Russian artillery strikes yesterday pounded Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, after Moscow announced it was expanding its war aims, even as Russian gas flows to Europe resumed through the Nord Stream pipeline.
The attacks on the eastern city — scarred by weeks of Russian shelling — came after 10 days of scheduled work ended on the Nord Stream gas pipeline that had spurred fears of a permanent cutoff.
Kharkiv’s regional governor said two people were killed and 19 injured, four of whom were in a serious condition.
Photo: AFP
Three people were killed by strikes a day earlier in Kharkiv, where some semblance of normal life had returned in the past few weeks after Ukrainian forces pushed back Russian troops from the city limits.
“We are asking Kharkiv residents to be extremely careful. The enemy is firing chaotically and brutally at the city. Stay in shelters!” Kharkiv Oblast Governor Oleh Synyehubov wrote on social media.
Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhaylo Podolyak said there was also some damage on a mosque in Kharkiv, accusing Russia of “contempt” after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to Iran this week.
In Kramatorsk in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, which has seen some of the fiercest fighting, a school that Ukrainian officials said was being used as a food aid storage point was also struck.
“I have been working at this school for 16 years. It was my home,” the school’s deputy director Olena Shmadchenko, 56, said.
Russian troops invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24 and the war has left thousands dead, forced millions to flee their homes and wrought havoc with the economy.
Ukraine’s central bank yesterday said it was devaluing the hryvnia by 25 percent.
“The new hryvnia rate will become an anchor for the economy and will add its resilience in conditions of uncertainty,” the bank said in a statement.
Meanwhile, the resumption of gas supplies from Russia to Europe through Germany came a day after Europe unveiled emergency measures to circumvent Russian energy “blackmail.”
In its latest package of penalties on Wednesday, the EU targeted gold exports and froze assets at Russia’s largest bank Sberbank.
The German government had been worried Moscow would not reopen the taps on the Nord Stream pipeline after Russia in the past few months severely curbed flows in retaliation against sanctions.
“It’s working,” a Nord Stream spokesman said yesterday, without specifying the amount of gas being delivered.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat
RSS