Ukraine mourns 18 killed in Russian missile strike

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Updated 05 April 2025
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Ukraine mourns 18 killed in Russian missile strike

Ukraine mourns 18 killed in Russian missile strike
  • Sixty-one people were wounded, 12 of them children, Dnipropetrovsk governor Sergiy Lysak said

KYIV: Ukraine on Saturday mourned 18 people, including nine children, killed in a Russian ballistic missile strike on President Volodymyr Zelensky’s home city of Kryvyi Rig, as the region’s governor said it was “the kind of pain you wouldn’t wish on your worst enemy.”
Sixty-one people were wounded, 12 of them children, Dnipropetrovsk governor Sergiy Lysak said after emergency operations were completed overnight.
The missile attack on Friday, one of the deadliest in recent weeks, struck a residential area near a children’s playground, said Oleksandr Vilkul, the head of Kryvyi Rig’s military administration.
“On 7, 8 and 9 April, days of mourning will be declared in Kryvyi Rig for those killed as a result of yesterday’s terrorist attacks on our city by the killer country,” he said.
“Children, families, the elderly... Ballistic missile and shakedown attacks on residential areas and playgrounds... This is nothing less than a mass murder of civilians.”
Pictures circulated by rescue services showed several bodies, one stretched out near a playground swing.
“This is the kind of pain you wouldn’t wish on your worst enemy,” Lysak said.
Russia’s defense ministry said it “delivered a precision strike with a high-explosive missile on a restaurant” in the city “where commanders of formations and Western instructors were meeting.”
It said its air defense units had intercepted and destroyed 49 Ukrainian drones overnight.
The commander of the Ukrainian army retorted that Moscow was “trying to cover up its cynical crime” and “spreading false information” about the target of the strike.
He accused Russia of “war crimes.”
The Ukrainian air force said on Saturday Russia had launched 92 drones across Ukraine overnight.
Fifty one had been shot down and around 30 others had landed without causing damage.
US President Donald Trump, who said during his re-election campaign he could end the three-year conflict within days, is pushing the two sides to agree a ceasefire but his administration has failed to broker an accord acceptable to both.
Zelensky said the missile attack showed Russia had no interest in stopping its full-scale invasion, launched in February 2022.
“There is only one reason why this continues — Russia does not want a ceasefire and we see it. The whole world sees it,” he said.
“The missile struck an area near residential buildings, a playground and ordinary streets.
“People who are capable of that kind of thing aren’t human, They are bastards,” Zelensky said.
Zelensky on Friday met the heads of the British and French military in Kyiv to discuss a plan by London and Paris to send a “reassurance” force to Ukraine if and when a peace deal is reached.
This is one of the latest efforts by European leaders to agree a coordinated policy after Trump sidelined them and opened direct talks with the Kremlin.
“Together, we want to guarantee a lasting and solid peace in Ukraine, an essential condition for the security of the European continent,” Thierry Burkhard, chief of the French defense staff, said on X on Saturday.
Burkhard and his British counterpart, Tony Radakin, also met their Ukrainian counterpart Oleksandr Syrsky and Defense Minister Rustem Umerov.
Kryvyi Rig, in Ukraine’s central Dnipropetrovsk region, is about 60 kilometers (37 miles) from the front line, and has regularly been targeted by Russian drones and missiles.
Zelensky was born in the industrial city, which had a pre-war population of around 600,000 people.


Greece starts charging tourist tax on cruises

Greece starts charging tourist tax on cruises
Updated 4 sec ago
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Greece starts charging tourist tax on cruises

Greece starts charging tourist tax on cruises
Cruise ships docking at the popular islands of Santorini and Mykonos will pay $23.62 per passenger
Cruise ships to smaller islands will pay a tax of five euros per passenger

ATHENS: Greece on Tuesday began charging a tax on island cruise ships, the latest European effort to tackle soaring visitor numbers to the continent’s most popular destinations.

Cruise ships docking at the popular islands of Santorini and Mykonos will pay 20 euros ($23.62) per passenger.

“In accordance with the law, the tax will be applied in Santorini, Mykonos and other islands in lesser measures,” a finance ministry spokesman told AFP.

