14 dead in massive overnight Russian attack on Kyiv, Ukraine says
Kyic Oleksandr Gusev/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images
(KYIV, Ukraine) — A massive overnight Russian strike on Kyiv killed 14 people and wounded more than 100 others, local officials in the Ukrainian capital said early Tuesday, as Moscow launched hundreds of drones and missiles at targets across the country.
It was not immediately clear whether others may be trapped beneath the rubble, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said in an update on the Telegram messaging app. Emergency personnel were working at several sites, including a residential building in the Solomianskyi district, where “an entire entrance collapsed,” Klitschko said.
The mayor posted a video to Telegram showing what he said were Russian cluster munitions found at one of the impact sites in the capital. Klitschko later declared Wednesday a day of mourning for the victims of the attack.
Ukraine’s air force said in a post to Telegram that the attack consisted of 440 drones and 32 missiles — of which 402 drones and 26 missiles were shot down or otherwise neutralized. The air force reported impacts in 10 locations and downed debris in 34 locations. The attack is believed to have been one of the largest on the capital in several months.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the nationwide attack killed at least 15 people were killed. Kyiv bore the brunt of the strikes, Zelenskyy wrote, with impacts also reported in Odesa, Zaporizhzhia, Chernihiv, Zhytomyr, Kirovohrad and Mykolaiv.
At least one person was killed in Odesa and 17 others injured, according to a Telegram post by local Governor Oleg Kiper.
“Such attacks are pure terrorism,” Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram. “And the whole world, the U.S. and Europe must finally react the way a civilized society reacts to terrorists.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin, Zelenskyy said, “is doing this solely because he can afford to continue the war. He wants the war to continue. It is bad when the powerful of this world turn a blind eye to this. We are contacting all partners at all possible levels so that there is an appropriate response. It is the terrorists who should feel the pain, not normal, peaceful people.”
The attacks came as G7 leaders gathered in Canada, where Russia’s ongoing war on Ukraine is one of several key topics of discussion. President Donald Trump on Monday suggested that Russia — previously a member of the group when it was known as the G8 — should not have been expelled form the bloc in 2014 after its invasion and annexation of Crimea.
Putin “sends a signal of total disrespect to the United States and other partners who have called for an end to the killing,” Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said in a post on X. “Putin’s goal is very simple: make the G7 leaders appear weak. Only strong steps and real pressure on Moscow can prove him wrong.”
ABC News’ Ellie Kaufman contributed to this report.
(OAXACA, Mexico) — Hurricane Erick, which rapidly intensified overnight, made landfall Thursday morning on Mexico’s Pacific Coast as a powerful Category 3 storm, the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.
Erick came ashore in Mexico’s western state of Oaxaca packing sustained winds of 125 mph and heavy rain, accordin to the NHC.
The hurricane was located on Thursday morning about 20 miles east of Punta Maldonado and was moving northwest at about 9 mph, according to the NHC.
Before making landfall, the Erick had spooled up to an “extremely dangerous” Category 4 storm on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale, but was downgraded to a Cat 3 before making landfall, the NHC center reported.
Erick is the first Pacific Category 3 hurricane on record to make landfall over Mexico in June.
A hurricane warning remained in effect Thursday from Acapulco to Puerto Angel.
It remained unclear if villages along Mexico’s populated Pacific Coast had sustained damaged. There have been no immediate reports of deaths or injuries.
The major hurricane appeared to hit he coastline between the resort towns of Acapulco and Puerto Escondido in an area near the border of Oaxaca and Guerrero states, according to the NHC.
As it sweeps across the state of Oaxaca, Erick is expected to slam parts of the region with strong winds and heavy rain for most of Thursday before weakening over land by Friday.
Erick will produce heavy rainfall up to 6 to 8 inches across southeastern Guerrero and west-coastal Oaxaca through Friday and likely trigger life-threatening flash flooding and mudslides — especially in areas of steep terrain.
