4 relatives, including 3 Americans, shot in Mexico; 3 adults dead, child in critical condition
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(DURANGO, Mexico) — Four family members, including three Americans, were shot in an attack in Durango, Mexico, that left three of the four relatives dead, officials said.
The three adults were all killed: two brothers who are U.S. citizens, Vicente Peña Rodríguez and Antonio Fernández Rodríguez, and their relative, who is a local resident, Jorge Eduardo Vargas Aguirre, the Durango Attorney General’s Office said.
Vicente Peña Rodríguez’s son, a minor, survived, and is in critical condition, the attorney general’s office said.
The attack unfolded on Friday night as the family was traveling in a GMC Yukon with an Illinois license plate, officials said. The SUV was found on the side of the Francisco Zarco highway.
Authorities are investigating whether robbery was a motive, according to the attorney general’s office.
Rescuers of the State Emergency Service work to put out a fire in a private house after a drone strike in Kharkiv, on December 25, 2024, amid the Russian invasion in Ukraine. (Photo by SERGEY BOBOK/AFP via Getty Images)
(LONDON) — Ukrainians faced fresh Russian drone and missile strikes on energy infrastructure nationwide on Tuesday night into Christmas Day morning, with the energy minister in Kyiv warning of immediate power cuts.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram, “Every Russian massive strike takes time to prepare. It is never a spontaneous decision. It is a conscious choice not only of targets, but also of time and date.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin, Zelenskyy said, “deliberately chose Christmas for an attack. What could be more inhuman? More than 70 missiles, including ballistic ones, and more than a hundred strike drones. The targets are our energy sector. They continue to fight for a blackout in Ukraine.”
“According to preliminary data, our defenders managed to shoot down more than 50 missiles and a significant part of the drones,” Zelenskyy said. “Unfortunately, there are hits. As of now, there are outages in several regions. Energy workers are working to restore the power supply as soon as possible.”
Ukraine’s air force said Russia fired 78 missiles of various types into the country, of which 59 were shot down. Russia also launched 106 strike drones, of which 54 were shot down and 52 were lost in flight, the air force added.
“The enemy attacks energy again massively,” Energy Minister German Galushchenko wrote in a statement posted to Facebook early Wednesday. Grid operators, he added, were implementing “necessary consumption restriction measures to minimize negative consequences for the energy system.”
When the security situation allows, “the power companies will specify the damage caused,” Galushchenko added. “Stay tuned for official announcements. While the danger lasts — stay in shelters!”
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said in a statement posted to X, “This Christmas terror is Putin’s response to those who spoke about illusionary ‘Christmas ceasefire’.”
“One Russian missile passed Moldovan and Romanian airspace, reminding that Russia threatens not only Ukraine,” Sybiha added.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said in a statement posted to Telegram that it “carried out a massive strike with long-range precision weapons and strike drones on critical energy infrastructure facilities in Ukraine that ensure the operation of the military-industrial complex.”
“The strike’s goal was achieved,” the ministry said. “All facilities were hit.”
The ministry said its forces also shot down 59 Ukrainian drones overnight.
This year is the second in which Ukraine will officially celebrate Christmas on Dec. 25. Previously, many Ukrainians celebrated Christmas in January per the Orthodox calendar, as Russian Orthodox adherents still do.
“For the second time, we celebrate Christmas on the same date as one big family, one country,” Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram on Tuesday. “For the second time in modern history, Christmas unites all Ukrainians.”
“Today, we stand side by side, and we will not be lost,” Zelenskyy added. “In person, from afar, or in our hearts — Ukrainians are together today. And as long as we do this, evil has no chance.”
Emergency responders are dispatched to the scene after a Russian attack that killed at least 13 people in Glukhiv, Sumy Oblast. The number of victims increased to 13, including 3 children. Search and rescue efforts continue for those trapped under the rubble of the partially destroyed dormitory building. (Photo by Ukraine State Emergency Service / Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images)
(LONDON and KYIV) — Russia on Thursday launched an intercontinental ballistic missile toward southeastern Ukraine, officials in Kyiv said, but a U.S. official told ABC News that Russia launched “an experimental medium-range ballistic missile against Ukraine” near Dnipro.
The official said the United States briefed Ukraine and other close allies and partners in recent days on Russia’s possible use of this weapon in order to help them prepare. According to the official, Russia likely only possesses “a handful” of these experimental missiles.
Two U.S. officials previously told ABC News it was not an ICBM but instead an intermediate-range ballistic missile, or IRBM.
Ukraine’s military was “95% sure” the strike was with an ICBM, a Ukrainian official told ABC News, but added that they were still examining the missile parts on the ground and had not yet reached a final conclusion.
“Today it was a new Russian missile. All the parameters: speed, altitude — match those of an intercontinental ballistic missile,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a statement on social media. “All expert evaluations are underway.”
Moscow did not immediately confirm the launch, with Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov declining to comment, saying questions about it should instead be directed to the Russian Defense Ministry.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, in remarks Thursday following the missile launch, said Russia has the right to use its weapons against the military facilities of countries employing their weapons against Russia.
The Ukrainian Air Force announced Thursday morning it had tracked the launch of the ICBM, along with six additional missiles, all of which were targeting the Dnipro region. The ICBM appeared to have been launched from the Astrahan region, in Russia’s southwest, Ukrainian military officials said.
All of the missiles were launched in about two hours, beginning at about 5 a.m. local time, Ukraine said.
All were targeted at businesses and critical infrastructure, but only the missile that Ukraine identified as an ICBM struck the city, Ukraine said. The six other missiles were shot down. There were no reports of casualties or significant damage, officials said.