Cruise ships to smaller islands will pay a tax of five euros per passenger, according to the new regulations.

Greece hopes to bring in up to 50 million euros a year with the tax, which will apply during the high tourism season, from June 1 to September 30.

Greece adopted the legislation last year in an effort to curb soaring tourist numbers to often-overcrowded destinations, the latest country in Europe to take such measures.

Italian authorities in Venice, one of the world’s top tourist destinations, last year introduced payments for day visitors, who must pay an access fee of five euros ($5.90) on certain days.

In Spain, the government has cracked down on illegal short-term tourist rentals, with sites like Airbnb and Booking.com ordered to take down thousands of ads amid local alarm about increasingly scarce and unaffordable housing.

The hugely popular island of Ibiza in June began limiting the number of incoming tourist cars and caravans because of the increasing numbers of visitors.

Locals in Barcelona and elsewhere in Spain, the world’s second most-visited country, have held protests against over-tourism.

Greece plans to use the money raised to upgrade over-strained infrastructure on the islands, including their ports, which are often too small to receive multiple cruise ships at once.

Tourism, and the cruise industry in particular, is booming in Greece.

Cruise ship passenger numbers surged 13.2 percent last year to 7.9 million, according to the Hellenic Ports Association, which predicts the trend will continue.

Mykonos, known as a party destination for international jet-setters, received nearly 1.3 million visitors last year, up 8.4 percent from the previous year.

Perched on a volcano, Santorini received more than 1.3 million passengers last year, up four percent.

The island last year limited cruise ship arrivals to 8,000 passengers per day, yet on the first day of the tax, four ships with around 8,400 passengers were scheduled to dock in Santorini, according to port authority figures.

Famed for its sunsets, the island is saturated with tourists in some areas, causing traffic jams, water shortages, waste management headaches and other problems.

Some residents also complain about the pollution generated by the ships, while local businesses say passengers often stay just a few hours and spend little.

But not everyone is happy with the new tax.

The head of the local port authority, Athanasios Kousathanas-Megas, demanded on Friday that the government delay the rollout, complaining the tax creates “unfair competition” between highly taxed islands and the rest.

The cruise industry has hit back at criticism, saying cruise passengers are a small minority of total tourists and generate $2 billion in revenues per year for Greece.

Last year, 40.7 million tourists visited Greece, up 12.8 percent from 2023, according to official figures.

Bruce Lee Club closes archive doors citing operating costs

Bruce Lee Club closes archive doors citing operating costs
Updated 32 min 28 sec ago
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Bruce Lee Club closes archive doors citing operating costs

Bruce Lee Club closes archive doors citing operating costs
  • In a statement, the club wrote that the social movement followed by the Covid-19 pandemic had “severely disrupted” plans for the archive
  • “We anticipated a recovery, yet reality fell short“

HONG KONG: Bruce Lee aficionados gathered at a Hong Kong mini-museum dedicated to the legendary martial artist to bid farewell to the site on Tuesday, as operating expenses forced the itinerant archive to close once again.

The Bruce Lee Club, which was founded by the Lee family, had put a collection of about 2,000 artefacts, including decades-old magazines and a large sculpture showing the superstar’s iconic moves, on display in the bustling Yau Ma Tei neighborhood in 2001. But a rent increase shut the project in 2016.

Three years and a move to industrial Kwun Tong later, the club began welcoming visitors to see the collection again just before democracy protests roiled the city, dampening tourism.

In a statement, the club wrote that the social movement followed by the Covid-19 pandemic had “severely disrupted” plans for the archive.

“We anticipated a recovery, yet reality fell short,” it said. “The accumulated expenses over these six years have compelled us to rethink how to most effectively utilize our resources to sustain the flame of Bruce Lee’s spirit.”

It added that it will “explore new ways” to engage with the public, but for now, ahead of what would have been Lee’s 85th birthday, it is shutting shop.

At least temporarily, all the assorted ephemera related to the Hong Kong icon will be boxed up and stored.

Born in San Francisco in 1940, Bruce Lee was raised in British-run Hong Kong and had an early brush with fame as a child actor. He later became one of the first Asian men to achieve Hollywood stardom before his death at the age of 32.

