Russia and Ukraine launch scores of attack drones in overnight strikes
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(LONDON) — Russia and Ukraine each launched more than 100 attack drones, most of which were intercepted, overnight into Thursday, military officials said.
Ukraine’s air defenses shot down at least 78 of the 105 Russian Shahed drones launched overnight at several regions, including Kyiv, the country’s air force said in an update. Fifteen regions were targeted, Ukraine said.
“The air attack was repulsed by aviation, anti-aircraft missile troops, electronic warfare units and mobile fire groups of the Air Force and the Defense Forces of Ukraine,” the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said in a statement early Thursday.
It was unclear if there were injuries in Kyiv, Serhiy Popko, head of the city’s administration, said on the messaging app Telegram.
Russia’s air-defense systems shot down some 113 Ukrainian drones in four regions, including the Kursk region, the Russian Ministry of Defense said. The Ukrainian attack had been “thwarted” the military said.
At least 73 Ukrainian drones were destroyed over the Belgorod region, which borders Kharkiv, Ukraine, Moscow said.
Ukrainian officials also said missiles had been fired late Wednesday toward residential areas in Kharkiv, where they struck at least one apartment building.
At least eight people were wounded in that strike, officials said. A 3-year-old child was among the injured, Ihor Terekhov, Kharkiv’s mayor, said on Telegram.
(LONDON) — An initial investigation into possible sabotage has been launched by four NATO countries — Finland, Germany, Sweden and Lithuania — after two underwater telecommunications cables connecting Germany and Finland across the Baltic Sea were cut in two separate incidents in recent days, a European official told ABC News.
Sweden is leading the investigation, as both incidents occurred in the Swedish economic zone, a Swedish Ministry of Defense official told ABC News.
“Against the backdrop of the security situation, the government is following developments very closely and is in close contact with its authorities. It is central that greater clarity is brought to the cause of this event,” Swedish Minister for Civil Defense Carl-Oskar Bohlin told ABC News in a written statement.
The German-Finnish cable was one of two Baltic Sea connections damaged in recent days.
An underwater cable that runs between Lithuania and Sweden in the Baltic Sea was cut on Sunday around 10 a.m. local time, Telia spokesperson Audrius Stasiulaitis told ABC News. Telia is a Lithuanian telecommunications company. A cable that runs between Germany and Finland was cut on Monday around 3 p.m. local time.
“Our monitoring systems could tell there was a cut due to the traffic disruption and that the cause was not the equipment failure but physical damage to the fiber cable itself,” Stasiulaitis said.
Internet traffic was not impacted, as the company rerouted the traffic after the disruption occurred, Stasiulaitis said.
The underwater cable has been in place since 1997, Arelion spokesperson Martin Sjogren told ABC News. Arelion is a Swedish telecommunications company that operates and owns the cable.
Arelion is in touch with Swedish authorities about the incident, Sjogren said.
A repair ship will need to get on-site in order to determine the cause of the break, Sjogren said. Repair work is scheduled to start later this week and could be finished by late next week depending on the weather, Sjogren added.
The Lithuanian Prosecutor’s Office has opened an investigation into the matter, a statement from their office said Tuesday. Swedish police have also opened a preliminary investigation into the matter, a statement from Swedish police said Tuesday.
The foreign ministries of Germany and Finland said in a joint statement on Monday they were “deeply concerned” by the severing of an undersea cable connecting the two countries across the Baltic Sea — one of two Baltic Sea connections suddenly damaged in recent days.
Finnish company Cinia reported a “fault situation” with its C-Lion-1 submarine cable on Monday afternoon, saying in a statement that an investigation and repair work were underway.
Cinia did not offer any explanation for the interruption to the connection and said undersea cable repairs generally take between five and 15 days. The 730-mile cable has connected Finland to central European communication networks since 2016.
The German Interior Ministry confirmed to ABC News that authorities believe the cable was severed by an external force near the Swedish island of Oland.
Berlin and Helsinki said they were “deeply concerned about the severed undersea cable.”
“The fact that such an incident immediately raises suspicions of intentional damage speaks volumes about the volatility of our times,” the joint foreign ministries’ statement continued.
“A thorough investigation is underway. Our European security is not only under threat from Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, but also from hybrid warfare by malicious actors. Safeguarding our shared critical infrastructure is vital to our security and the resilience of our societies.”
The damage to the C-Lion-1 cable came one day after Telia Lietuva — a Swedish telecoms company in Lithuania — said one of its undersea telecommunications cables linking Lithuania and Sweden across the Baltic Sea sustained damage.
That cable — which intersects with the C-Lion-1 Finnish-German cable — was damaged on Sunday morning, company spokesperson Andrius Semeskevicius told local media.
The damaged cable has been the subject of faults and accidents in the past. But, Semeskevicius told Lithuanian National Radio and Television, “since both are damaged, it is clear that this was not an accidental dropping of one of the ship’s anchors, but something more serious could be going on.”