The U.S. officials said the assessment of the launch, the type of missile and warhead, and the damage in Dnipro was continuing. The distance from what Ukraine said was the launch point to the strike location in Dnipro is about 600 miles, a distance shorter than what an ICBM would be expected to travel.
Two experts told ABC News the projectile, seen in video circulating online, looks likely to be “a ballistic missile with MIRV-ed capabilities.”
The launch of an ICBM, if confirmed as such, would arrive amid concerns that the conflict between Russia and Ukraine could further escalate. This week, Ukraine’s military for the first time launched U.S.-made ATACMS missiles toward targets within Russia, days after U.S. President Joe Biden allowed for such use of the long-range weapons.
Kyiv on Tuesday launched six of the ATACMS at targets within Russian territory, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.
Zelenskyy said he would not confirm if Ukraine had used ATACMS to conduct a strike on an ammunition depot in the Bryansk region of Russia, but said Ukraine has ATACMS and “will use all of these” against Russia.
Within hours of Russia announcing it had struck down five of the ATACMS on Tuesday, the Kremlin announced that Russian President Vladimir Putin had updated the country’s nuclear doctrine, a move that lowered the bar for Russia to respond with nuclear weapons. Russian ICBMs are capable of carrying nuclear warheads, although it appeared the missile fired on Thursday was not equipped with one.
Following that warning, Ukraine on Wednesday fired long-range British Storm Shadow cruise missiles into Russia for the first time, a Ukrainian military unit involved in the operation told ABC News. At least 10 of those missiles hit an estate in the village of Marino, the unit said.
They were targeting a command post where North Korean army generals and officers were present, the unit said. More than 10,000 North Korean troops are said to be operating alongside Russian forces in the Kursk region.
Ukraine’s 413th Separate Unmanned Systems Battalion, which helped provide fire control for the strikes, told ABC News that there was intelligence showing high-ranking North Koreans were present.
Zelenskyy cast the Russian strike on Thursday as a result of Russia and its leader being “terrified.”
“Obviously, Putin is terrified when normal life simply exists next to him. When people simply have dignity. When a country simply wants to be and has the right to be independent,” Zelenskyy said. “Putin is doing whatever it takes to prevent his neighbor from breaking free of his grasp.”
ABC News’ Joe Simonetti, Lauren Minore, Yulia Drozd and Natasha Popova contributed to this report.
(LONDON) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy predicted that his nation’s forces would “undoubtedly” capture more North Korean troops, after sharing purported video of two prisoners of war detained after being wounded in fighting in Russia’s western Kursk region.
“It’s only a matter of time before our troops manage to capture others,” Zelenskyy said in a post to social media, accompanied with brief video interviews with two North Korean soldiers.
The short videos showed the two apparently wounded men giving brief answers to a Ukrainian interviewer via a translator.
One said he was told by commanders that he was being deployed as part of a training exercise, according to the translation. The prisoner said he entered combat on Jan. 3, in an unsuccessful assault with heavy casualties. He hid in a dugout until Jan. 5 when he said he was captured.
Neither man appeared to know they had been taken to Ukraine. One said he wished to return to North Korea, while the other said he hoped to remain in Ukraine.
ABC News could not immediately verify the videos.
U.S., Ukrainian and South Korean officials have estimated that Pyongyang has sent up to 12,000 soldiers to Russia to assist Moscow in retaking parts of Kursk Oblast seized by Ukrainian forces in a surprise August 2023 offensive.
The deployment of troops represented a new level of North Korean support for Russia’s war, Pyongyang having previously supplied Moscow with significant amounts of ammunition and weapons including ballistic missiles.
Zelenskyy said Sunday there should be “no doubt left in the world that the Russian army is dependent on military assistance from North Korea.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin, he added, “started three years ago with ultimatums to NATO and attempts to rewrite history, but now he cannot manage without military support from Pyongyang.”
Zelenskyy said Kyiv is “ready to hand over Kim Jong Un’s soldiers to him if he can organize their exchange for our warriors who are being held captive in Russia.”
“For those North Korean soldiers who do not wish to return, there may be other options available,” he added. “In particular, those who express a desire to bring peace closer by spreading the truth about this war in Korean will be given that opportunity.”
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov refused to comment on the proposal for a prisoner swap when asked by reporters on Monday. “We cannot comment in any way, we do not know what is true there,” Peskov said, as quoted by Russian media.
Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces, meanwhile, said it killed another 17 North Korean soldiers in Kursk, defeating a daylong assault by Pyongyang’s troops.
The SSO said that one North Korean soldier also attempted to “mislead” Ukrainian forces and “blow himself up with them on a grenade.” The North Korean was killed by the blast with no Ukrainians hurt, the SSO reported.
Zelenskyy previously reported that more than 3,000 North Koreans had been killed or wounded fighting in Kursk, while U.S. estimates put the figure at several hundred.
South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported on Monday that the country’s spy agency believes that at least 300 North Korean soldiers have been killed and 2,700 injured since being deployed to Russia.
Rep. Lee Seong-kweun, of the ruling People Power Party, told Yonhap that the National Intelligence Service shared the information with lawmakers during a closed-door meeting of the parliamentary intelligence committee.
The NIS attributed the “massive” rate of North Korean casualties to a “lack of understanding of modern warfare,” Yonhap said. That included “useless” attempts to shoot down long-range drones.
The NIS also said the North Korean military has ordered soldiers to kill themselves to avoid capture by Ukrainian forces.
