Russian missiles and artillery yesterday pounded cities across Ukraine, killing at least two people and trapping others under rubble, while Poland said it would stop providing weapons to its ally amid a trade dispute.
The early-morning wave of missile strikes was Russia’s largest in more than a month and came as world leaders met at the UN General Assembly in New York.
In a speech there, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy denounced Russia as “a terrorist state.”
Photo: Reuters
Zelenskiy was to meet with US President Joe Biden and congressional leaders in Washington after press time last night with an additional US$24 billion aid package hanging in the balance.
On Wednesday, Zelenskiy said at the UN that Russia had killed tens of thousands of his citizens, calling for Moscow to be stripped of its veto power as one of the permanent members of the UN’s top decisionmaking body.
“Veto power in the hands of the aggressor is what has pushed the UN into deadlock,” Zelenskiy said, adding that it is impossible for the body to stop Russia’s invasion of Ukraine because of Moscow’s ability to veto any effort or initiative at the Security Council.
“Most of the world recognizes the truth about this war. It is a criminal and unprovoked aggression by Russia against our nation, aimed at seizing Ukraine’s territory and resources,” he said.
Poland, which has been a major supporter of Ukraine, said it would stop transferring its weapons to its neighbor as it works to modernize its own military, but denied that the decision was linked to a simmering dispute over a temporary ban on Ukrainian grain imports.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said that the decision would not affect NATO and US weapons transfers through Poland.
“We are no longer transferring any weapons to Ukraine because now we will arm ourselves with the most modern weapons,” he said in an interview on Polsat News on Wednesday.
Air raid sirens sounded repeatedly across Ukraine as Russia launched dozens of missiles and, near the front lines, likely used shorter-range artillery to pound the southern city of Kherson.
Two people were killed in Kherson and at least five injured after a residential building was hit, regional Governor Oleksand Prokudin said.
Seven people were injured in Kyiv, including a nine-year-old girl, Kyiv Mayor Vitalii Klitschko said.
Marharyta Moldokova, 76, who had taken shelter on the floor of her Kyiv home just before hearing the explosion and sound of her window shattering, denounced Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“Everything is not enough for him,” she said. “What does he need?”
The Ukrainian Air Force said it had intercepted 36 of 43 cruise missiles launched deep into Ukraine.
Additional reporting by Bloomberg
‘CHARM OFFENSIVE’: Beijing has been sending senior Chinese officials to Okinawa as part of efforts to influence public opinion against the US, the ‘Telegraph’ reported Beijing is believed to be sowing divisions in Japan’s Okinawa Prefecture to better facilitate an invasion of Taiwan, British newspaper the Telegraph reported on Saturday. Less than 750km from Taiwan, Okinawa hosts nearly 30,000 US troops who would likely “play a pivotal role should Beijing order the invasion of Taiwan,” it wrote. To prevent US intervention in an invasion, China is carrying out a “silent invasion” of Okinawa by stoking the flames of discontent among locals toward the US presence in the prefecture, it said. Beijing is also allegedly funding separatists in the region, including Chosuke Yara, the head of the Ryukyu Independence
UNITED: The premier said Trump’s tariff comments provided a great opportunity for the private and public sectors to come together to maintain the nation’s chip advantage The government is considering ways to assist the nation’s semiconductor industry or hosting collaborative projects with the private sector after US President Donald Trump threatened to impose a 100 percent tariff on chips exported to the US, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday. Trump on Monday told Republican members of the US Congress about plans to impose sweeping tariffs on semiconductors, steel, aluminum, copper and pharmaceuticals “in the very near future.” “It’s time for the United States to return to the system that made us richer and more powerful than ever before,” Trump said at the Republican Issues Conference in Miami, Florida. “They
GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY: Taiwan must capitalize on the shock waves DeepSeek has sent through US markets to show it is a tech partner of Washington, a researcher said China’s reported breakthrough in artificial intelligence (AI) would prompt the US to seek a stronger alliance with Taiwan and Japan to secure its technological superiority, a Taiwanese researcher said yesterday. The launch of low-cost AI model DeepSeek (深度求索) on Monday sent US tech stocks tumbling, with chipmaker Nvidia Corp losing 16 percent of its value and the NASDAQ falling 612.46 points, or 3.07 percent, to close at 19,341.84 points. On the same day, the Philadelphia Stock Exchange Semiconductor Sector index dropped 488.7 points, or 9.15 percent, to close at 4,853.24 points. The launch of the Chinese chatbot proves that a competitor can
‘VERY SHALLOW’: The center of Saturday’s quake in Tainan’s Dongshan District hit at a depth of 7.7km, while yesterday’s in Nansai was at a depth of 8.1km, the CWA said Two magnitude 5.7 earthquakes that struck on Saturday night and yesterday morning were aftershocks triggered by a magnitude 6.4 quake on Tuesday last week, a seismologist said, adding that the epicenters of the aftershocks are moving westward. Saturday and yesterday’s earthquakes occurred as people were preparing for the Lunar New Year holiday this week. As of 10am yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) recorded 110 aftershocks from last week’s main earthquake, including six magnitude 5 to 6 quakes and 32 magnitude 4 to 5 tremors. Seventy-one of the earthquakes were smaller than magnitude 4. Thirty-one of the aftershocks were felt nationwide, while 79
RSS