At the unassuming Kwun Tong archive on Tuesday, visitor and martial arts coach Andy Tong called it a “great pity” to lose the place.

“(Lee) helped build the image of the Chinese and overseas Chinese in the Western world,” Tong, 46, said.

While the superstar is widely beloved and celebrated in the city, with frequent retrospectives and exhibitions staged, fans have struggled to ensure organized and systematic preservation.

In 2004, petitioners successfully managed to get a bronze statue of Lee installed on Hong Kong’s famed harborfront, but a campaign to revitalize his former residence failed to spare it from demolition in 2019.

Bruce Lee Club’s chairman W Wong said the Hong Kong government lacks long-term and continuous planning for preserving Lee’s legacy.

But he added the Club “will never give up” their dedication to championing Lee’s spirit.
“Although Bruce has passed away, his spirit continues to inspire people of all kinds,” Lee’s 76-year-old brother Robert Lee told AFP.

“I believe, rather than hope, the spirit of Bruce Lee will forever remain here (in Hong Kong).”


Former Russian deputy defense minister is sentenced to 13 years for corruption

Former Russian deputy defense minister is sentenced to 13 years for corruption
Updated 01 July 2025
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Former Russian deputy defense minister is sentenced to 13 years for corruption

Former Russian deputy defense minister is sentenced to 13 years for corruption
  • Ivanov was arrested in April 2024 on suspicion of taking bribes
  • Ivanov, who had pleaded not guilty, was also stripped of all his state awards

MOSCOW: Former Russian deputy defense minister Timur Ivanov was found guilty of corruption on Tuesday and sentenced to 13 years in prison.

Ivanov was arrested in April 2024 on suspicion of taking bribes, and investigators added new embezzlement charges in October.

His case is part of the biggest slew of corruption scandals to hit the Russian defense establishment in years. More than a dozen people, including two other former deputy ministers, have been arrested in a series of investigations.

Ivanov, who had pleaded not guilty, was also stripped of all his state awards. His lawyer said he would appeal.

State media reported that the total sum alleged to have been embezzled by Ivanov and others was 4.1 billion roubles ($48.8 million), mostly in the form of bank transfers to two foreign accounts.

The trial took place behind closed doors on grounds of state secrecy. A former subordinate of Ivanov, Anton Filatov, was sentenced to 12-1/2 years.

Russian media said Ivanov and his wife owned a luxury apartment in central Moscow, a three-story English-style mansion on the outskirts of the capital and an extensive collection of classic cars including a Bentley and an Aston Martin.

Ivanov’s arrest last year was celebrated by Russia’s “Z-bloggers,” an influential group of war correspondents and analysts who support Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine but argue that front-line troops have been let down by the military top brass, whom they have frequently portrayed as incompetent, out-of-touch and corrupt.


Ukraine hits Russian city deep behind front line, kills three

Ukraine hits Russian city deep behind front line, kills three
Updated 01 July 2025
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Ukraine hits Russian city deep behind front line, kills three

Ukraine hits Russian city deep behind front line, kills three
  • Ukraine security source says Kyiv targeted a drone manufacturer in Izhevsk
  • Attack took place 1,000km inside Russia - one of the furthest of the three-year conflict