Erick formed as a tropical storm early Tuesday in the Pacific Ocean near southern Mexico and rapidly intensified, reaching hurricane strength by Wednesday, according to the NHC.
Security Service of Ukraine / Handout /Anadolu via Getty Images
(LONDON) — Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told journalists on Wednesday that Tuesday’s explosion at the Kerch Strait Bridge caused no damage, after the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) claimed responsibility for the latest attack on the structure.
“Well, there was an explosion, nothing was damaged, the bridge is working, the Kyiv regime continues its attempts to attack the objects of peaceful infrastructure,” Peskov said at a briefing. “The Russian side takes appropriate precautions.”
The SBU said it attacked the bridge — which links occupied Crimea to Russia’s Krasnodar Krai region and is a prominent symbol of Moscow’s control over the occupied peninsula — with underwater explosives early on Tuesday, in an operation that “lasted several months.”
The SBU claimed that the explosion “severely damaged” the “underwater supports of the piers.” The official account for the bridge said the structure was “temporarily closed” after the explosion.
Meanwhile, with U.S.-brokered Ukraine-Russia peace talks still floundering despite another round of negotiations in Istanbul, Turkey, on Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his top officials are applying more pressure on President Donald Trump to increase the cost of what they see as Russian obfuscation.
Trump returned to office in January having vowed to end the war in 24 hours. But months of failed talks — with Kyiv and Moscow clearly still far apart on their peace demands — has left the president and his administration publicly frustrated.
Trump has threatened both — Ukraine with the withdrawal of all aid and Russia with more sanctions — with punishment if his peace-making efforts fail. Both Ukraine and Russia have sought to frame the other as the main impediment to a peace deal.
Ukraine aligned itself with Trump’s May appeal for a full 30-day ceasefire, a proposal President Vladimir Putin has refused. In the weeks since, Zelenskyy has pushed Trump to meet Russia’s obstinance with sanctions.
Following Monday’s talks — which lasted just over an hour — Kyiv embarked on a renewed push.
“I want to thank all Americans, all Europeans who support this approach of pressuring Russia into peace — it is extremely important,” Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram on Tuesday night, following the latest round of deadly Russian drone and missile attacks on his country — and after two headline-grabbing attacks by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) on Russia’s strategic bomber fleet and the Kerch Strait Bridge.
“Putin does not change his behavior when he does not fear the consequences of his actions,” Zelenskyy added. “Russia must feel what war truly means. Russia must bear the losses from the war. They must really feel that continuing the war will have devastating consequences for them.”
The two sides did agree to further prisoner exchanges during the latest Istanbul talks. But both Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha and Andriy Yermak — the influential head of Zelenskyy’s presidential office — pushed back on the notion that the negotiations moved the needle toward a lasting ceasefire agreement.
Yermak said in a post to social media that he spoke with Trump’s Special Envoy Steve Witkoff about the talks, telling him, “Russia’s position remains unconstructive.”
“I emphasized that Russia is stalling and manipulating the negotiation process in an attempt to avoid American sanctions and has no genuine intention of ceasing hostilities,” Yermak said. “Only strong sanctions can compel Russia to engage in serious negotiations.
Sybiha said Russia “has not responded to our document outlining Ukraine’s vision for ending the war,” in a post on X summarizing Ukraine’s official conclusions from the second round of talks.
“Instead of responding to our constructive proposals in Istanbul, the Russian side passed a set of old ultimatums that do not move the situation any closer to true peace,” he said.
“This contradicts Russia’s previous promises, including to the United States, that it would put forward something realistic and doable this week in Istanbul,” Sybiha added, also calling for new U.S. sanctions on Moscow.
Trump is also facing pressure at home. Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham — long influential in advising the president’s foreign policy — is among those pushing a sanctions bill through the Senate that would slap 500% tariffs on any country that buys Moscow’s energy products.
