livestock breeders who toil and produce quality products, and all law-abiding citizens, will not tolerate scammers who claimed to have non-existent pastures and livestock, or those who enabled them to do so,” Mitsotakis said.
Scorching temperatures grip Europe, putting regions on high alert
ANKARA: Forest fires fanned by high winds and hot, dry weather damaged some holiday homes in Turkiye as a lingering heat wave that has cooked much of Europe led authorities to raise warnings and tourists to find ways to beat the heat on Monday.
A heat dome hovered over an arc from France, Portugal and Spain to Turkiye, while data from European forecasters suggested other countries were set to broil further in coming days. New highs are expected on Wednesday before rain is forecast to bring respite to some areas later this week.
“Extreme heat is no longer a rare event — it has become the new normal,” tweeted UN Secretary-General António Guterres from Seville, Spain, where temperatures were expected to hit 42 Celsius (nearly 108 Fahrenheit) on Monday afternoon.
Reiterating his frequent calls for action to fight climate change, Guterres added: “The planet is getting hotter & more dangerous — no country is immune.”
In France, which was almost entirely sweltering in the heatwave on Monday and where air conditioning remains relatively rare, local and national authorities were taking extra effort to care for homeless and elderly people and people working outside.
Some tourists were putting off plans for some rigorous outdoor activities.
“We were going to do a bike tour today actually, but we decided because it was gonna be so warm not to do the bike tour,” said Andrea Tyson, 46, who was visiting Paris from New Philadelphia, Ohio.
Authorities in Portugal issued a red heat warning for seven of 18 districts as temperatures were forecast to hit 43 degrees Celsius, a day after logging a record June temperature of 46.6 degrees C. Almost all inland areas were at high risk of wildfires.
In Turkiye, forest fires fanned by strong winds damaged some holiday homes in Izmir’s Doganbey region and forced the temporary closure of the airport in Izmir, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported. Authorities evacuated four villages as a precaution, the Forestry Ministry said.
In Italy, the Health Ministry put 21 cities under its level three “red” alert, which indicates “emergency conditions with possible negative effects” on healthy, active people as well as at-risk old people, children and chronically ill people.
Regional governments in northwestern Liguria and southern Sicily in Italy put restrictions on outdoor work, such as construction and agricultural labor, during the peak heat hours.
In southern Germany, temperatures of up to 35 degrees Celsius (95 Fahrenheit) were expected on Monday, and they were forecast to creep higher until midweek – going as high as 39 degrees (102F) on Wednesday.
Some German towns and regions imposed limits on how much water can be taken from rivers and lakes.
North Korea’s Kim seen draping coffins with flag at Russia treaty anniversary
SEOUL: North Korea’s state media showed on Monday leader Kim Jong Un draping coffins with the national flag in what appeared to be the repatriation of soldiers killed fighting for Russia against Ukraine, as the countries marked a landmark military treaty.
In a series of photographs displayed in the backdrop of a gala performance by North Korean and visiting Russian artists in Pyongyang, Kim is seen by rows of a half a dozen coffins, covering them with flags and pausing briefly with both hands resting on them.
The scene followed images of North Korean and Russian soldiers waving their national flags with patriotic notes written in Korean. Kim is seen at the gala seemingly overcome with emotion and audience members wiping away tears.
North Korea’s state KRT television aired the performance, which was attended by Russian Culture Minister Olga Lyubimova who is leading a delegation to mark the first anniversary of the strategic partnership treaty as Kim’s guest.
The performance was enthusiastically received for inspiring confidence in the “ties of friendship and the genuine internationalist obligation between the peoples and armies of the two countries that were forged at the cost of blood,” KCNA news agency said.
Kim and Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the strategic partnership treaty in June last year in Pyongyang. It includes a mutual defense pact.
After months of silence, the two countries have disclosed the deployment of North Korean troops and lauded the “heroic” role they played in Moscow’s offensive against Ukraine to reclaim the Kursk region in western Russia.