MOSCOW: Ukrainian drones attacked the Russian city of Izhevsk on Tuesday, killing three people and wounding dozens in one of the deepest strikes inside Russia of the three-year conflict, authorities said.
Izhevsk, more than 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) from the front line, has arms production facilities including factories that make attack drones and the world-famous Kalashnikov rifle.
A Ukraine security services source said Kyiv had targeted an Izhevsk-based drone manufacturer and that the attack had disrupted Moscow’s “offensive potential.”
Unverified videos posted on social media showed at least one drone buzzing over the city, while another showed a ball of flames erupt from the roof of a building.
The region’s head said the drones hit an industrial “enterprise,” without giving detail.
“Unfortunately, we have three fatalities. We extend our deepest condolences to their families,” Alexander Brechalov, head of the Udmurt Republic, where Izhevsk is located, wrote on Telegram.
“I visited the victims in the hospital. At the moment, 35 people have been hospitalized, 10 of whom are in serious condition.”
Russian forces in turn struck the town of Guliaipole in Ukraine’s central Dnipropetrovsk region, causing “casualties and fatalities,” Ukraine’s southern defense forces said, without specifying numbers.
Diplomatic efforts to end the conflict have stalled in recent weeks.
The two sides held direct talks almost a month ago but Moscow has since stepped up deadly strikes on Ukraine.
Kyiv’s military chief vowed in June to increase the “scale and depth” of strikes on Russia, warning Ukraine would not sit back while Moscow prolonged its offensive.
Moscow’s army has ravaged parts of east and south Ukraine while seizing large swathes of territory.
An AFP analysis published Tuesday found that Russia dramatically ramped up aerial attacks in June, firing thousands of drones to pressure the war-torn country’s stretched air defense systems and exhausted civilian population.
Moreover, in June, Moscow made its biggest territorial gain since November while accelerating advances for a third consecutive month, according to another AFP analysis based on data from US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
In another sign of an intensifying offensive, a top Kremlin-installed official claimed on Monday that Russia was now in full control of Ukraine’s eastern Lugansk region.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly accused Russia of dragging out the peace process — something that Moscow denies.
“We are certainly grateful for the efforts being made by Washington and members of Trump’s administration to facilitate negotiations on the Ukrainian settlement,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters including AFP on Tuesday.
US President Donald Trump has pressed both sides to reach a ceasefire but has failed to extract major concessions from the Kremlin.


Poland to start controls on borders with Germany, Lithuania over migration

Poland to start controls on borders with Germany, Lithuania over migration
Updated 01 July 2025
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Poland to start controls on borders with Germany, Lithuania over migration

Poland to start controls on borders with Germany, Lithuania over migration
  • “We consider the temporary reintroduction of controls necessary to reduce the uncontrolled flows of migrants across the Polish-German border to a minimum,” Tusk said
  • Debate over migration in Poland has turned increasingly heated in recent weeks

WARSAW: Poland will introduce temporary controls along borders with Germany and Lithuania on July 7, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Tuesday, echoing several other European Union countries in reimposing frontier checks to stem illegal migration.

Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany itself have also brought back border controls, underlining a public backlash against undocumented migration that has strained the EU’s Schengen passport-free travel zone.

“We consider the temporary reintroduction of controls necessary to reduce the uncontrolled flows of migrants across the Polish-German border to a minimum,” Tusk told a meeting of his cabinet.

Tusk’s liberal government has been accused by nationalist and far-right opposition parties of accepting numerous illegal migrants being sent back from Germany. The government had argued that the numbers were limited.

Debate over migration in Poland has turned increasingly heated in recent weeks, with far-right activists starting to organize patrols along the border with Germany.

Germany said in February that it was extending its own temporary border controls for six months.

Tusk, who has previously called on Berlin to do more to help its neighbors protect the EU’s external border, criticized Germany’s approach to migrants at its own frontier, saying it placed excessive pressure on Poland.

“Poland’s patient position after Germany formally introduced unilateral border controls is wearing out,” Tusk said.

He added that it had become difficult to determine whether migrants being sent from Germany to Poland should really be returned there under EU rules stating that migrants should apply for asylum in the first member state they enter.

Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Tuesday Germany wants to preserve the Schengen system, which allows passport-free movement, but this could only work if it was not abused by criminals who smuggle migrants.

“We know that the Polish government also wants to impose border controls with Lithuania in order to limit illegal border crossings from Lithuania to Poland,” Merz told a news conference. “So, we have a common problem here that we want to solve together.”

Knut Abraham, the German government’s commissioner for Poland, was critical of the tilt toward border restrictions.

“The solution cannot lie in pushing migrants back and forth between Poland and Germany or in cementing border controls on both sides,” he was quoted by Die Welt newspaper as saying.

Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kestutis Budrys told a news conference that the Polish government had informed him about its decision, BNS news agency reported.

“(We need to see) what measures should be most effective, while maintaining the expectation that they will not violate our common interest in having free movement of persons, and will also contribute to our goal of firmly and solidly protecting the external border of the EU and NATO,” BNS quoted him as saying.

Poland has been facing what it says is a migrant crisis orchestrated by Belarus and Russia on its eastern border since 2021. Both countries deny encouraging migrants to cross.