The cause of the damage to the cables has yet to be established. The interruptions come against a backdrop of concerns over Russian sabotage operations in Europe and elsewhere, prompted by Western support for Ukraine in its defensive war against Moscow.
The Baltic Sea has been the scene of mysterious undersea incidents in recent years, such as the sabotage attacks on the Nord Stream 1 and 2 natural gas pipelines running from Russia to Germany in 2022.
The following year, a Chinese container ship — the Newnew Polar Bear — dragged its anchor for more than 100 nautical miles through the Gulf of Finland, damaging an undersea natural gas pipeline and two telecommunications cables. Finnish and Estonian authorities are conducting a joint criminal investigation into the incident.
ABC News’ Aicha El Hammar and Ellie Kaufman contributed to this report.
(LONDON) — Tens of thousands of Georgians took to the streets of the capital Tbilisi on Monday evening to protest what the opposition said were fraudulent parliamentary elections handing victory to the ruling Georgian Dream party.
Opposition leaders — joined by President Salome Zourabichvili — gathered with the protesters hoping to spark a new round of mass demonstrations against GD akin to those that swept the capital in 2023 and 2024 in response to the government’s proposed foreign agent bill.
Russia looms large over the showdown. Moscow occupies 20% of Georgian territory, and officials in Moscow have threatened war if Georgia continues on its professed path to NATO and membership. GD, the Western-facing opposition says, is at best sympathetic to the Kremlin — and at worst in thrall to it.
Mamuka Khazaradze — the leader of the Strong Georgia coalition — told ABC News on Tuesday that his compatriots will not stand for the electoral “irregularities orchestrated through a Russian special operation and a clear pattern of systemic fraud.”
“Over the past twelve years, the government of the Georgian Dream has operated in service of Russian interests, resembling a Russian-style clan syndicate, and has established a system of manipulation and influence that undermines the integrity of our elections,” Khazaradze said.
“Georgia is not a nation that will tolerate such actions,” he added.
The official results published by the Central Election Commission said GD secured almost 54% of the vote, with the combined share of the four opposition parties just under 38%.
The CEC said GD will therefore take 89 seats in the 150-seat parliament — one less than it secured in the last election in 2020. The four pro-Western opposition parties combined will take 61 seats. The CEC said Khazaradze’s Strong Georgia coalition won 8.8% of the vote and 14 seats.
International election observers reported “frequent compromises in vote secrecy and several procedural inconsistencies, as well as reports of intimidation and pressure on voters that negatively impacted public trust in the process.”
Leaders in Hungary, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Venezuela and China were quick to acknowledge the official results and congratulate GD. But the U.S., European Union and several individual Western states raised concerns about suspected electoral violations.
President Joe Biden said the contest was “marred by numerous recorded misuses of administrative resources as well as voter intimidation and coercion,” and called for a full and transparent investigation.
Bidzina Ivanishvili is GD’s billionaire founder, former prime minister and purported decision-maker behind the party. Ivanishvili is Georgia’s wealthiest person and made his fortune in post-Soviet Russia through an empire of metals plants, banks and real estate.
Ivanishvili and GD leaders like Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze framed the election as a choice between renewed war with Russia or peaceful co-existence. They repeatedly pointed to Ukraine as a cautionary tale for Georgians voting for pro-Western parties.
Opposition leaders see Moscow’s hand behind GD’s legislative agenda, particularly its 2023 and 2024 efforts to introduce legislation to curb foreign funding of media and civil society groups. Opponents dubbed it the “Russian law” given its similarities to a similar measure passed by Moscow in 2012.
“Ivanishvili and his government are governing this country in accordance with Russian directives; this assertion no longer requires extensive evidence — merely the existence of the Russian law suffices,” said Khazaradze, who also transitioned into politics after a successful business career.
Asked if there was concrete proof of Russian meddling, Khazaradze said “rigorous and qualified research” will be needed. “The substantial support of our international partners will be essential, as Russia is adept at obscuring its actions,” he added.
Khazaradze alleged that Russian influence operations have been ongoing in Georgia since long before Saturday’s vote.
“Over the past year, the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service has been actively disseminating narratives that align with the primary messages of the Georgian Dream’s campaign regarding the war,” he said.
“They have employed the most disreputable Russian tactics, with campaign materials closely mirroring” the rhetoric of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Khazaradze said.
Moscow has denied any involvement in the recent election. “This has become standard for many countries, and, at the slightest thing, they immediately accuse Russia of interference,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said this week.
“There was no interference and the accusations are absolutely unfounded,” he added.
The opposition is now hoping to stoke major protests while gathering evidence of electoral fraud and appealing to Western partners for their backing.
“We have a strategy in place, and we do not intend to disclose this plan in advance to the oligarchs who have usurped power,” Khazaradze said of the opposition’s next steps.