On Sunday, following a visit to Kyiv with Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal, Graham wrote on X, “Russia indiscriminately kills men, women and children. It’s time for the world to act decisively against Russia’s aggression by holding China and others accountable for buying cheap Russian oil that props up Putin’s war machine.”
The Kremlin urged patience. “It would be wrong to expect any immediate decisions or breakthroughs here,” spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Tuesday of the latest talks. “But work is ongoing. Certain agreements were reached in Istanbul, and they are important. Indeed, first and foremost, it is about people. These agreements will be implemented.”
But Dmitry Medvedev — the former Russian president and prime minister now serving as the deputy chairman of the country’s Security Council — gave a darker read on the negotiations. The talks, he wrote on Telegram, “are not meant to achieve a compromise peace based on some imaginary and unrealistic conditions invented by others, but rather to secure our swift victory and the complete destruction” of Zelenskyy’s government.
Meanwhile, the long-range strikes that have unsettled Trump continued. Ukraine’s air force reported 95 Russian drones launched into the country overnight, of which 61 were shot down or neutralized. Impacts were recorded in seven locations, the air force said.
Russia’s Defense Ministry, meanwhile, said its forces downed seven Ukrainian drones overnight.
ABC News’ Ellie Kaufman, Oleksiy Pshemyskiy, Nataliia Popova and Will Gretsky contributed to this report.
LONDON — Vishwaskumar Ramesh, the only survivor of the Air India plane crash headed to the United Kingdom from Ahmedabad, India, that left all 241 other passengers and crew dead, along with five more on the ground, said he “thought I would die” as he recovers in the hospital a day after the tragedy.
“Everything happened in front of my eyes. I thought I would die,” Ramesh told NDTV in an exclusive interview on Friday. “The side where I was seated fell into the ground floor of the building. There was some space. When the door broke, I saw that space and I just jumped out.”
“The door must’ve broken on impact,” Ramesh continued. “There was a wall on the opposite side, but near me, it was open. I ran. I don’t know how. I don’t know how I came out of it alive. For a while, I thought I was about to die. But when I opened my eyes, I saw I was alive, and I opened my seat belt and got out of there. The airhostess … died before my eyes.”
The Air India airliner carrying 230 passengers and 12 crew members was en route to the United Kingdom and crashed into a building shortly after takeoff on Thursday, leaving 246 dead, officials said.
The victims include 241 passengers and crew members as well as five medical students who were inside the medical college and hospital the aircraft crashed into, according to hospital officials. Many others inside the building were injured — some seriously — and are receiving treatment, hospital officials said.
Ramesh’s brother, Nayankumar Ramesh, said it is a “miracle” his brother survived.
“He said, ‘Our plane’s crashed, I don’t know where my brother is. I don’t see any other passengers. I don’t know how I’m alive, how I exited the plane,” Nayankumar Ramesh told ABC News about his brother’s escape from the plane. “Just hearing about the crash, I’m scared to fly now, to even stay on a plane now.”
The plane, a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, crashed in the Meghaninagar area near Ahmedabad airport, in India’s Gujarat state, the city’s Police Commissioner G.S. Malik said Thursday.
Boeing’s Dreamliner planes had not previously been involved in an incident where passenger fatalities were reported. This plane had more than 41,000 hours of flying time, which is considered average for this aircraft, according to Cirium, an aviation analytics firm.
“Our deepest condolences go out to the loved ones of the passengers and crew on board Air India Flight 171, as well as everyone affected in Ahmedabad. I have spoken with Air India Chairman N. Chandrasekaran to offer our full support, and a Boeing team stands ready to support the investigation led by India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau,” Boeing President and CEO Kelly Ortberg said in a statement.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a statement that he’d been in touch with local officials after the crash.
“The tragedy in Ahmedabad has stunned and saddened us,” he said in a statement on social media. “It is heartbreaking beyond words. In this sad hour, my thoughts are with everyone affected by it.”