Khazaradze said he was “confident” that foreign nations “will play a pivotal role.”
“We are engaged in intensive communication with the diplomatic corps and are collaborating with international organizations to investigate reported violations,” he added.
“The West must implement effective mechanisms to curtail Russian influence in Georgia, which may include sanctions against those responsible for undermining the electoral process,” Khazaradze said.
He added, “Ultimately, the West remains our reliable and trustworthy partner, and the Georgian people have the full support of both European and American allies.”
The protests against the foreign agent bill in 2023 and 2024 saw violent scenes in the streets surrounding the parliament building in central Tbilisi. On Monday, large numbers of riot police descended on the area.
Khazaradze said the opposition would not be silenced.
“While resistance is anticipated, I firmly believe that no amount of water cannons or rubber bullets can deter the will of the Georgian people,” he said. “It is in Ivanishvili’s best interest to acknowledge the reality that his time in Georgia has come to an end.”
“I remain hopeful in the resilience of the Georgian people and the hundreds of thousands of voters who stand with us,” he said. “I assure you that the world will bear witness to our determination.”
(LONDON) — North Korea’s Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui left Pyongyang on Monday night for an official visit to Russia, North Korean state-controlled media reported, as the U.S. and NATO again denounced growing military cooperation between the two neighbors.
The Korean Central News Agency said Choe and her entourage departed Pyongyang International Airport on Monday, with Moscow’s ambassador to the country Alexander Matsegora among those who saw the delegation off.
The visit “is taking place within the framework of a strategic dialogue — following an agreement to enhance ties reached by the leaders of our countries during the June 2024 summit,” a foreign ministry statement said.
Russia’s state-run Tass news agency said Choe arrived in the Pacific port city of Vladivostok on Tuesday and would head to Moscow on Wednesday, citing a diplomatic source.
The visit comes as Western concerns grow about the presence of North Korea troops in Russia ahead of their expected deployment to reinforce Moscow’s troops fighting Ukrainian forces in eastern Ukraine and western Russia.
President Joe Biden on Monday commented on the situation after casting his vote for next week’s elections in Delaware.
“It’s very dangerous, very dangerous,” Biden told reporters.
Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh told reporters at a Monday briefing that the U.S. believes there are now 10,000 North Korean troops in Russia, up from the American estimate of 3,000 given by National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby last week.
The troops have been sent “to train in eastern Russia” and “will probably augment Russian forces near Ukraine over the next several weeks,” she said.
Singh said some of Pyongyang’s troops are moving towards Russia’s western Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces established a foothold in August.
“A portion of those soldiers have already moved closer to Ukraine, and we are increasingly concerned that Russia intends to use these soldiers in combat or to support combat operations against Ukrainian forces in Russia’s Kursk Oblast, near the border with Ukraine,” she said.
Singh — like Kirby and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin last week — framed the deployment as a sign of Moscow’s weakness.
“This would mark a further escalation and highlights President [Vladimir] Putin’s increasing desperation, as Russia has suffered extraordinary casualties on the battlefield, and an indication that Putin may be in more trouble than people realize,” she said.
“He’s tin-cupping to the DPRK, Iran, because he has failed to meet those battlefield objectives,” Singh added, using the acronym of the country’s official name — the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller, meanwhile, said the U.S. has raised the issue with long-time North Korea backer China, to “make clear that we are concerned about it, and that they ought to be concerned about this destabilizing action by two of its neighbors, Russia and North Korea.”
“I’ll let them speak for themselves, but we have been making clear to China for some time that they have an influential voice in the region,” Miller added. “And they should be concerned about steps that Russia has taken to undermine stability. They should be concerned about steps that North Korea has taken to undermine stability and security.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Tuesday morning he had spoken with South Korean President Yoon Seok-yeol to discuss the involvement of North Korean troops in the war.
“There is only one conclusion — this war is internationalized and goes beyond the borders of two states,” Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram. The president said he provided Yoon with “fresh data” on the deployment of 3,000 North Korean soldiers to Russian training grounds close to the front.
Zelenskyy said the North Korean force will eventually grow to 12,000 troops — the highest estimate so far given by Ukraine, the U.S. or South Korea.
The two presidents “agreed to strengthen the exchange of intelligence and expertise” and to “develop an action strategy and a list of countermeasures in response to escalation” in collaboration with “mutual partners.”
Yoon said on Monday that a South Korean delegation will visit Ukraine this week to share information about the deployment of North Korean troops to Russia and discuss further cooperation with Kyiv.
The South Korean Yonhap news agency reported Tuesday that the country’s National Intelligence Service told lawmakers that some of the North Korean generals and troops sent to Russia may have already moved to the front lines.
Yonhap said Seoul expects 10,900 North Korean troops to be sent to Russia by December.
ABC News’ Ellie Kaufman, Matthew Seyler, Justin Gomez and Max Uzol contributed to this report.
